Lockwood could not realize the extreme cold, and seldom wore his gloves when going out for a few minutes. Though he put on a thick dog-skin coat and seal-skin over-all when taking his daily walk, he really did not regard so much clothing necessary. Exposure to such low temperatures, however, for several hours, and particularly at night, was to be dreaded. Many authorities—among others Lieutenant Greely—spoke of a peculiar sensation in the throat on first encountering a very low temperature, as when going out of doors from a warm room, but such was not Lockwood’s experience. Provided it was calm, he could stand any degree of cold he had yet met with. Owing to the peculiar and admirable construction of their house, the men were able to keep up 50° of heat within, however cold without.
On the 13th of February, Lockwood with two men went to see what damage had resulted from the late storm to the observatory on the summit of Bellot Island. Contrary to their expectations, they found the snow not only deep, but with a crust just firm enough not to bear. Consequently, they sent the dog-sledge back, and proceeded on foot, frequently sinking down knee-deep. Though the thermometer stood at -65°, they got into a profuse perspiration, which was not lessened by the steep and slippery ascent of two thousand feet. From this point the station-house seemed only a black spot, and was hardly recognizable as a house. Having made their inspection and fired their rifles several times as agreed upon with Lieutenant Greely, who was experimenting on sound, they returned. The result of these experiments was, that at -65° sound travels nine hundred and fifty feet per second. This was the coldest day they had yet experienced, and still they did not suffer with the cold.
The return to a warm house was an indescribable comfort, and Lockwood thought that if this could always be done, Arctic journeying would then be nothing. It was unprecedentedly cold even for that latitude. Pure brandy and also glycerine were frozen hard. The poor dogs suffered, yet many of them preferred to remain curled up on the snow-banks outside, to occupying the tent and holes prepared for them.
On the 19th, Lockwood made a dog-sledge trip with Brainard and the Esquimaux Frederick to Depot “B,” to look for a good place to cross the straits. Found that the snow had drifted so as to form a continuous inclined plane from the bluffs far outside the snow-house and tent, thus almost concealing them. They recognized the spot only by seeing the stovepipe jutting above the snow. Knowing how the mouth of the tunnel lay from this point, they dug through the hard, compact snow, cleared out the tunnel, and soon found themselves within the snow-house. The little stove was swallowed up in a cone of snow reaching from roof to floor. This had drifted through a small aperture where the pipe pierced the roof. The fire going out after they turned in, the room became extremely damp and chilly. However, they made up for the discomforts of the night by a rousing fire in the morning, over which they got up a grand breakfast of musk-ox steak, beans, coffee, and hard-tack. They next sent the team with Frederick down to St. Patrick’s Bay for a bag of coal, while Lockwood and Brainard walked over the straits toward Polaris Promontory. Going out some four or five miles over ice of varied nature, some exceedingly broken and hummocky and some quite level, they returned, satisfied that the time for crossing over was not yet. Frederick had, in the mean time, returned, mended up the hole in the roof, made a good fire, and prepared a warm meal.
They again started out to test the important passage, taking a route farther north. There the rubble-ice reached only two hundred yards from the shore, beyond which, as far as they walked and could see, smooth ice extended. They returned, satisfied that this was the place to attempt the passage when the time should arrive for their contemplated exploration farther north.
They made the trip over the foot-ice to the station (twenty miles) in four hours, thus proving the fine condition of the sledge and dogs for traveling, and the eagerness of the dogs to rejoin their companions and pups. All the way, they had before them to the southward a rich glow on the horizon like the sunrise of a fine morning at home. They found the men celebrating the 22d of February by match-games of various kinds, and, after listening to an appropriate speech on the Father of his Country, enjoyed a good dinner.
X.
“THE ARCTIC MOON.”
As already mentioned in this narrative, among the events which occurred at the Greely Scientific Colony, or Fort Conger, was the establishment of a newspaper, the first ever issued so near the north pole, the nearest approach to it previously having been “The Ice-Blink,” issued by Kane’s Expedition in 1854. It was projected by G. W. Rice and C. B. Henry, but Lieutenant Lockwood was the editor-in-chief. The sheet was fifteen by nineteen inches in size, first prepared in manuscript and then multiplied by photograph, published on the 2d of November, 1881, and semi-monthly as to time. As the musk-oxen, the walruses, and the bears and wolves of Grinnell Land took no interest in the enterprise, the patrons of the paper were confined to the colony of explorers. In his opening address, the editor proudly claimed that his corps of contributors embraced the finest minds in the country; that his reporters would always be “on the spot”; that the journal was certain to be superior to any other in the country; and that the subscription list numbered not less than twenty-five thousand—the last assertion being a servile imitation of what often appears in the papers of New York and other American cities. And now, by way of giving the reader an idea of the style and character of this unique journal, it is proposed to reproduce in this chapter, as specimens, a collection of its editorials, contributions, items of news, and advertisements. In an article on “Christmas,” the editor gives us the following pathetic reflections:
“Our Christmas-time has come and gone, and, although our geographical position is not a favorable one for the complete observation of this joyous anniversary, it was attended with many of the happy features that make its memory a pleasant landmark of the dying year. No boughs of ‘evergreen were berried bright’ (our crop of evergreens failed this season), but had they existed, the conditions for making them ‘white with rime’ were very favorable.
“Christmas always attracts a crowd of joyous faces, and, although we missed the pleasure of ‘childhood’s grace and fair maiden’s blushes’ under the mystic mistletoe, the stalwart, bearded men who grasped hands under our smoke-begrimed roof felt indeed the inspiration of the gladsome time when the voice of man’s good-will to man speaks forth in everything. Could the possessors of the kind hearts and hands that contributed so much to the pleasure of the party have looked in upon the happy, smiling faces, living again a day of their youth in the anticipation and surprise attending the bestowal and opening of the mysterious packages containing the presents, they would have felt more than rewarded for their kind thoughtfulness. Lips unused to the task framed grateful acknowledgments of the kind act. The interest in our happiness taken by the wife of the commanding officer was repeatedly shown, and when, as we sat down to our inviting Christmas dinner, we contemplated a crowning proof of her kind good-will, repressed enthusiasm could no longer be restrained, and three rousing cheers for Mrs. Greely were given with an effect which proved beyond cavil the vigor of our lungs, and rendered unnecessary the weekly examination of the doctor.