The depressing influence of such low temperatures affected both man and beast. The poor dogs suffered keenly, and many of them died of affections of the brain, which began with the same symptoms of fits, lunacy, and lockjaw. The loss of fifty-seven of these brave animals seriously affected Dr. Kane’s plans. The crew were greatly depleted by scurvy and almost unfit for the arduous work planned for the early spring.
“An Arctic night and an Arctic day,” remarks Dr. Kane, “age a man more rapidly and harshly than a year anywhere else in the world.”
Early in March a sledging party was organized to ascertain whether it were practicable to force a way over the crowded bergs and mountainous ice to the north. An advance corps was sent out to place a depot of provisions at a suitable distance from the brig.
WINTER QUARTERS IN RENSSELÄER HARBOUR
March 20, Dr. Kane writes as follows:—
“I saw the depot party off yesterday. They gave the usual three cheers, with three for myself. I gave them the whole of my brother’s great wedding-cake and my last two bottles of Port, and they pulled the sledge they were harnessed to famously. But I was not satisfied. I could see it was hard work; and, besides, they were without the boat, or enough extra pemmican to make their deposit of importance. I followed them, therefore, and found that they encamped at 8 P.M. only five miles from the brig.
“When I overtook them, I said nothing to discourage them, and gave no new orders for the morning; but after laughing at good Ohlsen’s rueful face, and listening to all Petersen’s assurances that the cold and nothing but the cold retarded his Greenland sledge, and that no sledge of any other construction could have been moved at all through -40° snow, I quietly bade them good-night, leaving all hands under their buffaloes.
“Once returned to the brig, all my tired remainder men were summoned; a large sledge with board runners which I had built somewhat after the neat Admiralty model sent me by Sir Francis Beaufort, was taken down, scraped, polished, lashed, and fitted with track ropes and rue-raddies; the lines arranged to draw as near as possible in a line with the centre of gravity.
“We made an entire cover of canvas, with snugly adjusted fastenings; and by one in the morning we had our discarded excess of pemmican and the boat once more in stowage. Off we went for the camp of the sleepers. It was very cold, but a thoroughly Arctic night; the snow just tinged with the crimson stratus above the sun, which, equinoctial as it was, glared beneath the northern horizon like a smelting-furnace. We found the tent of the party by the bearings of the stranded bergs. Quietly and stealthily we hauled away their Eskimo sledge, and placed her cargo upon the Faith.
“Five men were then rue-raddied to the track-lines, and with the whispered word, ‘Now, boys, when Mr. Brooks gives his third snore, off with you!’ off they went, and the Faith after them, as free and nimble as a volunteer. The trial was a triumph. We awakened the sleepers with three cheers; and, giving them a second good-by, returned to the brig, carrying the dishonored vehicle along with us. And now, bating mishaps past anticipation, I shall have a depot for my long trip.