Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-01-27
LOVES ARCTIC CLIMATE.
One of Peary's Men Finds Our White
Weather Sultry.

Weather Sultry.
ST hear everybody kicking about the
cold weather this morning." said a big
man without an Overcoat in the Astor
warm in cotton underwear, and every
body else shivering in all kinds of wraps.
Strange, but ever since [ came from the
polar regions it seems to me that when
the mercury is anywhere above zero the
birds should be singing and roses in
bloom. You see / spent two years with
in stones throw Of where the North
takes a spirit thermometer to tell how
cold it is on the Fourth of July. Why,
the ESkimOS l am acquainted with
would collapse from sunstroke on day
like this.
II was in the North country with
life-that is, physical existence-sO much
as I did there. The energy which a man
will develop in temperature of 70 de-
grees below zero is beyond comprehen-
sion until it is experienced. Why, young
man, if you would go up into that coun-
try you would eat more in one meal
than you do here in week. That
ditions. Eat! Why, l am afraid TO tell
you the plain truth about how a man
eats in that climate. You'd think it was
q fairy story. Just as in a hot country
the human appetite Graves fruits and red
pepper and hot drinks, in the frigid zone
the system demands fat meat, oil and
cold tallow. 1t is no fairy story for
Christmas entertainment that an Eski-
mo child enjoys tallow candle more
than stick of candy.
my appetite here is no stronger than
any other mans. l don't eat any more
than any man of my bulk, but give you
my word that while | was on march
IN, 41o orfh dol xy rotiA ncxy-
teen pounds of blubber and a gallon of
whale oil. | have seen Lieut.. Peary
drink half a gallon of whale oil at one
draught. The capacity Of the Eski-
mos for food is past belief, judged from
what white man will eat in New York.
eve had two big natives in our party,
who seemed never to get enough to eat,
although there was unlimited provisions,
and Peary concluded to test them. We
had been on a hard, long march, and
everybody was near famished when we
went into camp. Peary thought the
time had come to see how much those
men could eat. He ordered them to
build snow hut for their own use,
where he could keep tab on them. He
put them into it and gave them 100
pounds of blubber and forty pounds of
tallow. Twenty-four hours later we
took out the block of snow which served
for the hut's door. There were the
two fellows. asleep, and not an ounce
of blubber OR tallow visible. That's a
fact, as sure as live.
Il shall never forget a Christmas eve
/ passed in an Eskimo hut, and the fun
I had with an Eskimo baby-a boy about
years old. He was stark naked, stand
ing on deerskin by the fire. and he was
the most grotesque-looking brownie i'm
aginable. for he was all stomach. I
cut thing strip of blubber, about an
inch wide, and put the end of it in his
mouth He rolled his round eyes and
began to chew. knew it wouldn't hurt
him and / continued to feed it into his
mouth and cut more blubber, until,
promice you, had fed that young one,
by actual measurement, sixteen feet of
blubber. Now. what do you think of
that? And it's true, oo."-New York
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