The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-11-02

harness them up to drag our loads. Thcre
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 wcapons
| OF sinews and bones that nature ever pro-
duced--an average sized ioe bear can knock
| a man go feet. With all four OF his won
derfully muscular limbs he can run over
the rougbest surface with the speed OF .
race horse.
1t is an axiom in our party that II bear
once takes after a man the victim may
just as well sit down and save his breath
for his prayers. There is no use trying 20
run away. Yet we have grown quite
indifferent to bears or other dangers in the
arctics. We start of 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 10 defend ourselves
with. After the first few weeks of spring,
when veracious from his long winters
fast the ice bear is an arrant coward and
runs away il 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 ls.-Today we leisurely finished
our journey To the shore and found a 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 bods on the dry gravel, with the
tents over us. No more comfortable bed
chamber could bc desired, and with the
temperature at 35L 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 tho genial atmos phere.
That support Was ever such a supper'
eaten beforey -Four large buckets of rich
venison stew, three or four dozen fine
steaks of the same meat biscuit and apples
glorious evaporatod apples from New
England, rich and savorsome, and large
stesming oupful for every man-and atop
all this our Norwcgians as we write arc
gathered about the campfire stewing stews
and frying steaks To their hearts and we
| hope, their stcfhachs content. How much
| longer they will keep 1t up heaven only
| knows, but for once wo hope they will eat
themselves full and stop their grumbling.
Il
much dissatisfied with their siedging ra-
tion. 1t Is a rather small ration, only / a
! pounds per man per day, but we know it
contains nutrimsnt enough TO sustain the
hardest working man. It Is enough for
! tho Americans in the party, as for Mr..
Winsnip the sturdy young Englishman,
! and MIR. Franklin, the Norwegian Ameri.
| can athlete. We are hungry every meal
1 time but so n man should be, and our
| hunger is not as great as Ii has often been
| while performing only mental labor In our
| profession. The trouble with our Norwe-
| gian sailors and oven the educated men
from the University of Christiania Is that
they lack the American quality of adapta-
bility. They have bsen accustomed all
their ftv0s TO the eating OF rather coarse
food, great in quantity rather than flne In
quality, and the scientific nutriment OF
our slsdging ration does not satisfy them.
They easily maintain strength and health
upon il, but thclr stomachs constantly
yearn for distension. They long for the
fieshpots Of Norway. Ono big fellow,
Christian lveTsen, n Laplander, Is always
| hungry Ho yearns for food within fve
minutes aftor eating a meal He hangs
over the pot, and when the cook has emp
tied 1t in serving portions eagerly snaps 1t
"
-Mchun about while the aluminium
slcdges are being opened and the meals
taken out, with his eyes fixed upon the
cases of provisions with the stare sf d
maniac. Iverson 10 "A tall giant, and wo
have dubbed him "the artioulated intcs-
tine" an unbind thing 10 do, considering
that he is brave, loyal fellow, whose only
weakness, to use q Hibernianism, is the
strength of bis appetite.
Adaptability is great thing in the arc
tics. Every man has more or less imagi-
nation, and the man for slodgins jour
noy is one who slowly eats his cup OF soup,
one biscuit and thin slice Of meat and
imagines he has dined well, not one who
devours his portion with all possible haste
and imagines himself starving to death.
We take thrice the time for eating our ra-
tion that the Norwegians use, and this
must bo tho secret of our satisfaction while
they are discontented. Unless you have
tried il you do not know tho eating value,
so TO speak, that may be taken out Of n
single cracker. When devourcd in largo
pieces, it Is little; when nibbled and thor
oughly mosticated, it is almost a meal.
A Return Party Sent Out.
But for the present truce to the prob
lem of subsistence. We have bamboo
pole stretched from one rock to another
and over 10 hang the carcSsses Of half
dozon reindeer. On the snow lie dozen
fat ducks ard ono big white leo bird,
which we shall have for dinner tomorrow.
The Ice bird is not worry good TO eat. Ho
Is fish eater, snd his flesh tastes little
Of oil, but stcwod up with duck he Is all
right, though almost too beautiful for such
an inglorious end, with a body buried
three inches deep under soft blue plumage
and wings stretching two feet or more
from tip to tip, all white as the spow over
which in life he so aayly scars. How easy
IL would be u 40 to the north pole If one
could only travel like the ice birdl
With venison stew at z, vcnison steak at
8, more stew at 8, some hearts, tongues
and brains in superfne broth at 10 and
a divine tcnderloin ae IL, we so TO sleep ON
the gravel as happy as mice in cheesebox.
JUNE l6--A perfect day in June! We
bask In tho sunshine, take our baths in the
open air and listen TO the birds singing on
the cliff which hangs over our camp.