The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-12-13

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HOW DRY LAND WAS REACHED.
have learned to make some allowance for
the sailorman's exuberant expressions.
Besides, even if our foe did not break up,
lighter ice might overrun it, which would
be nearly as bad. It doesn't make much
difference, if you are to be dumped into
the sea, whether it is by being dropped
through hole or pushed off an edge.
A Hard Road to Travel.
JULY 9.-Our foe did not break up dur
ing the night, and lighter ice did not ride
upon it and push us off, but the north
wind drifted us ! a miles to the south, or
contrary to the direction in which we
wanted to 60, but fortunately no farther
from the shore. 1t was hard work this
morning to pull on our wet boots and don
our wet trousers, coats, etc.-everything
was as full of water as the night before
but, like q cold bath, it was all right after
the first plunge Mr.. Alme had had good
nights rest, thanks to the opiates which
DIR. Mohun had administered, but it now
began to dawn upon the brave fellow that
he was III for long siege. We shall have
to carry him at least as far as Walden is
land, but this we are all willing to d. for
no man was stronger or more eager in har-
ness than he.
Captain Petersen and set out right aft.
er breakfast to explore the road. The rain
had ceased, but still the weather was ex-
ceedingly raw and disagreeable. We
thought of the experiences which Sir Ed
ward Parry and his men had that cold,
rainy summer of 1897 when for 81 days
on the polar pack they saw the sun but an
average of once week. Had we been for
tunate enough to reach the edge of the
pack, as Parry was, we should willingly
have endured the same amount of discom.
fort, satisfied that with our superior equip
ment we could have made at least the
eighty fifth degree of north latitude AS
the doughty captain and set out our hori-
zon was bounded by bank of fog which
surrounded us and cut off vision at dis
lance of quarter of a mile This little
world of ours was reeking mass of rot
ten ice interspersed by black holes as deep
as the sea itself and by long, waving
cracks more or less filled with small pieces.
1t was most discouraging road, but we
were SO anxious to escape the dangers of
the shifting rotten ice, which needed only
gale to involve us in difficulties from
which we might never be able to extricate
ourselves, that we decided to start for the
shore. Mr.. Alme was made as comforta-
BILE as possible in bed in the Lockwood,
and with our loads increased by his weight
as well as the weight of several hundred
pounds of water and moisture we started
out. Bad as the road was at the start, it
constantly grew worse. We went from
one rotten piece to another, how it would
be difficult to tell. The men worked like
heroes, and it is a great pity the fog pre-
vented Mr.. Dodge from getting some good
photographs of the scenes.
In ten minutes we were all wet again to
our waists, and after being once wet the
men grew reckless and actually risked
their lives in their eagerness to shove the
boats along. For awhile cur work was
somewhat like this. Over asolid foe three
or four boat lengths wide, then into q pool
OF open water half filled with rotten pieces,
too close together to permit of the boats be-
ing pulled in the water aud making it nee
essary for the men to step upon those
pieces until they broke under their weight
and then pull themselves into the boats,
hanging moment by the gunwales in
order to permit some of the water to run
of into the sea instead of into the boats
then reaching the edge of rotten piece
which, breaking under the weight of the
boats, kept us all wading still farther,
leaping upon the boats when we felt the
icy fluid rising above our waists and
jumping out again whenever we could see
something to jump upon, even if it were
two or three feet below the surface. This
description may not give the reader very
clear idea Of the nature of our work, but
if you think it was pleasant experience
come up here some fine summer and try it.
But this was not the worst of it, When
within three-quarters of q mile of the
shore, with fine gravelly beach and plen-
ty of drifGwood inviting us to renewed eff
fort, we managed to shove the boats
through rotten ice for quite distance by
dint of breaking up the margins of the
pieces with oars and boat hooks Then
we entered ice that was neither soup nor
flesh. 1t was like the water of the Mis-
souri, river, too thin to cut with knife
and too thick to eat with spoon. It
seemed impossible to advance in any way,
for there was too much ice to admit of
hoat1ng our boats and too little to afford
surface over which to pull them. Here
Captain Petersen and his crew of gallant
NOrwegians came to the rescue in fine
style. Taking the Lockwood ahead, with
the injured man lying in his bed calmly
smoking his pipe and surveying the scene,
they started on with all the speed they
could command, the ice breaking as they
went along and letting them into the wa
ter, but holding them just long enough to.
permit them to keep going, the men in
front finding footing all the way from one
to three feet below the surface and those