Anadarko daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 1908-191?, 1910-12-21

at Annootok or to Join the Eskimos
in perilous expeditions over the ice on
foot up and down the coast. Meat
was the quest, meat which would yield
light and fire ana sustenance during
the long months Of darkness.
Some OF the women hed outfitted
the white stranger among them with a
complete suit OF furs. and though he
donned them early in October for
weeks and months thereafter he was
at hand grips with the cold hour upon
hour. The author said that during the
course of bear hunt in which he
Joined with the Eskimos and which
carried the sledge party far north into
Kane Basin, his thermometer. which
was only designed to register nifty de-
grees below zero. dropped to that
point and stayed there for days on
end. Whitney's feet we're frozen re-
peatedly. his face cracked and frosted
and the hours he spent in his sleeping
bag of heavy skins we're of misery
only a shade less acute than when he
was exposed to the cutting blasts on
the march.
The Awful Arctic Night.
OF the darkness Whitney writes
this In his book:
mo words can adequately describe
the awful pail of the Arctic night. II
Is unreal and terrible. Even the
moonlight is unnatural, casting upon
the snow and ice, the wind swept
rocks and the people themselves a
shade of ghastly indehnable greenish
yellow.
"SElfting shadows flit among NOV
Ing ice masses like wraiths of depart
ed spirits. A deathlike silence pre-
walls, to be broken only by the start
ling and unexpected cracking Of a
glacier with a sound OF mighty thun-
derclap or the smashing together OF
great ice foes with a report like
! heavy cannon.
The author had many occasions to
witness the peculiar neurotic reac-
tlon caused by the darkness and the
silence upon his Eskimo companions.
| Time and again one OF them went
"probokto," that is a sort of insane
frenzy would seize an individual
cause him TO strip OF his clothes and
run naked over the ice and snow un.
! I'll he was captured and overpowered
by his companions The fits came on
without warning, were violent and
left the victim weak and depressed
| for hours after.
The terror OF these sudden gusts OF
madness sank I'm upon the marooned
white hunter. He would be called out
Of his sleeping bag by cries from the
| igloos. rush out into the slckly moon
| light to see some naked, raving figure
skimming over the white snow field
shrieking to the stars.
All the world seemed fairy. The
silence, the flckering of the aurora,
The showers OF meteors which fire.
Quently streaked the sky like fire
flakes from fights or rockets. these
were the conditions which fostered
madness Yet in picturing the terror
Of the long night Whitney takes oc-
casion to marvel at the tremendous
| optimism Of the little people who live
in this desolate land,
Eskimo Optimism.
! "Fskimos are optlmists." he says
"Pessimists have no place I'm the
! Arctic or any other far wilderness,
cor that matter, where today's dan.
gers and difficulties are real and suf-
ncient unto themselves. Doing his
best with today and providing so far
as circumstances will permit for the
future. the Eskimo gives no other
thought to tomorrow than a buoyant
reliance that II will take care of IT,
self. Just as yesterday did.
"a pesslmist who constantly wor-
ries about the morrow would posi-
lively hypnotize himself to death In
these lands in a very short time, Pes
simsm has been the real cause Of
many casualties among Arctic ex-
plorors."
The billiards came continually to
complicate the lie that the white
stranger had to lead during the dark.
ness Some Of the most vivid pas
sages In his book are those which de.
pict the raging OF the storms which
swept down from the NORTH. carrying
snow as hard as shot, destroying and
obliterating everything in their pas
sage.
For days on end Whitney did not
dare TO leave his shack at Annootok
20 so fifty yards TO the nearest igloO
because OF the binding fury OF the
tempest. He would have been lost
dozen stems beyond his own tunnel
entrance. Yet so pressing is the need
of food among the Eskimos that be,
tween the ragiugs Of the storms they
made venturesome excursions after
meat and Whitney accompanied them
} on many Of these hunts
One occasion when a party OF which