The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1909-09-10

Below the eighty-seventh parallel the
character of the ice changed very much
and it became evident that the season
was advancing rapidly.
With good deal of anxiety we
watched the daily reduction of the food
supply.
It now became evident that the cru
cial stages of the campaign were to be
transferred from the taking of the pole
to final battle for life against famine
and frost.
The clear blue of the skies changed
to steady, dismal gray. Several days
of icy despair followed each other in
rapid succession.
There were some violent gales, but
usually the wind did not rise to the full
force of storm.
STARVATION AN ALTERNATIVE.
With starvation as the alternative,
we could not wait for better weather.
Some advance was made nearly every
day, but the cost of the desperate effort
pressed life to the verge of extinction.
On May "a the sky cleared long
enough to give us set of observations.
We had reached the eighty-fourth par
allel, near the ninety meridian.
The ice was much broken and drlfted
westward, leaving many open spaces of
water.
There remained on our sleds scarcely
enough food to reach our caches on
Nansen Sound, unless we averaged fif-
teen miles daily With the disrupted
'lalack" and reduced strength we were
hardly equal to ten miles daily.
Trying to make the best of our hard
lot, straight course was set for the
musk OK lands of the inner crossing.
At the eighty-third parallel we found
ourselves to the west of large tract ex-
tending southwark The ice changed
to small fields. The temperature rose
to zero, and a persistent mist obscured
the heavens.
The events of the following day were
pressed into desperate action,
With few lines on paper to register
the life of suffering. the food for man
and dogs was reduced to three-quarter
ration, while the difficulties of ice travel
rose to disheartening heights.
WATER FORMS BARRIER.
AT the end of struggle of twenty
days through thick fog the sky cleared,
and we found ourselves far down in
Crown Prince Gustav Sea, with open
water and impossible small ice as
barrier between us and Heiberg Island.
In the next few days bears came
along as life savers. The empty stom-
achs were filled and the horizon, for
time, was cleared of trouble.
With the return to Annootok rendered
difficult by the unfortunate westerly
drift, we now sought to follow the ice
movement south to Lancaster Sound,
where we hoped to reach a Scottish
whaler.
Early in July farther southwark
progress became impossible, and in
quest of food we crossed the Firth of
Devon into Jones Sound.
The dogs here got the freedom of
their wolf propensties and by folding
boat and sled we tried to reach Baffin s
Bay With but an occasional bird to
eat and long line of misfortune we
pushed eastward until the frost of early
September stopped progress.
With neither food, fuel nor ammu-
milton we were forced to wrest winter
supplies from what seemed at first like
lifeless desert.
USED BOW AND ARROW ON GAME.
Pressed by hunger, new implements
were shaped and Cape Sparbo was picked
as likely place to find life
Game was located with the bow and
arrow, the line, the lance and the knife.
The musk OK, bear and wolves yield
ed meat, skins and fat. An under
ground den was prepared and in it we
remained until sunrise of 1909.
On February Is the start was made
for Annootok. With newly prepared
equipment the Greenland shores were
reached on April 10.
Here We were greeted by Harry
Whitney and an anxious group Of Es-
kimo friends.
To facilitate an early return, | moved
southwark to the Dannish settlement
and reached Upernavik on May 21,
1910