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)
A lively party visited Chester Valley to-day. They started early
with two sledges--Sonntag, with Jensen on one, Knorr and Hans on the
other. Sonntag carried out the theodolite and chain to make a survey
of the glacier. The others, of course, took their rifles. They saw
numerous reindeer, but shot only three. One of these was a trophy of
Mr. Knorr's, and had like to have cost him dearly. The poor animal had
been badly wounded in the valley, and on three legs tried to climb the
steep hill. Knorr, following it, reached at length within twenty yards,
and brought it down with a well-directed shot; but the hunter and the
victim being, unfortunately for the former, in a line, the hunter was
carried off his legs, and the two together went tumbling over the rocks
in a manner which, to those below, looked rather alarming. Report does
not say how the boy extricated himself. It is lucky, however, that,
instead of broken bones, he has only a few bruises to show for his
adventure.
[Sidenote: SONNTAG CLIMBS THE GLACIER.]
Sonntag, too, had his story to tell. Reaching the glacier, he ascended
to its surface, after travelling two miles along the gorge made by
the glacier on the one side and the sloping mountain on the other.
The ascent was made by means of steps cut with a hatchet in the solid
ice. The glacier was found to be crossed in places by deep narrow
fissures, bridged with a crust of snow, and so completely covered as to
defy detection. Into one of these, fortunately a very narrow one, the
astronomer was precipitated by the giving way of the bridge, and it is
probable that he would have lost his life but for a barometer which he
carried in his hand, and which, crossing the crack, broke the fall.
The barometer was my best one, and is of course a hopeless wreck.
[Sidenote: SEAL-HUNTING.--ESQUIMAU VILLAGE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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