Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1897-11-25

our hands and knees, almost We
went slowly, more slowly every day,
and the ice became rougher. AT
length, on the 7th day of April we
reached sc degs and IA minutes north
the 'Farthest North and determined
to stop. | went myself a little bit
farther, assembled a high hummock
and looked longingly, regretfully to-
yards the north toward the pole.
But | saw ice, ice, ice, nothing but
rough hummocks Of ice for miles in
every direction. Then we turned
south and spent days in walking
around channels going far out of our
course. Meanwhile we were daily
killing one of the dogs TO feed the
rest We disliked much to destroy
these faithful animals that served us
gladly to their last moment But we
must either kill the dogs or die our
selves. We had no food left for the
team and We must get on at all haz-
ards AT length we came to true
open water, the edge Of the foe. and
launched our kyacks. Then we had
to kill our last dogs, my dog and
Johansens. You see what fine ami
mails they were! This bushy one was
mine, and this with the big eyes Jo-
hansen's. CA general sigh from the
ladies) But we couldn't kill our own
pets. | took Johansen's behind a
hummock and shot it Johansen
killed mine.
We got afioat and went quite rap
idly, sailing together with Joined
kyacks, when there was breeze, or
padding with double laded paddle
when the wind went down. We would
land nights on pieces of the foe. We
/ had hoped to reach land in May. But
May passed and June came and
passed. 1t was July "a when we got
/ our first glimpse of land, covered with
! ice. We were not less than fourteen
/ days in reaching that distant spot of
earth Before we reached there we
| had an accident. | was struggling on
/ ahead near some open water when
| heard noise behind Get a gum
/
/ lying on his back beneath the feet of
a great white bear ! jumped down
4 to the kyack and tried to find the
! gun II was stuck away tight, far
! forward. AS | was pulling at it des-
! perately | heard Johansen speak up
calmly, / think you'd better hurry up,
/ if you don't want to come too late. ;
| glanced back again. The bears
mouth was open and he was going to
take bite Of Johansen's head.
yelled, the dogs started barking
again. The bear closed his jaws. !
steadied the gun and pulled up the
/ hlmner. Then | remembered that
it was the right barrel, the barrel
charged with bird shot only. But
was at short range. | let fly back Of
the bears ear and he fell dead on the
spot. The bird shot was enough.
asked Johansen what he was thinking
of when the bear stood over him. He
said, 1 could see my gun in the bow
Of the boat, and | kept thinking what
a fool you were not to take that gum
Uaughter.)
Just before we reached land we
met with another accident We had
gone ashore to climb hummock and
/ look ahead, 1t was Johansen that
startled me again. He cried, Look at
the kyacks' They had got adrift,
and were being blown out into open
water. | stopped a minute. Then
| thought, well, if we lose the boats,
we will die anyway, and pulled off
my coat and kept on something to
ward off cramps, handed my watch to
! Johansen and jumped into the icy
ocean. In a minute my legs
began to stiffen. ! saw the
| kyacks floating faster and fas-
ter But | turned on my back to
! gather strength and saw Johansen
walking back and forth. frantic but
helpless Soon ] began to gain on the
boats but my legs were again sJiffen-
ing. | was freezing all over At last
| | touched the stern of the boat | put
my hand on the gunwale. But ! was
| too stiff to draw myself up. | thought
J Well, | shall lose at last But by
main force | contrived to get one leg
/ into the boat, and dragged myself up
could scarcely paddle the boats to
the foe. Johansen grabbed me. tore
! off my clothes. showed me into the
| slepeing bag. In an hour or two / be-
| gan to feel warm and the next morn
! ing we started again for the land
81 here we found ourselves with
: only a weeks provisions in all But
/ we did not suffer. There were plenty
/ Of bears and the provisions kindly
! walked up to us and stood still until
/ we got ready TO shoot We killed
some fifteen bears and had provisions
| for the winter We went after the
walruses that lay about on the foe
and killed four of them Thus we
had enough fat and train oil 10 give
us heat and light until spring. The
walruses paid no attention to US. We
could go up and poke them with
stick and then they'd simply rise nm