Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-09-25
STRUGGLE IN ARCTIC BLIZZARD
TOLD AS MAN REACHES SAFETY
Canadian Plods $50 Miles on Frozen Feet
After Cutting OFF Three Toes and
Going Without Food

the Eskimos use them. We lived In
those houses from the time we started
out until we got back to Prince Alfred
Cape.
"All our food had been used before
we reached Cape Clifford. and from
then on we were living from what our
guns brought down. We hadn't any
too much coal oil, so we'd only cook
one meal day. At other times we'd
eat quok'-that's what the Eskimos
call frozen meat.
1T was still Summer on Banks
Land, and we had good chance to look
over the country. There's grass there,
and flowers that look like little daisies,
some yellow and some white. There are
willows there, too. don't suppose that
is their real name, but call them I'M
foreground willows They only grow
about an inch high, and then they turn
back underground and run along for
several feet and come up again.
Il guess we are the first men to see
that country in Summer. We found an
old primus stove there that Stefansson
had left in 1915. 1t still had coal oil
From the time we struck Cape Gift
ford we never were out Of sight of
wolves
October 16 we set out on sleighs. 1t
wasn't very cold then. We had about
eight hours of daylight and it didn't
drop much under 10 below We saw
lots Of Polar bear on the ice trying for
SEAL
I'VE could have shot everything but
caribou. The wolves had made them
timid and while we had got caribou
father south, they were too wary to be
caught here.
There was plenty of Arctic rabbits,
seal, ptarmigan and oogiuk-a sort OF
sea lion.
when we hit Mercy Bay there was
some open water offshore, so We worked
around until we found good ice and
had a fine crossing over the Mcclure
Strait to Melville Island.
+ When we got there, we saw Eskimo
tracks-and I knew I was right. The
track was a sled track, and I think
there must have been 16 or 18 dogs
hitched to one sled. with six or eight
people. Since the track around Brustt
Mountain was headed northwest. I am
sure that Eskimos Winter between there
and Prince Patrick Island.
Musk-Ox Very Tame.
1--WE worked around the east shore Of
Melville Island and crossed the point
from Winter Harbor into Bushman
Cove. 1t was there we saw musk-ox
We saw three herds. They were very
tame.
I'm Bushmen Cove we ran across an
old Eskimo settlement. We couldn't
tell how large settlement it had been
because of the snow.
I'VE started back over Mcclure
Int ~.
eral times we were out of meat. At one
time we had only one oogiuk skin for
ourselves and the dogs for two days.
But the main trouble was water. II
we hadn't let our boards grow we would
have been dead men.
THAT is the way we got water-just
sucked the icicles we broke off our
boards. I learned that trick from an
Eskimo on Banks Land.
1.-The dogs were having a hard time,
too. The ice was breaking and split mt;
them Some of them we'd have to
follow for miles before We could cross
I'VE had only two hours OF light
then. We reached Banks Land and
were heading back the way we came.
Food was very short. The wolves were
getting holder. On November ID ]
was out looking for meat while Sandy
cut snow blocks. I put down my rli1e
to tie my muckluck. Then felt some
thing behind me- can't describe it
and when I wheeled around I saw two
wolves heading for me on dead run.
IT jumped for my rife and the dog
wolf stopped. shot him, ABOUT SO
coming. She was Just about six feet
from me when she stopped rolling after
I killed her.
I'VE lived on that she wolf for two
DAYS and then we hit snow house
where Jim Wilkie, a halfbreed Eskimo,
lives. I can speak three Eskimo Ian
puages. Seglig, Nullitimee and Cogma-
Xix, helping them out with few ges-
lures and mods.
"It had been pitch dark all the way
from Prince Alfred Cape right down to
near Storkerson Bay where we found
Wilkie.
1--WE worked our way down then to
where Alex Stefansson lives, south OF
Storkerson Bay. Alex is VilhJalmur 5
son.
Set Out for Mainland.
ION the 7th of February we set out
from Stefansson's to get back to the
mainland. We had some hardtack, a
gallon Of cooked split peas and about
20 pounds of rolled oats. We worked
our way down, using the snow houses
along the Eskimo trap lines.
I'm two days we reached Mask Pass.
It was still dark. We had last seen the
sun on November IT, and we weren't
to see it again until February Ii. From
Cape Lambton we started straight
across the ice. After the second day
out, the southwest wind broke the ice
away from the shore. 1t started 10
drift out to sea and big leads opened
up. We were trying hard to get back
to Banks Land, but when we saw that
was impossible We tried to hit Victoria
Land. But the leads forced us north
west
"For the last two days we had no
food at also killed . dog and we
ate that. It was very dark. We hao
to make for Kellett, where knew there
was woodlands north OF the Mask.
But about so miles from Mask Pass
Austin played out.
THAT was when we set out on the
trail back to Stefansson's again. There
I warmed I'D some seal oil and thawed
nv feet until I could see how far they
had been frozen. I took Stefansson's
razor and cut off the dead flesh. They
told me afterward that that was all
that saved my life.
II stayed there until Spring. Then
stefansson took me out on hts boat
Nanuk."
| (cspyrisht, 1892. BY North American News