Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1910-12-23

"a less one stops TO renect |
: !: : !: !: !: !: :: !:
NA bit there seems moth
MA ing unusual in the fact |
Il, that Harry Whitney, the |
4 u New Haven sportsman, |
should have gone hunting |
y to the place which not |
many years ago marked the northern
most limit of polar exploration, For
nearly a year he lived by,choice. al
most in the shadow of that Cape Sa'
bine, where the men Of the Greely
expedition starved TO death IN 1883. |
Many times he passed on his 'expedi-
ton after game the wreck OF the
steamship Polarr of the Hall expedi-
tion oil 1871.
as sportsman in this far north
where men before him hsH met death
as explorers he has set down in his
book. Hunting With the Eskinps,"
which has just been published, says a
writer in the Montreal Herald;
Though the author seems to consider
himself primarily a 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 sportsman's tale. but
as a record of crowded adventure
and as a portrayal of Eskimoi types.
Since Mr.. Whitney went as far
north as Etah with the Peary expedi-
ton of 1908 and returned to civiliza-
tion on the Peary relief ship Jeanie
after having been the frst 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 it's last and
successful dash through the ice fields.
His intention and that of his friends
was merely to make the voyage to
little incidental hunting and then to
return to the world when the Erik put
back and the Roosevelt continued on
her way northward Ito Cape Sheridan.
csptivated 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
broached 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 a shack built
Tor him by the carpenter and the bos'n
Of the Erik at Etah, and the two men,
bers OF sthe Roosevelt's' 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, Mr. Whitney-saw the Erik steam
away for the south on August 21.
Then he realized that he was ma
rooned in the most desolate region of
the earth, among a race who spoke a
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, wom-
en- and children, and the Eskimos
who remained began.eafly 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
mad reason to count among his best
friends the. simple-minded folk who
pass as savages.
Ihe beginning of the Arctic night
found Whitney and the Eskimo co
munity all settled in Annootok, which
Is The northernmost settlement of the
Arctic highlanders. The man who had
come to the country to hunt speedily
discovered that necessity forced hin
to do little else.
The descending night found the Es
nmos feverishly active in the task O.
iaying up a store against the winter
whitney had either TO remain alone
IN his board and packing box shacl