"H. J. H."
I was much gratified with this discovery, for it brought to my mind the recollection of the protecting care of our government, and a gallant effort to rescue from the jaws of the Arctic ice a very forlorn party of men. I was only sorry that the author of this hastily written evidence of his spirited search had not reached Cape Hatherton some time earlier, for then we should have been saved many a hard and weary pull. The locality will hereafter be known as Cairn Point.
Climbing to an elevation, I had a good view of the sea over a radius of several miles. The prospect was not encouraging. In every direction, except immediately down the coast toward Cape Hatherton, the ice was very rough, being jammed against the shore and piled up over the sea in great ridges, which looked rather unpromising for sledges.
The view decided my course of action. Cairn Point would be my starting-place if I crossed the Sound, and a most convenient position for a depot of supplies in the event of being obliged to hold on up the Greenland coast. Accordingly, I took from the sledges all of the provisions except what was necessary for a six days' consumption, and discovering a suitable cleft in a rock, deposited it therein, covering it over with heavy stones, to protect it from the bears, intending to proceed up the coast for a general inspection of the condition of the ice on the Sound.
These various operations consumed the day; so we fed the dogs and dug into another snow-bank, and got through another night after the fashion of Arctic travelers, which is not much of a fashion to boast of. We slept and did not freeze, and more than this we did not expect.
EXPLORING A TRACK.
The next day's journey was made with light sledges, but it was much more tedious than the two days preceding; for the track was rough, and during the greater part of the time it was as much as the dogs could do to get through the hummocked ice with nothing on the sledge but our little food and sleeping gear. As for riding, that was entirely out of the question. After nine hours of this sort of work, during which we made, lightened as we were, not over twenty miles, we were well satisfied to draw up to the first convenient snow-bank for another nightly burrow.
A NEW STYLE OF SNOW-HUT.
Being naturally inclined to innovation, I had busied my mind all through the day, as I tumbled among the ice and the drifts, in devising some better plan of hut than the cavern arrangement of the nomadic Kalutunah. The snow-bank which I selected had a square side about five feet high. Starting on the top of this, we dug a pit about six feet long, four and a half wide, and four deep, leaving between the pit and the square side of the bank a wall about two feet thick. Over the top of this pit we placed one of the sledges, over the sledge the canvas apron used, while traveling, to inclose the cargo, and over that again we shoveled loose snow to the depth of some three feet. Then we dug a hole into this inclosure through the thin wall, pushed in our buffalo-skin bedding, and all articles penetrable by a dog's tooth and not inclosed in tin cases, (for the dogs will eat any thing, their own harness included,) then a few blocks of hard snow, and finally we crawled in ourselves. The blocks of snow were jammed into the entrance, and we were housed for the night.
Being bound on a short journey, I thought that I could afford a little extra weight, and carried alcohol for fuel, as this is the only fuel that can be used in the close atmosphere of a snow-hut. A ghastly blue blaze was soon flickering in our faces, and in our single tin-kettle some snow was being converted into water, and then the water began to hum, and then after a long while it boiled, (it is no easy matter to boil water in such temperature with a small lamp,) and we were refreshed with a good strong pint pot of tea; then the tea-leaves were tossed into one corner, some more snow was put in the tea-kettle and melted, and out of desiccated beef and desiccated potatoes we make a substantial hash; and when this was disposed of we lit our pipes, rolled up in our buffaloes, and did the best we could for the balance of the night.