The Meeker herald. [volume] (Meeker, Colo.) 1885-current, 1905-02-11

"A shores OF polar lanQ Oh
"a IN the verge OF winter. with
food enough only for q few
weeks, with no shelter excepting
tent, no fuel and no other resources
save two guns, some ammunition and
sail needle, may have their curiosity
satisfied In the detailed narrative
which DIR. ]. Gunnar Anderson 10 writ
ing. He will tell of the Antarctic win
ter of 1908 which he and two comrades
spent in misery of dirt and darkness
on the bleak shore of Northern Graham
Land, to the south Of South America.
Some details of the story have al
ready been made public BY DR.. Nor
denskiold In his recent address before
the Royal Geographic Society In Lon
don.
The three men kept life in their
bodies through the winter, but lived in
great wretchedness, and 10 changed
were they In appearance when day
light came that their best friends
would not have known them. They
were members of DR.. Otto Norden-
skiold's party on the steamer Antarc-
tic, but he did not know that any men
from that vessel were on lind, and
when he met them In the spring he
did not recognize them as a part OF
his own expedition until they told
their names.
No wonder, for they were as black
as coal from head to foot, with long
black hair hanging down over their
shoulders and black. bushy boards.
The skis on which they were travel
ing over the snow were the only thing
about them that seemed to indicate
some acquaintance with civilization.
They seemed to belong to one of the
lower types of men who live almost in
a natural state. like the brute creation.
The dogs took fright at the forbldding
black figures and bolted In every d.
rection.
Late in 1902 the Antarctic was try
ing to force her way through the heavy
Ice to reach DIR. Nordenskiold's camp
at Snow Hill. about $50 miles to the
southwest. When 1t became evident
that the vessel could not reach his
camp, DIR. Anderson, the leader of the
ship party, decided to try to reach the
explorers by a sledge journey over the
sea, ice and land.
He took with him FIR. Duse and
sailor named Grunden and q small
stock of supplies and set ont with high
hopes of soon reaching his friends.
sledging, however. proved to be enor-
mously dimcult, and by the time the
little party reached land their strength
and resources were nearly exhausted.
The twilight was lenythenAAS. the
darkness would soon fall and they
knew very well that II they tried to
make the march Of 100 miles south
ward and met with any special difncul-
ties in the untraversed land they were
certain to perish. There was nothing
to do except to go into camp, and exc
out the winter somehow or other. :,
They had about three weeks supply
OF canned meats, bread and coffee,
three sleeping bags, piece of tar-
paulin and a tent. but no implements
utensils and one needle, and nothing to
wear except their summer clothing.
The first thing to do was to provide
shelter and then to secure all the
game possible before darkness put an
end to hunting.
They put up their tent and piled up
stones 80 as completely to encircle the
tent with stone wall. Over the whole
they spread the piece of tarpaulin.
Their abode was thus provided with
double walls; and when the snow came
they covered their hut deep under
snow, excepting at the narrow en-
trance. They were thus able through
out the winter to keep an average tenn
perature of only q little below the
freezing point.
Within few miles there were plenty
Of penguins waiting to be shot, and
by the time the winter night had fairly
fallen they had killed and frozen about
400 Of these birds. Penguins are not
good eating, and the art of cookery, as
practiced In the Antarctic regions, has
never made their flesh very palatable.
But they were the stan of life of the
three men that winter, eked out by q
mouthful or twoOf bread each day, an
occasional bite Of preserved meat and
the flesh Of seals that were killed now
and then and whose chief utility was to
supply oil for fuel. Seal bluhber was
piled In large meat lin and set to
blazing and smoking. and 1t was thus
that the skins, clothing and sealskins
worn by the men were turned densely
black.
Every one has heard Of the reyulsion
Of stomach and nerves from which
men suffer they they try to eat quail
day for thirty days. When men
falter at such a task, We can imagine
that nothing but the fear of death
would drive them to eat the coarse and
greasy penguin every day for seven
months. The feat was accomplished
and 1t shows what men can do when