The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-07-24

tempted to commit suicide. Indeed, 1
had written letter to be left behind me,
and had gun loaded to blow my brains
ont, when a circumstance occurred to
rouse up the man in me. had gone on
deck by the davit falls, though 1 could
have mounted by her forechains. On
her port quarter was great mass OF ice,
four feet higher than her rail. This was
part of the bed she had rested in. Asl
went on deck to take last look around
l got an awful fright. Two big polar
bears were preparing to board the ship
by way of this mass, and their fierco
growls and sulen retreat set me IN
tremble. The idea of those beasts eat
ing my body, even after death, was SO
repucnaut rs to at once Danish all further
thoughts of suicide.
When night came the bears still lin
gered. 1 locked myself in the cabin,
and heard them rummaging about in the
deck gangways and making persistent
efforts to break into the deck house. 1t
was after midnight before they went
away, and next day made preparations
to repel boarders. 1t was not day now,
but the season had brought continual
twilight. set to work to cut the ham,
mock away from the port quarter, but
after working for two hours with an AK
decided to try powder. With the tools
at hand I sunk shaft down seven or
eight feet, filled gallon jug with blast
ing powder, and then arranged slow
match and was ready. I expected the
ice to fly about in lively manner, but
the deck house would give me shelter. l
was within a minute of firing the train
when I heard a great shifting and growl-
ing, and 10! the two same bears came up
the incline and stood again on the crest
of the hammock to look down upon me.
I yelled and swung my hat, but they held
their ground and were evidently intend
ing to board the ship again. now ig-
nited the match, set fire to the fuse, and
waiting as long as l dared to, ran into
the deck house. I was hardly under
cover when the explosion came, and fol
the next half minute pieces of ice were
gathering on the board roof as they de-
scended from their flight. When ]
opened the door and looked out the ham
mock was gone-leyelled far below the
rail, and the bears had taken to flight.
now realized that must pass many
long weeks alone, surrounded by dark
ness and various dangers, and mapped
out programme to be followed. l had
breakfast at s o'clock A. NJ. Then !
worked at clearing off snow and ice until
10. Then 1 read until noon. From l to
Q 1 got up coal and overhauled stores.
At 3 I had dinner. From thence till 4 ]
read. From 4 to looked after some
traps had made, and nearly always had
a pclt to take care of. From 6 to z ]
practised on the dumb bells. At Z had
supper, and between that and my bed
time I studied the charts Of several sea:
VIC. had aboard, and learned to locate va
rious islands and countries. I held to
this programme very rigidly, knowing
that might go mad if I allowed myself
to brood over the situation, and thus I
slept soundly, preserved buoyant spirit,
and constantly gained in flesh.
In January there was move Of the
ice which lifted the ship fairly out of the
water, but after an hour she settled back
without damage. By day and night
there were trcmblings and shocks and
thunderous reports, but I got used to
them after awhile and was not greatly
disturbed. 1t was at noon on the I'd day
of February that sledge drawn by dogs
came close to the ship, and two Eskimos
made a long survey Of it, waved their
hands, and shouted to me as they went
off. On the 9TH two sledges appeared,
bringing our Captain, mates and two
harpooners, and four days later all our
old crew were on board. I was correct
in my conclusions as to why they had
abandoned the ship. They left her hur-
riedly, expecting her to 90 doYn, and
had drifted almost down to Upernavik,
when discovered by natives and plloted
ashore. Later on sledges were sent out
TO search for the ship, and after many
fruitless journeys she was finally sighted,
and when the spring breakup came we
got down into the Atlantic with scarcely
an adventure worth recording.-NeD
York Sun.