The Open Polar Sea: A narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States"Hayes, I. I. (Isaac Israel)
History
The Open Polar Sea: A narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States"
Hayes, I. I. (Isaac Israel)
Arctic regions; United States (Schooner)
Upon reaching Sunrise Point we found the ice to be very rough and
insecure, and the tide of the previous night had opened a wide crack
directly off the point, which it was necessary for us to cross. This
crack had been closed over but a few hours, and the dogs hesitated
a moment at its margin; but Jensen's whip reassured them, and they
plunged ahead. The ice bent under their weight, and, as if by a mutual
understanding, the team scattered, but not in time to save themselves,
for down they all sank, higgledy-piggledy, into the sea, dragging the
sledge after them. Being seated on the back part of it, I had time to
roll myself off, but Jensen was not so fortunate, and dogs, sledge,
driver and all were floundering together in a confused tangle among the
broken ice. Kalutunah, who was a few paces in the rear, coming up, we
extricated them from their cold bath. Jensen was pretty well soaked,
and his boots were filled with water. Being only five miles from the
schooner, I thought it safest to drive back as rapidly as possible
rather than construct a snow-hut to shelter my unlucky driver from the
cold wind which was beginning to blow. Besides, our buffalo-skins were
as wet as they could be, and we should have precious little comfort on
our journey if we did not return and exchange them for dry ones. The
dogs, too, ran great risk of injury by being allowed to rest in their
wet coats in so low a temperature. The whip was not spared, and the
vessel was reached without serious consequences either to Jensen or the
team. An hour or so sufficed for us to refit, when we started again;
and being this time more cautious, we got around the point without
further trouble.
The ice was found to be smooth and the traveling good as we moved up
the coast; and, not being very heavily laden, we got on at a good pace.
The snow had been packed very hard by the winds, and wherever there
had been hummocks it had collected between them, so that, although
the surface was somewhat rolling and uneven, yet it was as firm as a
country road. Darkness coming on, (we had not yet reached the constant
sunlight of summer,) we hauled in under Cape Hatherton and made our
first camp.
[Sidenote: THE FIRST CAMP.]
It was a real Arctic camp;--picketing the dogs and burrowing in a
snow-bank are very simple operations, and require but little time.
Jensen made the burrow, and Kalutunah looked after the animals; and
when all was ready we crawled in and tried our best to be comfortable
and to sleep; but the recollection of the ship's bunk was too recent
to render either practicable, except to Kalutunah, who did not seem
to mind any thing, and snored all through the night in a most awful
manner. The outside temperature was 40° below zero.
[Sidenote: HARTSTENE'S CAIRN.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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