The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-11-29
THE NORTH POLE
From first page.

IHENORlHPOLE
From first page.
butter, and no steak from swell silver grill
within the confines of civilization ever
gave so much satisfaction to its devourers
as we took in these pieces of fresh veni-
son. To pile delicacy upon delicacy, the
Norwegians taught us how to scrape the
sweet marrow from the boiled bones, and
Captain Petersen, who came back from
the shore late in the evening, accompanied
by several other men who had volunteered
for the purpose, with three more deer,
brought to the officers tent some boiled
tongues, which, with pepper and salt,
made feast fit for better men and luckier
arctic travellers than we. These morsels
we ate while lying in our sleeping bags,
and thus we were reclining upon reindeer
oouches, eating reindeer soup, steaks and
tongues, and when we get up in the morn
ing it will be to find ourselves covered like
snowfakes with white reindeer hair from
the beds. Some of the men have reinskin
boots and coats, and for two weeks we
have been drinking more rein hair in the
water from our cook machines than seemed
absolutely necessary. The reindeer is q
very serviceable animal in the arctic seas.
Some one of the party suggests that we
catch q score of reins and train them to
draw our boats and sledges, Lapland style.
Mr.. Dodge, who tonight chased rein
with broken leg full mile before he
could get another shot, sarcastically re-
marks that The has picture of man
catching a reindeer Another suggestion
is that we capture a lot of ice bear and
harness them up to drag our loads. There
can be no doubt of the strength and speed
of such beasts of burden. With one blow
of his powerful paw-a great, shambling
limb that appears to have neither shape
nor strength, but when barred of skin is
found to be one of the most perfect weapons
Of sinews and bones that nature ever pro-
duced-an average sized ice bear can knock
a man 30 feet. With all four of his won
derfully muscular limbs he can run over
the toughest surface with the speed of q
race horse.
1t is an axiom in our party that If bear
once takes after man the victim may
just as well sit down and save his breath
for his prayers. There is no use trying to
run away. Yet we have grown quite
Indifferent to bears or other dangers in the
arctics. We start off on long trips without
rifles, or in making our forward and back
journeys over the ice with the equipment
do SO quite unmindful of the presence of
either bear or weapons to defend ourselves
with. After the first few weeks of spring,
when voracious from his long winters
fast, the ice bear is an arrant coward and
runs away if you shout at him. If the big
yellowish brute only knew his strength,
we should not be so careless in our move
ments.
Always Hungry.
JUNE 15.-Today we leisurely finished
our journey to the shore and found fine
camping place on the gravel beach. The
men were very glad to get on the dry
ground again, SO glad that for the first
time in more than three weeks we aban-
doned the boats as sleeping place and
made our beds on the dry gravel, with the
tents over us. No more comfortable bed
chamber could be desired, and with the
temperature at 35H degrees F., the high
est we have yet seen it, a bright sun and
no wind, we sat out in the open air after
supper to smoke our pipes and cigars and
enjoy the genial atmosphere.
That supper! Was ever such a supper
eaten before? Four large buckets of rich
venison stew, three or four dozen fine
steaks of the same meat, biscuit and apples
glorious evaporated apples from New
England, rich and savorsome, and a large
steaming cupful for every mainland atop
all this our Norwegians as we write are
gathered about the campfire stewing stews
and frying steaks to their hearts and we
hope, their stomachs content. How much
longer they will keep it up heaven only
knows, but for once we hope they will eat
themselves full and stop their grumbling.
For several days several of them have been
much dissatisfied with their sledging ra-
tion. 1t is rather small ration only u
pounds per man per day, but we know it
contains nutriment enough to sustain the
hardest working man. 1t is enough for
the Americans in the party, as for Mr..
Winship, the sturdy young Englishman,
and Mr.. Franklin, the Norwegian Ameri-
can athlete We are hungry every meal
time but SO a man should be- and our
hunger is not as great as it has often been
while performing only mental labor in our
profession The trouble with our Norwe-
gian sailors and even the educated men
from the University of Christiania is that
they lack the American quality OF adapta-
bility. They have been accustomed all
their lives to the eating of rather coarse
food, great in quantity rather than fine in
quality, and the scientific nutriment of
our sledging ration does not satisfy them.
They easily maintain strength and health
upon it, but their stomachs constantly
yearn for distension. They long for the
feshpots of Norway. One big fellow,
Christian lversen, a Laplander, is always
hungry. He yearns for food within five
minutes after eating meal. He hangs
over the pot, and when the cook has emp
tied it in serving portions eagerly snaps it
up and scrapes the bottom. He follows
DR.. Mohun about while the aluminium
sledges are being opened and the meals
taken out, with his eyes fixed upon the
cases of provisions with the stare of a
maniac. Iyarsen is a tall giant, and we
have dubbed him the articulated intes-
tine, an unkind thing to do, considering
that he is a brave, loyal fellow, whose only
weakness, to use a Hibernianism, is the
strength of his appetite.
Adaptability is great thing in the arc
tics. Every man has more or less imagi-
nation, and the man for sledging jour
ney is one who slowly eats his cup of soup,
one biscuit and thin slice of meat and