The morning call., 1892-10-02
TWO WINTERS IN THE ICE.


THE CALL readers in the paper of yester-
day is more interesting than many nara
tives of travel which obtain popularity. He
is not by any means the first navigator who
has spent the winter in the ice, but he has
an everyday matter-of-fac way of telling
his experience which brings the scene before
the readers eye. he is evidently telling the
plain truth as it occurred, and not dreaming
that there was anything heroic in his per-
Torrance.
On April 10, 1890. the Mary d. Hume,
steam whaler of 164 tons burthen, left
San Francisco for the Arctic regions by
way of Oonalaska. She arrived at her
objective point-Herschel Island, at the
mouth of the Mackenzie River-on Septem-
Der 16, and her captain and crew of twenty
four men prepared to go into winter quar-
tiers. The mouth of the Mackenzie lies
south of the seveDtiet parallel of north lat
itude, but is north of the Arctic timber line.
The temperature is not as severe as il is one
or two hundred miles further south, where
the mercury frequently records fifty degrees
and fifty-fye degrees below; at the mouth of
the river the average winter temperature
was about eighteen degrees below. or fifty
degrees of frost. A branch of the japanese
current sweeps along the shore of tie Arctic
Ocean and mitigates the severity of the cold.
Still, an atmosphere of fifty degrees of frost
is cold enough, and at the point where the
Mackenzie emptes into the Atlant tic the ice
forms TO thickness of eight or ten feet
To winter in such region il is necessary
to house in the ships. The Mary d. Hume
had taken canvas roof and posts from San
Francisco; these were spread over her
deck, and in short while some seven feet
of snow deposited on the outside made the
roof alright and kept the warm air in.
Round the ship the ice formed to thick
ness which held her as though she had been
part of the solid body of the earth. Fires
were maintained night and day in three
stoves and in the boiler. and the men kept
themselves fairly warm. They had an
abundance OF canned provisions and lived
well. But time hung very heavy on their
hands during the ten months of their i'm
prisonment.
On July 10. 1891. they chopped away the
ice round the propeller and made for the
narrow lane of water which separates the
ice pack from the shore. Three weeks from
that day they killed their first whale, and
in the nine weeks following they killed
twenty-eight more. Returning TO winter
quarters they went to Jail again for eight
months. finding the cold more severe
than during the previous winter Their
supplies of fuel ran out, and the men
had to cut trees from the river banks
and to pick up driftwood in the floating
ice. Scurvy made its appearance, aud if
they had not been able to kill few
deer they might have Jared badly. But
at last. with July. the ice loosened round
the ship and she got to sea again. This
time she killed ten more whales. making
thirty eight In all. and satisfied with this
booty, she steamed past Point Barrow and
Cape Lisburne, and so home, having made
the most successful voyage recorded in the
annals of the whale fishery.
The Mary ID. Hume was not after oil.
She was not concerned with sperm whales.
Her objective point was whalebone; she
was after right whales, the enormous crea-
lures of the Arctic seas, which measure
fifty feet in length, with head one-third
the size of the whole body, and bony
structure weighing from three-quarters of
ton to a ton and half, every pound of
which is property. In former times the
right whale, or, as sailors call Ii, the bow
head, abounded in the Greenland seas, but
now it has been exterminated in that part
Of the ocean, and is rarely found except in
the Arctic. The bone is worth about Sc
pound. OF this valuable commodity the
Hume got $500 pounds. worth roughly
S330,OoO, enough to make the hearts of her
owners glad. In this prize. according to the
rules OF the whaling industry, every men,
Der of the crew shares The common
sailors will get something like $500 EACH
aud the captains share will amount to
something like $4,000. which will console
| him for the sufferines he endured in his two
winters sojourn at the mouth of the Mac
| kenZie.
AS his example is likely to be followed by
| others, it might be worth while for the
| United States to establish a relief station on
| Herschel Island, at the mouth of the Mac
kenzie. The station established some years
ago at Cape Barrow is understood TO have
| been of signal utility.