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)
My other two Esquimau hunters, Marcus and Jacob, are lodgers with the
Hans family. They are a pair of droll fellows, very different from Hans
and Peter. Marcus will not work, and Jacob has grown like the Prince of
Denmark, "fat and scant of breath," and cannot. As for hunters, they
are that only in name. They have been tried at every thing for which
it was thought possible that they could be of any use and it is now
agreed on all sides that they can only be serviceable in amusing the
crew and in cutting up our game; and these things they do well and
cheerfully, for out of these pursuits grows an endless opportunity to
feed; and as for feeding, I have never seen man nor beast that could
rival them, especially Jacob. The stacks of meat that this boy disposes
of seem quite fabulous; and it matters not to him whether it is boiled
or raw. The cook declares that "he can eat heself in three meals,"
meaning, of course, his own weight; but I need hardly say that this is
an exaggeration. The steward quotes Shakespeare, and thinks that he
has hit the boy very hard when he proclaims him to be a savage "of an
unbounded stomach." The sailors tease him about his likeness to the
animals which he so ruthlessly devours. A pair of antlers are growing
from his forehead, rabbit's hair is sprouting on his distended abdomen,
and birds' feathers are appearing on his back; his arms and legs are
shortening into flippers, his teeth are lengthening into tusks, and
they mean to get a cask of walrus blubber out of him before the spring;
all of which he takes good-naturedly; but there is a roguish leer in
his eye, and if I mistake not he will yet be even with his tormentors.
So much for my Esquimau subjects.
October 21st.
I have had another lively race to the glacier, and have had a day of
useful work. Hans drove Sonntag, and Jensen was, as usual, my "whip."
We took Carl and Peter along to help us with our surveying; and,
although there were three persons and some instruments on each sledge,
yet this did not much interfere with our progress. We were at the foot
of the glacier in forty minutes.
The dogs are getting a little toned down with use, and I have directed
that their rations shall not be quite as heavy as they were. They are
lively enough still, but not so hard to keep in hand.
[Sidenote: HABITS OF DOGS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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