Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1910-12-15

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 and sustenance during
the long months of darkness.
Some of the women had 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 fifty de-
grees below zero, dropped to that
point and stayed there for days on
end. Whitneys feet were frozen re-
peatedly his face cracked and frosted
and the hours he spent in his sleeping
bag of heavy skins were 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:
No words can adequately describe
the awful pail of the Arctic night. 1t
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 indefinable gTeenish
yellow.
Shifting shadows fit among NOV
ing ice masses like wraiths of depart
Cd 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-
tion caused by the darkness and the
silence upon his Eskimo companions.
Time and again one of them went
"problokto," 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.
| 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 in 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
l shrieking TO the stars.
All the world seemed fairy. The
/ silence. the nickering 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 dcsolate land.
Eskimo Optimism.
| "Eskimos are optimists." he says
\ 'Pessimlsts have no place in the
\ Arctic OF any other far wilderness
Tor that matter, where todays dan
/ gers and difficulties are real and suf
hcicnt unto themselves Doing his
best with today and providing so far
as circumstances will permit for tho
I future the Eskimo gives no other
thought 10 tomorrow than a buoyant
reliance that Il will take care OF Il
self, Just as yesterday did
"a pessimlst who constantly wor
rlcs about the morrow would posi-
lively hypnotize himself 20 death IN
these lands In a very short time Pes
simism has been the real cause oil
many casualties among Arctic ex
plorers"
Tho billiards. came continually Il
'omplcate the life that the whit.
stranger had to lead during the dark
ness. Some ot the most vivid pas
sagcs In hif book are those which De
ulet the raging of the storms which
swept down from the north. carryins
snow aa hard aa shot. destroying am
obliterating everything iu their pas
sage
For days ou end whitney did ma
dare to leave hlH shack at Ansostnl
to go hfty yards GO iha nearest lslo.
F because ~ che biiHdlnR lury of th.
/ tempest ii' aoald have been las
. "a 1ot.a stops bafnni hia own tunas
entrance Net an pressing .a me 49,.
.ut food amaHE tha Fsklmos thaf ~
teeeH the af.nFH of ths storms tfs4
maH. f.HfaEaauHs stelfsians .H.
m.af aHi Wt.fu.F accompanied ff.n
aH W#Hf q. fha.. hHHu
uH. occasion aheH parts .f .fiaI