The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-15

these animals, feeding as comfortably
as domestic cattle upon the farm, but
upon closely approaching them they did
rot seem to be agreeably pleased. They
had had the same difficulty with the
bears that we had had, a fight almost
daily and when we advanced on them
they gave us the same kind of fight.
We were long time in learning how
to capture these animals. When we
approached them suddenly in the open
fields they would attack US, and they
could run faster than we could When,
however, We approached them slowly
they usually scattered among the rocks
H. positions ike this. picture on
screen).
Both Food and Fuel.
And this was a position that suited
us very well, for in the rocks two legs
were better than four, and here by
adopting every conceivable primitive
device, by the use of bow and arrow,
shngshot, lasso lines, a combination
of all. during the month Of October,
we managed to secure thirty-eight
musk oxen.
With this abundance of meat and
food we managed to make ourselves
secure for the winter and the night of
1908 and 1909. Now, we ate nothing
but musk OK meat. We had no
tea, no coffee, no sugar, not a morsel
of civilized food; not even a pinch of
salt; but in the absence of all that,
musk OK meat was very good.
eating it. The musk OK made our
fuel. Our stove or lamp, was made of
tin plate, which served it's purpose
very well for nearly four months. The
new equipment and the new clothing
was made of musk OK skin. We used
musk OK sinews to sew as threads
We used musk OK horns to make
tips for our bows and arrows, and to
make points for our harpoons and
Iances. We used all its bones. We
were quite a musk OK people. During
this winter night we were unable to
secure exercise.
1t was only occasionally, on a bright
moonlight night, that we managed to
stretch our legs outside. During these
times the bears were about in suffi-
cient numbers to keep us safely in
side all the time. The musk OK meat
was dried to make new pemmican
for our return trip to Greenland.
Musk OK tallow was melted and mold
ed in bricks as fuel for the return
trip.
Now. the distance from Cape Spar
DO back to Greenland was about 900
miles in northerly course. It was
along part of the country where no
sled trip had ever been taken before.
We hoped to cover this in thirty days,
and we prepared accordingly.
We could not carry more than thir-
ty days food upon the kind of sled
which we could devise, and with no
dogs as draft animals. Now, this sin
been
very much used in making our imple-
ments. When we prepared to return
to Greenland we could only set up a
half sled-a half of one of the sleds
which had gone to the pole. This
was loaded down with dried musk OK
meat and nodded tallow. Our Sleep
ing bags were now of musk OK skin.
And again we started northward on
the 18th of February. 1909, for the
home run. In crossing Jones's sound
we found good ice, rather smooth.
with severe winds and low tempera-
ture, ranging from 35 to As below.
As we passed along the eastern
part of Ellesmere Land the ice was
of a hummocky nature. Travel was
difficult. The snow was deep. The |
storms were severe and the tempera- |
ture was low. We were unable to |
make more than four or five miles a !
day.
Thirty Days From Greenland.
At the end of thirty days our food |
supply was all used and still we had |
gone but half of the distance to the
days therefore from Greenland with |
no good opportunity of obtaining |
food, with no seals on the ice, no wal F.!
rus. Only the tracks of bears and |
these were not easily secured. Dur
ing the previous summer, when 1 saw
that the time would come when |
famine would probably threaten to
cartridges, put them in my pocket, (
said nothing to the Eskinos, but |
thought then that the time
might come when those three
cartridges would be very useful
when they might save our lives
During the previous season that /
calamity never quite arrived. In one |
way or another we managed to get |
something to eat, but the time was at |
hand now where without cartridges
we must starve. There was no other
big heavy field of ice near open |
water We believed that there would