The Open Polar Sea / A narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States"

by I. I. Hayes

MYOUK AND FAMILY.

A few hours afterward there arrived a family of quite another description,—Myouk and his wife of the ragged coat. They had walked all the way up from Iteplik, the woman carrying her baby on her back all of these hundred and fifty miles. Myouk was evidently at a loss to find an excuse for paying me this visit; but he put a bold front on, and, like Kalutunah, discovered a reason. "I come to show the Nalegaksoak my wife and Daktagee," pointing to the dowdy, dirty creature that owned him for a husband, and the forlorn being that owned him for a father. But when he perceived that I was not likely to pay much for the sight, he timidly remarked, with another significant point, "She made me come," and then started off, doubtless to see what he could steal.

My arrangements were soon concluded with Kalutunah. He was to live over in the hut at Etah, to do such hunting as he could without the aid of his dogs, all of which he loaned to me; but, in any event, my stores were to be his reliance, and I bound myself to supply him with all that he required for the support of himself and his family.

On the following day the hut at Etah was cleared out and put in order, and this interesting family took up their abode there, while Myouk, as eager to place himself under the protection of a man high in favor as if his skin had been white and he knew the meaning of "public office" and lived nearer the equator, followed the great man to his new abode, and crawled into a corner of his den as coolly as if he was a deserving fellow, and not the most arrant little knave and beggar that ever sponged on worth and industry.

PETER'S DEAD BODY.

Kalutunah brought a solution of the Peter mystery. As soon as the daylight began to come back, one of the Iteplik hunters, named Nesark, determined to travel up to Peteravik, and there try his fortunes in the seal hunt. Arriving at the hut (these Esquimau huts are common property) at that place, he was surprised to discover, lying on the floor, a much emaciated corpse. It was that of an Esquimau dressed in white man's clothing, and the description left no doubt that it was the body of Peter. Nesark gave it Esquimau burial. And thus, after the lapse of three months, this strange story was brought to a close; but I was still as far as ever from an explanation of the hapless boy's strange conduct.

I had now become the possessor of seventeen dogs, and awaited only one principal event to set out on a preliminary journey northward. The sea had not yet closed about Sunrise Point, and I could not get out of the bay on that side. To travel over the land was, owing to its great roughness, impracticable for a sledge, even if without cargo; and to round the Point at that season of the year, through the broken ice and rough sea, in an open boat, was, for obvious reasons, not to be thought of.

My plan had always been to set out with my principal party, when the temperature had begun to moderate toward the summer, which was likely to be about the first of April; but I had looked forward to doing some serviceable work with my dogs prior to that time. March is the coldest month of the Arctic year; but while I had no hesitation in setting out with dog-sledges at that period, the recollection of Dr. Kane's disasters were too fresh in my mind to justify me in sending out a foot party in the March temperatures.

THE SITUATION.

While waiting for the frost to build a bridge for me around Sunrise Point, I was feeding up and strengthening my dogs. They soon proved to be very inferior to the animals which I had lost, and it was necessary to give them as much rest and good rations as possible. I went repeatedly to Chester Valley in pursuit of reindeer. Along the borders of the lake these beasts had flocked in great numbers during the winter, and whole acres of snow had been tossed up with their hoofs, while searching for the dead vegetation of the previous summer. The rabbits and the ptarmigan had followed them, to gather the buds of the willow-stems which were occasionally tossed up, and which form their subsistence. During one of my journeys I secured a fine specimen skin of a doe, but in order to do this I was obliged to take it off with my own hands before it should freeze. The temperature at the time was 33° below zero, and I do not ever remember to have had my regard for Natural History so severely tested.