Farthest North: The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic ExpeditionLanman, Charles
History
Farthest North: The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic Expedition
Lanman, Charles
Arctic regions; Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-1884); Lockwood, James Booth, 1852-1884
The sledges with great difficulty gained this comparatively level
divide. The landmarks not being altogether familiar to Lockwood, he
took a long walk after supper to a distant ridge, where, seeing the
sea-coast, his way became perfectly clear. It was a lonely and
dismal walk, and the ridge seemed to get farther away as he
approached it. After more than two hours’ absence he returned to the
tents, crawled in alongside of Sergeant Brainard, and was quickly
lulled to sleep notwithstanding the snoring of Frederick. The horrid
sound issuing from his bag was as loud as a brass band at a circus.
The process of getting breakfast was to be preferred to that of
getting supper. When a man went into camp, after a toilsome day of
travel, and had helped to pitch tent and unload the sledge, it was
hard, while covered with frost, with cold and perhaps wet feet, to
chop ice and meat, and handle cold metal.
After an uncomfortable night, with the temperature down to -45°,
they started again. Proceeding several miles, they reached a narrow,
winding ravine, and finally a gorge, which they followed until they
came to the head of the wide Gap Valley, and thence to the
sea-coast. Turning east, they continued on a few hundred yards, and
were then stopped by the ice-wall, which crowded so closely to the
shore that the sledges could not be hauled through. Lockwood and
Frederick pitched the tent, while Brainard went ahead with the axe,
and, after much hard work, made a passage about one eighth of a mile
long through this place. They managed to worry through with half the
load by three o’clock, and, leaving Brainard to get supper, Lockwood
and Frederick went on with half the load for about one and a half
miles. The route beyond the bad place was excellent. Dropping the
load, they returned to the tent by four o’clock. Jewell came along
later, he and Ellis complaining again of their difficulty in keeping
up with the sledge when it went faster than a slow walk.
While approaching the cairn at Repulse Harbor, on the 1st of April,
Brainard’s sharp eyes discovered the site of the English depot of
rations, which contained Lieutenant Beaumont’s sextant, an English
flag, a cooking-lamp, old clothes, and some foot-gear. The road
before them was excellent, and they made good time, soon passing the
route of the preceding year, which reached the coast just east of
Repulse Harbor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account