Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-10-20

questions on minor points that had
occurred to him.
During the taking of this testimony,
it developed that DR.. Cook had told
these boys, as he told Mr.. Whitney
and Billy Pritchard, the cabin boy,
that they must not tell Commander
Peary or any of us anything about
their journey and the boys stated DIR.
Cook had threatened themi if they
should tell anything.
The narrative of these Eskimos is
as follow
They, with DR.. Cook, Francke and
nine other Eskimos, left Anoratok,
crossed Sm.t tbs Sound to Cape Sa-
bine, slept in Commander Peary's old
house in Payer Harbor, then went
through Rice Strait to Buchanan Bay.
After a few marches Francke and
three Eskimos returned to AnoratOk.
Dr.. Cook, with the others, then pro-
ceeded up Flagler Bay a branch OF
Buchanan Bay, and crossed Ellesmere
Land through the valley pass at the
head of Flagler Bay, indicated by
Commander Peary in 1898, and util-
lied by Sverdrup in 1899, to the head
of Sverdrup's bay Fiord" on the west
side of Ellesmere Land.
Their route than lay out through
this ford. thence north through Sver-
drup's "Heuerka Sound" and hansen
Strait.
On their way they killed musk-oxen
and bear, and made caches, arriving
eventually at a point on the west side
of hansen Strait (shore of Axel Hell
berg Land of Sverdrup), south of Cape
Thomas. Hubbard.
A cache was formed here and the
four Eskimos did not get beyond this
point. Two others, Koolootingwah
and Inughito, went on one more march
with DR.. Cook am the two boys
helped to build the snow igloo, then
returned without sleeping.
(These -wo Eskimos brought back
letter from DR.. Cook to Francke,
dated the II of March. The two men
been left behind, and the six returned
to Anoratok, arriving May Z. This in
formation was obtained not from the
two Eskimo boys, but from the six
men who returned and from Francke
himself, and was known to us in the
summer of 1908, when the Roosevelt
first arrived at Etah. The information
is inserted here as supplementary to
the narrative of the two boys.)
After sleeping at the camp where
the last two Eskimos turned back DR..
Cook and the two boys went in a
northerly or northwesterly direction
with two sledges and twenty odd dogs
one more march, when they encoun-
tered rough ice and lead of open
water. They did not enter this rough
ice, nor cross the lead, but turned
westward or southwestward a short
distance and returned to Heiberg
Land at a point west of where they
had left the cache and where the four
men had turned back.
Here they remained four or five
sleeps, and during that time I-took-a-
shoe went back to the cache and got
his gun which he had left there, and
few items of supplies.
When asked why only few sup
plies were taken from the cache, the
boys replied that only a small amount
of provisions had been used in the
few days since they left the cache,
and that their sledges still had all
they could carry, SO that they could
not take more.
After being informed of the boys
narrative thus far, Commander Peary
suggested a~series of questions to be
put to the boys in regard to this trip
from the land out and back to it.
These questions and answers were
as follows:
Did you cross many open leads or
much open water during this time?
Ans. None.
Did they make any catches out on
the ice? Ans. No.
Did they kill any bear mr. seal
willie out on the ice north of Cape
Thomas Hubbard? Ans. No.
Did they kill any bear or seal
dogs while out on the ice? Ans. NO.
With how many sledges did they
start? Ans. Two.
How many dogs did they have?
Ans. Did not remember exactly, but
something over twenty.
How many sledges did they have
when they got back to land? Ans.
Two.
Did they have any provisions left
on their sledges when they came
back to land? Ans. Yes: the sledges
still had about all they could carry,
so they were able to take but few
things from the cache.
From here they then went south
west along the northwest coast of
Heiberg Land to point indicated on
the map (Sverdrup's Cape North
west).
From here they went across the
ice, which was level and covered
with snow, offering good going, TO a
low island which they had seen from