The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-10-19
A STORY or HaRDsHIPs
THAT TELLS THE KIND OF METAL
THERE IS IN OUR GALLANT
EXPLORER.
A YHRIIlING LITTER.

RAMPANT HOUSE, POrcupine River, /
Eastern boundary line Of Alaska,
May 30, 1894 J
CONTINUED From October I'd
On the evening Of the next day, we
came suddenly out of the mOuntains
onto the narrow strip NJ low land Dor
d-rins tho coast of the Arctic ocean.
This point. as 1 afterwards learned
from the whalers, is almost exactly on
The lilst meridian so that If anyone
will take the trouble To look on map
whore the 141st meridian which is the
eastern boundary of Alaska, strikes
the Arctic ocean, he will see where we
were on this day Of grace March q,
1894. ....-.I...ei
None of the Indians In my party
had ever been so far away from home
before aud SD were not sure rs to tue
whereabouts OF Her.ci,al, sland W here
the whslers were supposed to be. but
1 knew that it must he along the coast
well to the eastward of us yet. So we
kept on i'm that direction. The coun-
try bordering the beach was nearly
as fiat rs floor, and the snow pack
ed very hard SO that walking was a
positive luxury after our weeks of
fioundering in the deep. soft snow of
the interior.
Before noon of the next day we came
upon the beach of the frozen Arctic
ocean. 1t lOOks NJ it, does in pictures
. great mass Of icebergs jumbled to-
gether In all sorts of confusion, stretch
ing away beyond til. reach of vision.
At this point were an E,kimJ cache,
containing lot Of seal.Kins. aud sew
eral kyacks, as their peculiar sealskin
boats are called. II was evident that
we must SOM meet sslnle ofthese peo-
pie and we were in some doubt as to
how they would recrive US. 1t has
not been great many years since the
Eskimos and the indians i'm this re-
giOn were waging sort of guerilla
warfarey cauted by the former cross.
ing the mountains into the hHnting
grounds OF the Indians and killing
caribou, occasionally stealing child
or two aud doing other unpeigh borly
acts which the Indians generally re-
paid by making y pan roast of every
Eskimo they caught. l have in my
possession q horrible lookiag weapon
made from large caribou antler
trimmed with piece of Jagged iron,
with which, several years ago, an
athletic Indian battered out the think
ing gear Of an unfortunate Eskimo
who fell into his hands.
While We were still ut this place
and the Indians we're examining the
contents of the cache, thing which
they had no business to do, we saw q
dark spcck coming along the beach
about mile away. I'm q few mo-
ments the speck grew decidedly long
or, and rs 1t drew near we saw that it
was q large Eskimo sled drawn by
twelve dogs. The two Eskimoin the
slei were lying down and the dogs
were following tia old track without
any driving, so that they did not see
Us until the dogs stopped. When the
two men crawled OF the sled and
found themselves in the presence of
eleven armed Indians they looked
as foolish as n pair of school
boys at their first party. But it was
nj once evident that neither outfit
was looking for fight and soon they
were fast friends. They could not
converse with the Indians except bv
the unsatisfactory method OF signs, so
that we couldn't learn how far away
The .hITs were, but they pointed to
the east. After a delay Of half an hour
1t this place. we kept on our way fol-
lowing the line of drift wood alsng the
beach and during the afternoon reach
ID an Eskimo underground house,
by three men, one woman
md four children.
These people were very friendly and
'Ocisble and during our entire stay
he woman's face wore smile which
the greater part Of her coun-
enance. This dame had herself rig
rel out i'm eOstume npre ludicrOus
han anything ever seen on the comic {
tage ar Mt masquerade. 1t would
ave made her iurf tune before the foot
iglits. but am not equal to- the task
{ describing il. The people could give
y no idea "f how far away the ships {
rere, hut indicated by signs that We
ad better stay over night and resume .
ur journey the next day, aud this We
etermined to do. For several days o
ne weather had bean quite pleasant G
lear, calm and not urne thad fifteen .
egrees bel"w zer", but now there II
ere unmistakabis signs 0i a blizzard u
nd o. there was not rUnn .or all of IL
J 10 sleep in the small underground q
.