Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1910-12-08

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move nowadays that I'm.
~ less one stops to reflect
bit there seems moth
~ ing unusual In the fact
that Harry Whitney, the
New Haven sportsman,
should have gone hunting
TO the place which not
many years ago marked the northern
most limit of polar exploration For
nearly year he lived by choice al
most in the shadow of that Cape Sa-
bine, where the men Of the Greedy
expedition starved to death in 1888
Many times he passed on his expedi-
ton after game the wreck of the
steamship Pclari of the Hall expedi-
ton OF 1871.
The adventures MIR. Whitney had
as a sportsman in this far north
where men before him had met death
as explorers he has set down in his
book. Hunting With the Eskimos.o
which has just been published. says a
writer in the Montreal Herald.
Though the author seems to consider
himself primarily sportsman and
the love of hunting strange game
was what kept him through all the
Arctic night living with the Eskimos
and as an Eskimo, his book is inter
esting not as a sportsmans tale, but
as record of crowded adventure
and as portrayal of Eskimo types.
Since Mr.. Whitney went as far
north as Etah with the Peary expedi-
ton of 1908 and returned to civiliza-
ton on the Peary relief ship Jeanne
after having been the first white man
to greet the returning pole finder up
under the shadow of the north, his
book comes as a sort of epilogue to
Peary's narrative of his achievement.
AS an amateur Arctic explorer this
New Haven sportsman has at least
one valuable qualification. the gift of
direct and simple narrative
In company with two other sports
men the author went north on the
Peary expeditions tender Erik. which
followed the Roosevelt on its last and
successful dash through the ice fields.
His Intention and that OF his friends
was merely to make the voyage to
Etah on the Greenland coast. get a
little incidental hunting and then to
return to the world when the Erik put
back and the Roosevelt continued on
her way northward to Cape Sheridan.
Captivated by the Arctic.
But once at Etah. away down under
the foot of the mountains with the
Greenland ice cap sparkling from the
summit of the range. Whitney caught
the fever of the north. Though he
had not come prepared to isolate him
self for a year and endure the hard
ships of the Arctic night. Whitney
preached his determination to stick it
out with the Eskimos at Etah to Com.
mander Peary before the Roosevelt
left for the north ON August is. and
Peary made him an allowance Of
stores sufficient to keep him until the
return Of the expeditions tender in
the following August should offer
passage home.
So 1T was that with shack built
for him by the carpenter and the hos n
of the Erik at Etah and the two mem.
bers of the Roosevelts crew left to
guard a cache of provisions at An
nootok. forty miles away, as his sole
white companions in the land of sill
ence, MIR Whitney saw the Erik steam
away for the south on August a.
Then he realized that he was ma
rooned In the most desolate region of
the earth. among a race who spoke q
strange tongue. There was no escape
for nearly year
Even the Eskimo companions left to
the sportsman were not many Peary
had taken the pick of the tribe north
with him on the Roosevelt. men, won.
en- and children. and the Eskimos
who remained began early the grilling
task OF storing the community larder
against descending night. Whitney
threw his lot in with them absolutely.
Lived the Life Of an Eskimo.
He straightway became an Eskimo
In his mode of life as far as he could,
and before he got away from the ice
bound coast of Smith Sound. Whitney
had reason to count among his best