The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-22

A Winter Among the Natives in NORTH
Greenland" This lecture was the mos
interesting of the series so far deliv.
cred, and the explorer as usual talked
to a packed house.
DIR. Vincent spoke something about
the Peary party's winter quarters or
Bolton bay. how the members were
| huddled together in a small hut SO by
| II feet, one-half of which was occu.
pied by Lieutenant Peary and his wife;
| how the members of the party learned
lessons of charity toward neighbors
and the form of amusements INDUCED
in. The evenings were spent in read
ing or boxing. The Eskimos either
| pulled finger or struck each other or
the shoulder to see who could endure
the longer, and this was their favorite
amusement.
The winter was spent in makins
preparations for the trip across the ice
cap and toward the pole the following
spring. Toward the end of the win
ter, rationS began to run short, how
short none knew, for Lieutenant Peary
kept the KEY TO the storeroom. This
was not a pleasant situation, but when
Lieutenant Peary was approached he
always retorted that the food
supply was ample. The party,
when it started out, had less
than one years rations aboard,
Washday in the Arctic region, said
the speaker, was a regular snap. First,
of course ever-y member of the party
wore his socks or underwear as long
as possible, and wash-day thereafter
consisted in selecting the cleanest piece
from the lot already dirty.
Thanksgiving, Christmas and Fourth
of July were three great days. On the
first named day a bottle of champagne
was opened and the members were
each allowed to smoke a cirgarette or
cigar as the case might be.
On Feb. %. eight of the party, in
Guiding Lieutenant Peary, started on
their trip over the ice cap, the object
being, not as is generally supposed, to
reach the pole, but to locate and map
the coast of Greenland. The instru-
ments and supplies were carried on II
sledges and these were hauled by go
dogs. Every member of the party
realized that to go on this expedition
was to take their lives in their own
hands. When one gets four miles into
the interior of Greenland it is nothing
but a sea OF ice. Fogs and snow
storms are frequent and the compass
works but poorly. An idea of what
travel among the ice caps meant may
be gained from the fact that the first
night out the party slept on the bare
ice and without shelter, while the Their
mometer registered 56 degrees below
zero. After trying various devices in
the line of face masks, all were given
up, and thereafter their faces would be
frozen to the depth of one-eighth of an
inch, and this after becoming accus-
toned to it, seemed to be natures own
protection against the binding snow.
The only pain was when the. faces
thawed out.
AT Camp Equinoctial, 81 miles from
winter quarters the expedition met
with the first mishap. DR.. Vincent de-
scribes the occurrence as follows:
Two men having taken sick, we
were but six left. three in each tent.
We were instructed to put up our tent
for the night only ten feet distant from
out the instructions. l crawled into
my sleeping bag, and my two COM
panions occupied one together. Soon
the falling snow covered us save for a
funnel-shaped opening through which
we breathed. / soon was sound asleep.
When 1 woke up I found it was impos
sible for me to turn around. The snow
had packed itself so tightly that it was
impossible for me even to move my
arms. 1 shouted in the hope that my
comrades might hear me. but although
away from me. he informed me after
wards he did not hear, in
fact, was shouting to make me
hear The unpleasant feature of
the situation was that we could
hear the people in the next tent
open cans oe meat, the sound being
conveyed in the ice crust. 1 lay in that
position for four days and nights. In
the meantime Davidson and his part
h. Gle 70 6n1
been working necessarily and had
finally succeeded in getting to the sur
face. Davidson at once set to work
to liberate me and did so in a short
time but not until he had so frozen his
heel that he will be a cripple for life.
I'VE then succeeded in locating the
other tent and made our way inside,
and told our story to the great sur
prise of the occupants, who supposed
we were as comfortable as they. On
the fifth day the storm let up suffi-
GENTLY to allow us to look after the
dogs, which had had nothing to eat
for five days. Three were frozen. to
death and the majority of the balance
were suffering so badly from the cold
that they were not much good for use
afterwards.
TT soon developed that Davidson's
injured foot made it necessary he
was selected to go with him. Ex-
perience had shown to us that six
miles was a fair days travel, but des-
pite this fact we were given only two
lays rations to travel the 81 miles to
camp. / was given sledge and five
female dogs with which to make the
'eturn trip. Davidson was dashed on
he sledge and lay there helpless. The |
irst day we made only two miles, and !
he hao ho
gave out completely. A fog set in and |
he snowstorm overlook us and there |
vas no way of knowing which way we |
we're going. The following day we |
litehed up our dogs and they pulled |
he load for about a mile and then |
stopped and. refused to go further, |
having had nothing TO eat We were |
low short on rations, but despite this |
We decided to divide up with the dogs, ,
Ill of which proved of little avail. for
he poor CANNES were badly frostbit-
en- and in no condition for work. The |
My thing left was for me to get into |
he harness and pull the load. This |
method was very slow, and after few
lays with but little TO eat / became
o exhausted that 1 found it necessary
o rest every few hundred yards. Oc- |
asionally 1 would look back TO see
ow my charge was getting along.
1T may interest you to know that
he only manner in which 1 could keep
)avidson's foot from paining him was
y keeping il frozen. Hence at regular
intervals / found it necessary to go
ack, bare his injured limb and re
reeze'' it, as we used to call it.
After making slow progress for sew
raj days, knowing not whether we
yere going the right direction or not, 1
rent back to perform the "refreezing'
recess. Davidson looked up at me
in, h he