By the sixth, usually drifting only a few miles a day but occasionally getting clear of the ice for a while to go ahead under our own power, we had reached a point about a mile from shore off Cape Smythe, which is only a few miles from Point Barrow. At midnight Stefansson returned from Point Barrow, bringing with him some new members of the expedition: an Eskimo family of five, consisting of Kerdrillo or Kuralluk, a man about thirty-five years old, his wife Keruk, about twenty-eight, and their children, a girl of seven who went by the name of Helen and a baby called Mugpi not much over a year old; an Eskimo named Kataktovick, between eighteen and twenty years old, who was already a widower, with a baby girl whom he had left with his mother; and John Hadley, a man between fifty-five and sixty years old, who for a long time had been in charge of the whaling station at Cape Smythe owned by Mr. Charles Brower, the proprietor of the store at Point Barrow. Mr. Hadley had resigned his position to go east to Banks Land and establish a trading-station of his own, chiefly to get foxskins by barter with the Eskimo. As we were on our way to Herschel Island, now was Mr. Hadley’s chance to get to his destination, for at Herschel Island he could be transferred to the Mary Sachs or the Alaska, when they reached there, and so go east in the direction of Banks Land with the southern party in the sequel Mr. Hadley, who, as I have already mentioned was put on the ship’s articles as carpenter, proved a very valuable addition to the party, but he did not get to Banks Land.
While we were at Cape Smythe, the white dog-driver who had accompanied us from Port Clarence asked for his discharge and went on shore. We sent our mail ashore to be taken to Point Barrow. As a result of our trading with the Eskimo here we obtained altogether three skin-boats, two kayaks and a number of sealskins for boot-soles. The Eskimo Kerdrillo brought his three dogs to add to our own.
There is a wide difference between the skin-boat and the kayak. The former is shaped not unlike an ordinary rowboat and is large enough to hold from ten to twenty persons. Over the framework are stretched sealskins, sewed together with deer sinew, which makes the boat water-tight. The skin-boat will stand a lot of wear and tear. The kayak, on the other hand, is small, pointed at both ends and completely covered over except for an opening in the middle, where the single occupant sits. The kayak is used for hunting and as it is small and light can be easily placed on a sledge and drawn over the ice.
During the early morning of August 7 the ice began to move us eastward around Point Barrow, where we met a current from the southeast and began to drift towards the northwest, until by the next day we were ten miles from land. We were still unable to use our engines and the ice was closely packed, though it had been smashed and pounded by its constant impact against the grounded floe along the shore. While we were still jammed in the ice we took the opportunity of filling up our tanks from a big floe not far away on which there was a lake of fresh water where the sun and the rain had melted the ice.
Early on the ninth we got clear of the ice at last and steamed eastward along the shore, free for the first time for many days. The ice was closely packed outside of us but near shore there was open water and we had little difficulty in making our way along. Navigation was precarious on account of shallow water, but we used the hand lead-line constantly. On the tenth while rounding a point of ice we got aground for two hours, but the use of the anchors and engines enabled us to back off into deep water again. The bottom was soft with the silt carried down the rivers in the spring freshets and the ship sustained no damage. We now made pretty steady progress to the eastward, though the ice constantly threatened our path, and by the eleventh had reached Cross Island, about half way from Point Barrow to Herschel Island.
CHAPTER IV
WE ARE FROZEN IN
It was clear by this time that there would be no chance this year to reach new lands to the north by direct voyaging and that we should be lucky if we succeeded in winning our way through to Herschel Island before the ice closed in for the winter. By the afternoon of the eleventh we managed to get as far east as Lion Reef. Here we tied on to a grounded floe to hold our gain and take advantage of our next chance to go east. Between Lion Reef and the mainland a few miles away ran a current which set the ice moving smartly in all directions, but unfortunately we drew too much water to venture into those shallow lanes.
I took the opportunity afforded by our pause to examine the stem of the ship and found that by contact with the ice two of the brass stem-plates were gone and several bolts loosened in those that remained.
Whenever we were stationary in the ice, Murray, the oceanographer, would use his dredge. He had been doing this in fact all along the coast, ever since we were off Blossom Shoals. At this time he used a dredge which he had brought with him; later on he used dredges made by our engineers.