THE DOGS DIFFER AS TO THE TREATMENT OF YOUNG BEARS.
4. On the 25th of March our preparations for the extended journey northwards were brought to an end. The sledge with its load weighed about 14 cwt.
| lbs. | |
| The large sledge | 150 |
| The dog sledge | 37 |
| The provisions, including packing | 620 |
| The tent, sleeping bags, tent-poles, alpine stocks | 320 |
| Alcohol and rum | 128 |
| Fur coats and fur gloves | 140 |
| Instruments, rifles, ammunition, shovel, two cooking-machines, drag-ropes, dog-tent, &c. | 170 |
| Total | 1565 |
Each of the four sacks of provisions—calculated for seven days and seven men—contained 51 lbs. of boiled beef, 48 lbs. of bread, 8 lbs. of pemmican, 7 lbs. of bacon, 2 lbs. of extract of meat, 4 lbs. of condensed milk, 2 lbs. of coffee, 4 lbs. of chocolate, 7 lbs. of rice, 3 lbs. of grits, 1 lb. of salt and pepper, 2 lbs. of peas-sausage, 4 lbs. of sugar, besides a reserve bag with 20 lbs. of bread. We took boiled beef for the dogs. We counted also on the produce of our guns as a considerable supplement both for ourselves and them.
5. The sledge party consisted of myself, Orel, Klotz and Haller, and of three sailors, Zaninovich, Sussich, and Lukinovich; and we had with us three dogs, Jubinal, Torossy, and Sumbu, and men and dogs together dragged the large sledge. The duties were thus divided: Zaninovich managed the packing and the giving out of the spirit and rum, Haller served out the provisions, Klotz attended to the dogs and the arms, Sussich was responsible for keeping everything in working order, and at night Lukinovich acted as a wind-protector close to the door of the tent. We started on the morning of the 26th of March with the thermometer 6° F. below zero, and amid snow driving from the north-west. For some distance we were accompanied by Weyprecht and the rest of the crew. We had scarcely gone a thousand paces from the ship, before the snow began to drive to such an extent, that we could scarcely see our comrades close to us and keep together. As it was impossible to go on until the storm laid, we preferred, instead of returning to the Tegetthoff, which would have been the simpler course, to erect the tent out of sight of the ship behind some ice-hummocks, and pass twenty-four hours in it. Our only employment except sleeping was to thaw the snow, which filled our clothes and especially our pockets. On the 27th of March (the thermometer varying between 2° and 22° F. below zero) we continued our journey amid a slight fall of snow, and made an early start, in order that our halt of yesterday should remain unknown to the crew of the ship. When we reached the south-eastern point of Wilczek Island we lost sight of the ship, and the driving snow with a falling thermometer increased to such an extent, that Sussich’s hands were frost-bitten, and we were compelled to halt for an hour to rub them with snow. Starting again, we all ran the risk of having our faces frost-bitten, meeting as we did a strong wind. The heavily-laden sledge, too, compelled us to make such exertions that our faces were bathed in perspiration. On the 28th of March the wind fell to a calm, and as we passed over the Sound between Salm and Wilczek Islands in a north-westerly direction we advanced at the rate of eighty paces a minute. The track, which we followed, consisted partly of bay-ice a year old and partly of old floes, these together forming a continuous surface, here and there broken by barriers of hummocks, miles in length, due to ice-pressures. After we had passed the headlands south-west of Salm Island, we came in sight of the Wüllersdorf mountains, which we had hitherto seen only from a great distance, hoping from their summits to determine the route which we should take northwards.
6. At the distance of some miles right ahead of us lay several rocky islands, with their outlines scarcely discernible owing to the dull thick state of the atmosphere; but as they lay in the direction of our course, we made for them. We now passed some icebergs and saw on their southern sides the first signs of the process of liquefaction—new icicles. By and by a wind from the south-west set in, raising the temperature gradually to 6° F. and bringing with it fogs and then heavy snow-storms. Covered with snow and running before the wind with a large sledge-sail set, we came under the glacier-walls of Salm Island, among icebergs frozen fast together, trudging along through wind and whirling snow. Occasionally the wind was so strong, that the sail alone sufficed to impel the heavy sledge, while a man in front, guided by a whistle from those behind, kept it in its proper course. After a march of sixteen hours, the wind having increased to a storm, which rendered it impossible to keep the track, we determined to halt. Our clothes appeared to consist of nothing but snow, our eyes were iced up, and our strength exhausted. In great haste we erected the tent and took refuge within it; but our misery now properly began. One scraped the thawing snow from the clothes of another, or turned inside-out the pockets of his own trousers, filled with dissolving snow-balls. At last the cooking-machine was lighted, and we began to steam, and heartily wished that our miseries had arisen from cold instead of moisture. The temperature in the tent rose at the distance of three feet from the flame to 80°F., and twenty minutes after the production of this artificial heat it fell seven degrees below zero. Early in the morning of the 29th of March (Palm Sunday) the wind abated and the temperature rose to 24·5°F., so that it began to rain in the tent as we were preparing our breakfast. During the march of that day we ascended the rocky heights of Koldewey Island, at the foot of which we had put up the tent for the purpose of surveying. These rocks consisted of Dolerite, over-spread with a close network of Lichens (Cetraria nivalis) and in the clefts we found Silene acaulis.
7. From the summit of this island we suddenly beheld, in the field of view of the telescope of the theodolite, a bear, which had seized Torossy and severely wounded him. But almost immediately again the bear disappeared in the snow, and when we came to the place of his disappearance, we discovered the winter retreat of a family of bears. It was a cavity hollowed out in a mass of snow lying under a rocky wall. The bear had shown herself only once, but resisted all our efforts to seduce her to leave the shelter she had chosen, nor had we any special desire to creep on all fours into the narrow dark habitation. Sumbu only was bold enough to follow her, but he too saw things which led him to return very quickly. From the snow which had been thrown up at the entrance of this hole, we inferred that this had been the work of the bear in her efforts to close the approach to her abode. It was the first time that we came upon a family of bears in their winter quarters, or had the chance of adding anything to our scanty knowledge as to the winter sleep of those animals. Middendorff does not admit that they sleep during the winter; he considers the bear far too lean to be able to do so. According to Dr. Richardson it is only pregnant females who hibernate in a snow-hole, while the males roam over the Arctic seas in search of places free from ice.
THE WINTER HOLE OF A BEAR.