True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New WorldGreely, A. W. (Adolphus Washington)
History
True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New World
Greely, A. W. (Adolphus Washington)
Arctic regions
As nothing could shake the priest's resolution, Factor MacFarlane
decided to send as a companion a baptized Loucheux Indian, Sida-Jan,
usually known as General Bottom, who spoke a little Inuit. He would save
the situation and maintain the missionary's dignity by acting as his
cook, dog driver, and camp servant. Moreover, as the brutal, powerful
In-no-ra-na-na was actually going north the factor bribed him by giving
goods to the amount of twenty beaver-skins[22] to guard the priest from
insult or injury at the hands of his fellow-savages. Thus having done
his best MacFarlane cried out, as the whip cracked and the dogs jumped
to their traces, "May God protect your days among the bad people."
Eskimo fashion, they ran over the crisp, crackling snow in single file,
the leader I-you-ma-tou-nak (the itchy) breaking the trail, followed by
the great chief In-no-ra-na-na (Powder Horn), Sida-Jan (Bottom), and
Petitot. When asked why they always thus marched in single file the
Inuits answered: "The best-fitted leads and the others form the tail.
It is the order of the ducks and cranes who plough the air, of the
reindeer in migration, and of the buffalo or musk-oxen changing their
pasture-grounds."
The calm cold was not felt, though the mercury was frozen, until the
leader stopped short on the middle ice of the frozen Anderson, over
which their route lay, and began to unload his sledge while the others
were busy cutting through the snow for water. Petitot had a Hudson Bay
sledge with steel-clad, smooth bottom, while the native sledges ran on
two rough, solid side runners of wood. These runners drag fearfully when
not shod with ice, which coating usually wears off in a few hours of
land travel. So throughout the day, from time to time the Eskimo sledge
was turned upside down, and its ice runners renewed by frequent wettings
of the injured surfaces, the water freezing as it was applied.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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