The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-23

ury For Men and Dogs
From the Youths Companion.
On the 18th of May, 1895, the storm ceas-
| ed which had held Lee, Hensen and my
self prisoners for two days upon the In
| dependence Bay moraine, the northern
! shore of the Great Ice" more than four
| thousand feet above the level of the sea.
! Then in a very short time ] completed all
the preparations for trip down over the
land in search of the musk oxen which
would be our salvation. Matt and all the
dogs were to accompany me.
1 took the little "Chopsie'' sledge, our
rifles, four days supply of tea, biscuits
| and olive had had no meat for several
days-and the remainder of the dog food
which was lump of frozen walrus meat
somewhat larger than a mans head Lee
was to remain at the tent during our alb
sence
The almost total lack of snow on this
northern land was a surprise as well as
an annoyance to me, since it threatened TO
damage my sledges seriously. But by
keeping well ahead of the dogs, was able
to pick out fairly good, though circuit
Gus. path along the numerous snow drifts
which lay on the leeward side of the hills
and mountains. After some twelve hours
of steady marching, we were close to
Musk-Ox valley, where, three years be-
fore, Astrup and myself had first seen ana
killed some of these animals.
Leaving Matt with the sledge and dogs,
1 took my rife and entered the valley
hoping to find them there again. 80 Tar
we had not seen the slightest indication
had
the same route where, on my previous
visit their traces had been visible on al
most every square rod of ground. In the
valley | found no trace OF their presence
and | returned to the. sledge in gloomy
mood Could it be that the musk oxen OF
this region were migratory? Did they re-
treat southwark along the east coast III
the autumn and return in early summer,
and were we too early for them? Or mad
the sight and smell of us and our dogs
and the sound of our guns and the slght
Of carcasses of the oxen we had slain
three wears before terrified the others so
thai they had deserted this region COM
pletely?
These questions disturbed me deeply. We
had now been marching for a long tlilei
we were tired with the unaccustomed work
of climbing up and down hills and were
weak and hungry from our long and scaht
diet of tea and biscuits. Our hunger was
partially appeased by the dog food True
this was a frozen mixture OF Walrus meat,
blubber hair sand and various oIher
something, and the fact that the meat
was high" and the blubber more or less
rancid did not deter us. Yet we dared
not satisfy ourselves even with DOG 1000,
as We were dependent on the dogs, ana
they were more in need of 1000 than we.
few miles beyond Musk-Ox valley l
saw a fresh hare track leading in the same
direction in which we were going, and
within five minutes l saw the mare llseI
souatting among the rocks a Few PAGES
distant / called to Matt, who was some
little distance back, to stop the dogs and
come up with his rifle.
He was so affected by the prospect of
a good dinner that his first and second
bullets missed the mark, although usually
he was a good marksman. But at the
third shot the beautiful, spot,ess little an
imal collapsed into shapeless mass, and
on the instant gaunt hunger took from
us the power of further endurance, We
must stop at once and cook the hare.
Near US was little pond surrounded by
high banks This offered the advantages
of ice. from which to melt water for cook
ing purposes. So here we camped, lit
our lamp, and cooked and ate the entire
hare. 1t was the first full meal we had
had for nearly six weeks-the first meal
furnishing sufficient substance and nour-
ishment for the doing OF a heavy days
work.
Ease from hunger and pleasure in the
process of digestion made US drowsy. Ly
ing down as we were, upon the snoW-coV-
cred shore of the little pond, without tent
or sleeping bag or anything except the
clothes we wore, we slept the sleep of tired
children in their cozey beds though the
snowhakes were falling thickly upon us.
The next morning we pushed on for
valley near Navy Cliff where Astrup and
myself had seen numerous musk-ox
tracks. At the entrance of this valley /
came upon a track, so indistinct that it
might have been made the previous fall.
Following it a short distance, l saw the
accompanying tracks of a calf, showing at
once that the tracks were of this season,
and q little further on there were traces
but few days old.
Fastening our dogs securely to a rock
and muzzing them so that they could
neither gnaw themselves loose nor make u
noise to disturb the musk oxen, we pass
ed rapidly down the valley, Winchesters in
hand with our eyes fixed eagerly upon
the tracks. Soon we reached the feed
ing ground of the herd on the preceding
day, and knew by their tracks and the
places where they had dug away the snow
in search of grass and moss that there
was quite herd of them.
I'VE circled the feeding ground as rap
idly as we could, and at length found The
tracks of the herd leading out of the
labyrinth and up the slopes Of the sur
rounding mountains. Following these,
our eyes were soon gladdened by sight
Of q group Of black spots on a little ter
race Jasl below the crest of the noun
tain.
Looking through the field glass, we saw
that some of the animals were lying down.
Evidently the herd was beginning its mid
day snooze. We moved cautiously up to
the edge of the terrace to leeward of the
animals, and sought shelter behind big
boulder. The musk oxen were about 200
yards distant, and numbered twenty-five
! wonder IL one of my readers knows
what hunger is. Hensen and ! were worn
to the bone with scant rauons and hard
work, which had left little on our bones
except lean, tense muscles and wires or
sinew. The supper from the hare-that