San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-09

CTARTING auspiciously though it did, the last
- stage of my Polar expedition, the return from
- Cape Sparbo, on Jones Sound, to Annoatok, on
the Greenland coast turned out to be the grimmest
struggle of ALL
With my Eskimo aids, Etookishook and Ahwe-
iah, had reached Cape Sparbo after being carried
adrft and lost on the sea ice on the
march back from the Pole. We had
passed the Winter of 10000 at the
cape, subsisting well and accommodating -
supplies for the last trail by virtue of ~
plentiful game and successful, though 2 =
primitive, hunting methods zKS =
The Spring of 1909 found us haul
ing our short s1edge northeastward M
across Jones Sound. Buoyed by physi- ~
cal fitness and the knowledge were
homeward bound, we moved at good
speed over the rough ice, despite the
handicap of Juggling the sledge. Be-
yond the mouth of Jones Sound we fol-
lowed the western shore of Baffin's
Bay up to Cape Sabine, from which
point were to to Annoatok.
But famine overlook before we
reached the crossing. A months travel,
with no opportunity to replenish our
supply, had exhausted the food we had
brought from Cape Sparbo.
Hunger mad, we ate scraps of skin and gnawed at
the ndurated leather of walrus hide sedge lines
broke several teeth in attempts to chew this tough
substance. Death from starvation, which had
been lodging for the past year, seemed certain
to claim US.
But once again we were fated to cheat the Grim
Horseman. We found bear, rather the bear
found u.s. and we killed him with one of the four
rife cartridges had secreted against the ultimate
emergency. On his flesh to Cape Sabine,
through storms of terrific intensity.
At the cape we were again foodless and hungry.
The last of the bear had been devoured. But
found succor here for the first time through other
hands than our own. Etookishooks father, acting
on instructions given him when left for the Pole,
had killed and cached a seal during the previous
Summer Long buried, frozen and thawed, the seal
meat was horribly rancid, but it saved our lives, and
gave strength for the final dash to Annoatok To
Greenland from Cape Sabine was but matter of
thirty miles, yet we were forced to toll several times
that distance in search of ice on which to cross Smith
Sound Our trusty boat, too heavy for trans
portatng the little hand sedge,- had been aban-
doned at Cape Sparbo.
The putrid seal meat down to the last scrap was
devoured and our stomachs drawn into familiar
wrinkles, while we followed the shore line north
ward seeking an ice bridge. Eventually and just in
time, to the crossing, traversed it and stag
gered the last torturing miles on Greenland ice to
Annoatok.
Near the settlement we climbed, on all tours, in
weakness, to the top of iceberg and from this
vantage beheld the tiny cluster of hutS, which to
appeared as city in Paradise. The people of the
village also and rushed out to meet us. A
white man with them, Mr.. Harry Whitney,
millionaire sportsman from New York, who had come
North on hunting trip several months before, and
had made his base camp in my box house at An
noatok.
He greeted me cordially, and spoke the first Eng
lish words had heard in two years. We exchanged
few words of mutual introduction and he escorted
me to my own house, where hearty meal of warm,
delicious food was prepared for me-
Ravenously disposed Of the food and when the
hunger ache had been dispeed said to Whitney:
81 have been to the North Pole"
He congratulated me quietly, without show of
surprise and this attitude seemed quite natural to
me. My Polar victory had rather faded in my esti-
nation by this time; too many great adventures had
interviewed.
Whitney, though he was in fact, an unntentionaI
lnterloper on my property, extremely decent to
me. He gave me complete freedom of my own camp.
bathed, donned fresh clothing and ate then ate
some more of all the delicaces in the commissarv
Etookishook and Ahweah'were not forgotten in my
Teasing. They shared the continuous banquet
with me.
When at last I had been restored to approximate
normal, was ready for Whitney's explanation of
conditions at Annoatok He informed me that Peary,
reaching the settlement in the Summer of 1908 had
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