Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1902-01-02
After Three Hundred Years.
BY HERBERT |. CoGGINs.

|
through Fury strait, entered the open
waters of Boothia bay. OF all the peo
| pie who knew of the voyage, only
through the exciting accounts which
| filled the newspapers of the time. few
indeed can imagine its hardships, the
long dark days when the ice had rem
dered the boat helpless the dreary yet
scarcely darker nights which sleep
alone made bearable, and a cold which
human sense could only register as
pain.
At that time / was assistant to DR..
Thayer, the biologist of the expedi-
ton, and had been looking forward to
the cruise as one long tour of pleasur-
able excitement
Pleasurable? | had used that word,
but now, as l look back and shudder,
1t seems meaningless Days of excite
ment there were by the score; times
when the awful question Of death rose
up before u.s. Still, they but make
sombre background for the single hour
which is stamped indelibly upon my
memory.
The Polaris was anchored in latitude
69.4017, longitude S460 To the east
was Melville Peninsular. a typical
portion Of Northwestern British Amer
lea, to my mind the most dreary and
desolate bit of land on this whole
round globe
The snow of the previous year had
worn away, leaving exposed an almost
barren waste. Away from the shore
| low moss-coyered tundra" or frozen
swamps. spread themselves on all
| sides, while here and there a margin
of stunted tree growth cut a dull line
across the bleak surface. Around and
above all was the funeral gloom of an
Arctic silence.
Out in the bay great ice foes were
moving slowly southwark. Against the
darkened sky we could see them in the
distance, huge frozen mountains. APP
preaching steadily and silently like
fleet of ghostly vessels bound on some
weird mission of destruction.
! 1t was on the 7th of May, a particu-
larly large berg drifted SO close to the
! Polaris that the doctor and | took the
yawl and rowed over to it in the hope
of killing a stranded bear or musk OK
! shall not speak of our tedious strug-
giles along that icy cliff, nor OF our
weary wanderings over its cold noun
famous surface. Terrible as they were
1t is not because of them that the day
is memorable to me.
Unsuccessful in the search and with
only the thought of getting back to
the Polaris in my mind, was YEARLY
making my way along the small level
\ stretch Of ice to which our boat was
anchored when my eye caught on
something which caused me to pause
| few feet ahead of me and buried an
inch or two below the surface was
some dark Opaque object
Fur" l exclaimed some fossil"
| The st, Petersburg mammoth came to
my mind My shout brought tho doc
tor hurrying towards me. He. too
was taken with the same idea and with
our hatchets we began the work of ex-
/ cavation.
minute later the doctor sprang
back, and l heard his Ratchet fan
changing upon the ice.
Good Cod he cried, "lookl"
Ills last pIoW Hba lett NUt a thin,
transparent lens Of ice above the OBJ
/ jeet of his search. A SILVER, as of
some ague, passed through my nerves.
/ recognized. not the limb of some long
buried fossil, but staring up at us with
awful composure, q muan face. Had
] been alone | would never have taken
a second look. 70 the doctor, however.
such sights were less fepulslve and his
instinct for investigation instantly re-
asserted itself.
An hours hard work enabled us TO
! lift the body from its icy tomb. | can
see 1t now. The massive head ana
broad shoulders, the powerful limbs
and even the stern expression of that
rigid face. In spite Of my aversion
the physical aspect of the man filled
me with awe. Never has that picture
| arisen to my yision-aHd the mist Of
4 years have come between without i'm
pressing me with the belief that it was
no common clay that we touched that
day
The entire body from shoulders to
feet was enVeloped in great coat OF
faded brown fur. A hood which. doubt
less. had once been attached to the
coat, was pulled over the head, ex-
posing only the heavily bearded face.
"One of Sir John Franklin's party?"