MViEVMOFTHEAMER-lCAN INDIAN! i CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 103 988 246 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924103988246 GREENLAND BY THE POLAB SEA SOUTH The story of Sliao^;etpii!s Last ^xpeditioB 1914-1917. ■ By Sife Ek'nest SHAtsKiE'roN, C.V.O. lUusteated by many Photographs and Maps. Eqyal Svo. . , ^, 25s.net. Also a Cheaper Edition, Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. net. THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC By SiK Ekkest Shackleton, O.V.O. 'New and Bevised Edition, with Illus- trations in colour and black and white. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d. net. THE HOME OF THE BLIZZARD Being the stoiry of the Australian Ant- arctic Expedition, 1911-1914. By Sir Douglas Mawson, D.Sc, B.E. With over 300 Photographs, Maps, etc. In two vols. Crown 4to. 36s. net. ANTARCTIC PENGUINS By Dr. G. Mtjreay Deriok, E.N., Zoolo- gist to the Scott Expedition. Beautifully Illustrated from Photographs. 6s. net. LONDON : WILLIAM HEINEMANN GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA THE STORY OF THE THULE EXPEDITION FROM MELVILLE BAY TO CAPE MORRIS JESUP BY KNUD RASMUSSEN ,.., ,, .,,..„f.^— ..—■wiiiMtiinnrrr , . _— -»— TRANSLATED FKOM THE DANISH BY ASTA AND ROWLAND KENNEY WITH PREFACE BY ADMIRAL SIR LEWIS BEAUMONT, G.C.R WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK AND WHITE, EIGHT COLOUR PLATES, AND MAPS NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS Printed in Great Britain PREFACE GREENLAND by the Polar Sea " is the story, now intro- ■ duced to English readers, of Mr. Knud Rasmussen's last expedition to the Polar shores of North Greenland. He counts it as his Fourth Thule Expedition, which shows how active and persevering has been his exploration of North Green- land since'lOlO, when he first formed his base of operations, and a trading station, at North Star Bay, and gave it the name of Thule. Two of these remarkable expeditions were sledge journeys across the inland-ice to the north-eastern and northern coasts of Greenland which yielded valuable results, clearing up some geographical doubts, and practically linking up the eastern and western discoveries of former explorers. Knud Rasmussen may confidently be said to be a very special and exceptionally favoured explorer of these regions, for not only was he born in Greenland and lived there as a boy, but his life among the Green- landers and Eskimos, his perfect knowledge of their language, his admiration of their character, courage, and loyalty, and his intense desire to be the historian of their origin, traditions, and future development have, in a large measure, inspired him with the explorer's enthusiasm and have made him feel it to be pos- sible, with slender means and limited resources, to complete the work begun by the far more costly expeditions which have gone before. These advantages, however, would have availed nothing without Knud Rasmussen's own personal qualities as an explorer — every page of the narrative shows his high capacity and thoughtfulness as a commander, his resourcefulness and daring as a leader, and the splendid courage and power of endurance which carried him through a time of extreme trial and responsi- bility. It was his firm support and example which saved the party from death on the return journey. V PREFACE To those readers who are not familiar with the physical con- ditions of the immense mass of land known as Greenland it may be of use to explain that the inhabitants of the larger south half are spoken of as Greenlanders and those to the north of Melville Bay as Polar Eskimos or Arctic Highlanders. The inland- ice forms a barrier between the two, so that communication between them can only be made by ship. Never before has the Arctic Highlander been made known to us in such intimate detail and with such true and affectionate understanding of his life and character as Rasmussen here gives us ; he speaks as one of them, who has lived their life and shared their experiences, and to whom, as a people, he has become deeply attached. No wonder then that never before has an explorer been rewarded with such unstinted and devoted service as he receives from them. It is well to make this point clear, which Rasmussen in his narrative so modestly accepts as natural and does not emphasize. Early expeditions in those regions, used one or two Eskimos as hunters and dog-drivers, and gained their experience of Arctic life at great cost and with but small results. Peary, in his twenty-four years of patient and deter- mined effort to discover the hidden secrets of the Polar Basin, advanced step by step to the knowledge of the Eskimo's char- acter and the value of his hunting craft and wonderful travelling instinct, but Rasmussen alone has led an important and success- ful expedition equipped and conducted entirely in Eskimo fashion and maintained, in its long and adventurous journey, by Eskimo hunting. It is only such a combination of European leadership and skill, adapted to native craft and conditions, that could have made such an extended exploration possible to him. The interest of the narrative is great, and sustained at a high level by the literary charm of the descriptions and the unaffected light and shade which runs through the whole story. It is the mark of a leader to keep his party in good spirits ; it is the duty of the historian to show upon whom fell the responsibility and the decisions in emergencies. It was right to call it a great adventure, but Rasmussen, in the spirit of the true explorer, says : " The risk one runs on such expeditions (when their lives vi PREFACE depended upon the game found by hunting) was quite clear to me ; but the mind never occupies itself with the dangers when one is setting out. Every Polar traveller is aware of his risks when he leaves his home to set foot on unknown shores ; and thus it was also with us. All my comrades greeted my plans with enthusiasm, and every man was inspired with one thought only : the certainty of success." It was in this spirit that they set out. Rasmussen's tribute to the work done by his predecessors in Arctic exploration is most generous and discriminating; he shows that he understood their difficulties, though they were not his in the same way, and what they accomplished he is eager to recognize and admire. They, or such of them as remain, in their turn are glad and ready to say that what he and his com- panions have added to the sum of Polar knowledge by their detailed mapping of the coast-lands — ^the fauna, flora, and geological formation of the north-western section of Greenland and its connection with the discoveries of the eastern coasts — has set the crown on the labours of those who have toiled before him in the same field, and that his fine achievement has for ever put him in the front rank of Polar explorers. LEWIS BEAUMONT. vu CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE BY ADMIRAL SIR LEWIS BEAUMONT, G.C.B. v INTRODUCTION xvii CHAPTER I FROM THE LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS 1 CHAPTER II THE GREAT SLEDGE JOURNEY TO THE NORTH COAST OF GREENLAND 33 CHAPTER ni WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND 61 CHAPTER IV CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT 80 CHAPTER V SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD TO NORDBNSKJOLD FJORD 94 CHAPTER VI THE CAMP BY THE OWL'S NEST 124 CHAPTER VII CAPE SALOR TO LOCKWOOD'S BEACON 137 CHAPTER VIII DE LONG FJORD TO CAPE SALOR 152 CHAPTER IX ACROSS MELTING ICE TO SUMMER VALLEY 166 CHAPTER X SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD TO ST. GEORGE FJORD 182 CHAPTER XI THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY ACROSS THE INLAND- ICE 210 ix CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER XII SEEKING HELP 241 CHAPTER XIII A RACE WITH DEATH 259 CHAPTER XIV A RUNIC MEMORIAL 271 CHAPTER XV HOME TO THULE 284 APPENDICES FLORA AND FAUNA ON THE NORTH COAST OF GREENLAND 292 BASED ON DE. WULFF'S NOTES BY C. H. OSTENFELD GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 301 BY LAUGE KOCH THE ROUTES OF ESKIMO WANDERINGS INTO GREENLAND 312 INDEX 321 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS To face page Teangeaven : the Haebotjr foe the whole Meechant Fleet of Geeenland xviii The Colony : Egedesminde (North Geeenland) xviii Leaving the Church at Jacobshavn xix With the Sledges as Fereies we of Qaersorssuaq cross over to Upernivik Island xx Upernivik Island xx The Expedition Ship " Danmark " at Thule Harbour xxi John Ross' first Meeting with Polae Eskimos xxiv The Eoute 1 Eskimos at Ikerasak, Umanaq Fjord 4 Tasiussaq : the most Noetheen Colony in Greenland 4 The Devil's Thumb 5 The Whalers' Fleet, 1818 8 The Sailing Ships breaking through the Ice at the time of John Eoss 8 Returning feom Waleus Hunting, Thule 9 Tobias Gabeielsen 12 Simon, the Old Bear-Hunter 12 An Old Wandeeee feom Melville Bay 12 Eskimo Boy feom Upbenivik 13 Thule 13 Eskimos Deinking Coffee in Old Style 16 Qingminegarfik in Inglefield Gulf 16 Sabine Island : Melville Bay 17 Aenanguaq 18 xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS I'o face page Eskimo eetuening to Haeboue 18 Sketches by Qujakitstjnguaq 19 Haepooning a Waleus from a Kayak 20 Eskimos going out on the New Ice to hunt Wale us 20 Haepooning Waleus 20 Waleus being pulled up by the aid of Peimitive Tackle 20 Two young Eskimo Mothees with theie Childeen 21 Geazing Keindeee 22 Musk Cows with Calf 22 Swimming Keindeee puesued by Kayaks 22 Seal being Harpooned as it comes up to its Beeathing-Hole 23 Killed Musk-Oxen being Skinned 23 PoLAE Eskimos deessed in Fox Fur Coats 23 Polar Eskimos' House 24 asaepaka 24 Kagssaluk 24 Beaedbd Seal 25 Killed Naewhal 25 Waleus beeaking the Sueface of the Sea 28 The Theee Beothees 29 The Beautiful Isigaitsoq 30 Eskimo Boy 30 Eskimo Giel 30 Inuteq 31 Ajorssalik 31 Hall's Grave 31 Little Incidents from Evbeyday Life 32 Thule Station 33 A Jolly Evening at Thule befoee breaking up foe the Journey 33 From Thule to Humboldt Glaciee 34 The " Danmark " in Wintee Haeboue 35 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS To face page One of the Sledges neae Ultjgssat 35 The Pack-Sledges set out from Neqe 40 Young Beae-Huntee 41 Two Eskimo Boys op Seventeen Years 41 The Meat-Matador Majaq 50 Eskimo Smile 50 Winter-House before the Snow Falls 51 My Own Dogs ready foe Starting 51 Tine Deiving along the Beautiful Feontagb of the Mountains of Washington Land 56 Nasaitsoedluaesuk : the Youngest Membee of oue Expedition 57 The last Tmmigeant from Baffin Land : Meequsak 57 Forward at an even Trot 60 The little Bear, surrounded by all the Dogs 60 From Humboldt Glacier to Newman Bay 61 Cape Constitution 86 Page of Peary's Eepobt 87 Cape Sumner : Dragon Point 92 Maekham Plants the Union Jack paethest North 94 Lieut. L. A. Beaumont 94 Sherard Osborne Fjord 95 Beaumont's Keport, 1876 96 Beaumont's Keport, 1876 97 Beaumont's Map from 1876 98 The Land round Cape May 99 The first Three Musk-Oxen 104 Inukitsoq's Ten Musk-Oxen 104 A Rest off Stephenson Island in the Mouth of Victoria Fjoed 105 The White Wolves Howl theie peculiae melancholy and desolate Lamentation 112 The Low Glaciee with Lines of Movement 113 Digging Ourselves Out after a Snowstorm 113 xiii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Tofam fage Ajako at Beaumont's Beacon 116 De. Thoeild Wulff, taken at the time we left Etah 117 A General Council H'^ Cape Wohlgemuth 128 View towards the Whielpool in I. P. Koch Fjoed 129 Lockwood's Eepoet at Cape Mohn 14S Lauge Koch 1^^ The Snow begins to get Wet 149 De Long Fjord 152 Anothee Kepoet from Lockwood deposited at Cap Bennett 158 Towards Cape Kamsay 159 The Sledge being Sucked Down by the Water under the Snow 166 On the Look-out foe Musk-Ox 166 Ceossing Sheeaed Osboene Fjoed 167 MuSK-Ox EEADY TO DiE 172 Beeaking up foe Musk-Ox Hunting in Maomillan Valley 173 "The big Bull made a sudden Soetie, quick as Lightning" 176 Theough Lakes of Melted Ice 177 "The Bull stood theeb, its phantastio Summee Coat fluttering in THE Breeze" 188 De. Wulff ready to go through the Water 189 We Feeey across the Coastal Lane by Deagon Point 189 "Patiently, almost shyly, it allowed us to Photogeaph it at a Distance op Two Metees" 204 "They appeoached us slowly and fearlessly" 205 Ascending the Inland-Ice, with a View op St. George Fjoed 210 We aee Stopped by Land with Steep Slopes 210 The Noeth Coast of Geeenland 211 The same Disteict Mapped by the Thule Expedition 211 Theough the big Ice Lakes neae Cape May 216 The Eotten Ice in St. Geoege Fjoed wheee Ajako Shot his Seal 217 The big Eiver by the Tent-Camp in St. George Fjord 226 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS To face page Against the Snowstoem 227 At the Brink of the Abyss, the Devil's Cleft 236 The Devil's Cleft 237 Map showing where Wulff Died 254 Captain George Comer 255 The Crockerland Expedition's Hut 255 Our Hostess : Ane Sofie from Kangeedlugssuag 288 Mission House at Kangerdlugssuag 288 Our Dogs 289 White-Blossomed Saxifrage in front of a Stone Block 294 Types of Grasses 294 Various Herbaceous Plants from the North Coast of Greenland 295 A MANY years old SPECIMEN OF THE ARCTIC WiLLOW 296 Section of the Thickest Stem of Willow which the Expedition Found 296 An exceptionally vigorous Shoot of Arctic Willow 296 A small Eeed 297 Yellow-Blossomed Saxifrage 297 Herbaceous Plants with Eosulate Eadicle Leaves 298 White Puff-Balls among Grass and Willow Leaves 298 Types of Grasses growing in Moist Places 299 Fossilized Ortoceratite from Washington Land 302 Trilobite and Brachiopod from Warming Land 302 Coral from Washington Land 302 Trilobite and Brachiopod from Warming Land 303 Coral from Washington Land 303 Geologic Map of North- West Greenland 308 Tall-Shell of a Trilobite from Washington Land 309 Small Chart of Air 309 Bird's-Eye View of the great Fjords on the North Coast of Greenland 312 Map showing Immigration to Greenland 313 XV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Toiace Eskimo Hunting Implements ^^ Eskimo Implements ^^^ Gbeenlanders from the middle of the Seventeenth Century 316 Uphill ^^'^ Eskimo Stone Huts in Spring 317 COLOUR PLATES BEAE hunt Frontispieoe ESKIMO GKAVES, SAUNDEES ISLAND 14 FLENSING THE NAEWHAL 26 SNOW HUTS NEAE AN ICE MOUNTAIN 52 A SNOWY OWL DEFENDING HIS WIFE'S EGGS AGAINST THE WOLF 132 LANDSCAPE IN GEEENLAND 200 INGLEFIELD LAND 286 THE COLONY : HOLSTENBOEG (SOUTH GEEENLAND) 306 MAP 326 XVI INTRODUCTION IN the year 1910, at North Star Bay, in North Greenland, I founded an Arctic Station wherefrom I could explore the regions which as yet had not been closely examined. The first result from this station was the first Thule Expedition. The various expeditions which subsequently went out with this station as their base I have therefore named after the station, Thule. N On the first Thule Expedition in 1912, when the route was laid across the inland-ice of Greenland from Clements Markham Glacier in the mouth of Inglefield Gulf on the west coast to Denmark Fjord on the east coast, we forced our way through Independence Fjord into the land connecting Greenland and Peary Land, and by charting we established that the channel which Robert E. Peary thought he had discovered between Independence Fjord on the north-east side and Nordenskjold Inlet on the north-west side was non-existent. Because of the long journey, more than 1,000 kilometres across the inland-ice, and the conditions which made progress difficult in the neighbourhood of Denmark Fjord, we did not succeed in pushing quite through from the recently discovered Adam Biering Land to the vicinity of Nordenskjold Inlet and Sherard Osborne Fjord. At the time when the decision to commence the return journey was made we had spent more than four months of incessant and very strenuous journeying through unknown regions, and out of consideration both for ourselves and our dogs we found it necessary to attempt the homeward journey across the inland-ice to my station Thule by North Star Bay, and postpone the exploration of the unknown districts of Greenland until the time when the work could be recommenced with renewed strength. b xvii INTRODUCTION In the winter of 1914 the first attempt to realize our plans was made, with Peter Freuchen, my cartographer of the first Thule Expedition, as chief ; but a fall through a glacier crevasse during the ascent on to the inland-ice forced him to turn back, and later on, owing to his theodolite having been destroyed by the fall, it had been impossible for him to get away. Meanwhile this expedition stood like an unredeemed pledge from my Arctic Station, and as, for various practical reasons, it must be finished with before I commenced my ethnographical -voyage to the American Eskimos (the fifth Thule Expedition — t the Danish Expedition to the Arctic North America), which would last several years, I decided to make an attempt to realize it in the year 1916. It will be the main object of this expedition to survey and chart the last unknown reach of Greenland's north coast on the stretch between St. George Fjord and de Long Fjord. We shall, of course, with special keenness penetrate into the con- necting land between Nordenskjold Inlet and Independence Fjord. The survey of the districts to which we are going will, in addition to the geographical result, present very interesting ethnographical problems, as it will be of importance to the theory of the Eskimos' wanderings to establish whether or not in the above-mentioned big fjords Eskimo winter-houses are to be found. As is known, tent-rings have been found in Peary Land, but never winter-houses. The northern border of the winter-houses is, on the east coast of North Greenland, Sophus Miiller Point and Eskimo Point, respectively in Amdrup and Holm Land, whilst the northern border on the west coast is the vicinity of Humboldt's Glacier and Lake Hazen in Grant Land. Thus, for a complete knowledge of the Eskimos' wan- derings, an examination of the great fjords on Greenland's north coast is wanting. Of the geological tasks which the expedition may be faced with, I will merely mention the following : Whilst the whole of Western and Eastern Greenland during the last century has been geologically surveyed by various expeditions, the stretch xviii TRANGRAVEN : THE HARBOUR FOR THE WHOLE MERCHANT FLEET OF GREENLAND S. A. MoelLer THE COLONY : EGBDESMINDB (NORTH GREENLAND) INTRODUCTION from Sherard Osborne Fjord to Peary Land, with the latter's unknown fjords, still stands as the missing link between the east and the west coast ; until these regions have been examined no complete picture of Greenland can be formed. And just as the coasts and fjords up here at the northern extremity are still waiting to be charted, so the keystone of the journeys of geological exploration can only be laid through an examination of these regions. In addition to the work which I have now outlined, careful meteorological diaries will be kept during the whole of the expedition, and botanical and zoological collections will be made. V^ This expedition, as the first Thule Expedition, will through- out be. equipped in Eskimo fashion, so that we can live by hunt- ing whilst at the same time we attend to our scientific interests. The expense is met by my station Thule, which is controlled by a committee consisting of — Ingenior M. lb. Nyeboe, Chairman. Grosserer Chr. Erichsen. Lektor Chr. Rasmussen. The scientific work which is being done, and which also in the future will be done, from this station has made it desirable that we should be in more direct communication with scientists, wherefore a scientific committee has been formed, consisting of— Professor Dr. phil. H. Jungersen. Kaptajn I. P. Koch. Professor O. B. Boggild. Professor H. P. Steensby. Museumsinspektor, Dr. phil. C. H. Ostenfeld. Originally I had intended to undertake this expedition with only one companion, the Danish geologist Lauge Koch, M.A. y/^We left Copenhagen on the 1st of April, 1916, and reached Thule by the middle of June, but continual storms and uncom- monly difficult travelling conditions forced us to postpone the journey until the following spring. Meanwhile, in the course xix INTRODUCTION of the summer the old expedition ship the Danmark called at my station on its way to Etah to fetch the American Crocker- land Expedition, which for several years had wintered there. On board this ship was a Swedish scientist, Dr. Thorild Wulff, whose original field of labour comprised only the districts round Smith Sound and Melville Bay ; but when Dr. Wulff heard that we had postponed our expedition until the following year, he announced himself with great enthusiasm as a fellow-member for the sledge journey in the spring. His name as a botanist, and his expert knowledge of the Arctic flora, made it a matter of course that he should be accepted as a member of the proposed expedition to regions which had never been visited by experts. The expedition then wintered at my station Thule, being constantly in training by sledge journeys, which reached to Etah in the north and right down to Upemivik in the south. It vdll merely lead to a repetition of the experience of other expeditions if I describe our excursions during the period whilst we were waiting for the light — ^that is, from October to February. And as it cannot be presumed that all who may read this book know anything about the Polar Eskimos, I vdll instead attempt to give a sketch of the people whose ways of finding a subsistence and whose travelling technique was the base on which we built our great journey. With occasional breaks I have lived with this people — ^the Arctic Highlanders — since 1903, and I have learned to love them as highly as I admire their remarkable ability to live the Ufe "of these harsh regions. But first it will be appropriate to give an account of my expedition and its plan. The scientific equipment of the expedition was very simple as is necessary for a long sledge journey. It consisted of one theodolite, three aneroid barometers, one cooking barometer, one maximal and two minimal thermometers, various spirit and mercury thermometers, one anemometer, and one hygrometer. Finally, Dr. Wulff brought everything necessary for pressing and preserving plants. During the preparations for this journey, the seriousness XX WITH THE SLEDGES AS FERRIES WE OF QAERSOESSUAQ CROSS OVER TO UPBRKIVIK ISLAND UPBRNIVIK ISLAND o a a >^ D H El Et o INTRODUCTION of which none of us under-estimated, I made out on the 14th of February a written agreement which was signed by all. Only the following extract will be of interest, the remainder relating to routes and dispositions which will be self-evident later on : "Although it is quite clear to me that it is very difficult previous to a start to specify an Expedition in sections, I have found it necessary to do this so that you, my comrades, may have some fixed point for the planning of the various parts of the work to be carried out. " The Expedition will consist of — Dr. Thorild Wulff, Botanist and Biologist. Lauge Koch, Geologist and Cartographer. Hendrik Olsen, previously a member of the Danmark Expedition. Ajako. Nasaitsordluarsuk, called Bosun. Inukitsoq, called Harrigan. And myself, as Chief and Ethnographer to the Expedi- tion. " In a previously presented plan all the tasks have already been worked out. " As regards dispositions of journeys and routes I am abso- lute Chief. But I will, of course, within the domain of your respective professions, grant you all the freedom which circum- stances may permit, and you will also, as often as your work may demand, be exempted from hunting. "I vpish beforehand to emphasize that during the Expedi- tion there must be no difference in standing between the Eskimos and ourselves, the Eskimos being members of the Expedition with equal rights and duties to the scientists, and no man but the leader must have command over them." Several large expeditions richly equipped had already been to the regions we were to visit ; but none of them had succeeded in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the country — this despite the fact that due to its position it must contain the key to many problems decisive for the exploration and history of Greenland. xxi INTRODUCTION The explanation is this : The distances between the fields of labour are immense ; the conditions of the ground are bad ; and in the fjords there is bottomless snow. For these reasons those who have visited this district with what is called good equip- ment could not get ahead. Their heavy baggage did not permit them to get about, and they always preferred to follow the route along the Polar-ice proper, some distance from land, where the going was firm. In other words, that which under all other circumstances was to be looked upon as a decided advantage, rich and good equipment, is here a weight which does not permit the explorer to move as quickly as the travelling season demands. Those who were to attempt the completion of the charting of Greenland must therefore break entirely with the general practice of expeditions, and completely rely upon the hunt. Only this will make light sledges capable of forcing their way through the snow into the deep fjords. Thus for us there was no alternative. All the tasks we had set ourselves were weighty and important, and as long as they remained undone the exploration of Greenland could not be considered accomplished. This work fell within the International North Pole route, which hitherto only the big nations had dared to attempt. The outlines of our work, however, were drawn by our predecessors, and we therefore knew beforehand that we could not expect any great geographical surprises ; it was only the crumbs from the table of the rich expeditions we were to gather, and the role we were to play would be comparable to that of the little Polar fox, which everywhere on the Arctic coast follows the footsteps of the big ice-bear, hoping that something good may be left for it. But our task was not an ungrateful one, for we came to lift the stones which the others had let lie. From our base at Thule the distance we had to cover to Sherard Osborne Fjord was 1,000 kilometres, whilst our pre- decessors, with their ships in winter harbour in Lady Franklin Bay and Cape Sheridan, had merely had to go 300 kilometres, xxii INTRODUCTION For the above-mentioned distance we would have sufficient pro- visions, but after that our hunt for food must begin. The experiences I had gained in 1912 during the first Thule l^ Expedition gave me the right to assume that such a plan could be justified. The game I particularly reckoned on was musk-ox, to be found in the extensive tracts of land which the American maps show round the fjords and their heads. Fur- ther, there were seals. The Polar Eskimos who, during Peary's expeditions, had traversed the mouths of the fjords, had told me that the ice here was of such a quality that one could with certainty reckon on seals in June and July; breathing-holes were not infrequently observed. This information, added to my own experiences from Independence Fjord, where in a similar geographical position we found many seals, finally decided me. The risk one runs on such hunting expeditions was quite clear to me ; but the mind never occupies itself with the dangers when one is setting out. Every Polar traveller is aware of his risks when he leaves his home to set foot on unknown shores ; and thus it was also with us. All my comrades greeted my plans with enthusiasm, and every man was inspired with one thought only : the certainty of success. KNUD RASMUSSEN. xxm THE ROUTE CHAPTER I FROM THE LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS THE FIRST DISCOVERY NORTH of everyone on our earth live the Polar Eskimos, whose simple and ingenious ways of hunting have made of their harsh and barren country one of those oases in the world where live genuinely happy people. The first historical information we possess about their country dates from the year 1616, when Baffin discovered it. He, however, did not see any people, and it was only in 1818 that John Ross came into touch with Eskimo people of whom one had never heard before. A memory still remains amongst the tribe of a woman named Maage (Gull), who prophesied that a big boat with tall poles would come into view from the ocean. And sure enough, one summer's day, just as the winter-ice broke and steep Cape York lay separated from the sea merely by a narrow strip of ice, the ship arrived and lay to by the edge of the ice. It was a marvel of ingenuity — a whole island of wood which moved along the sea on wings, and in its depths had many houses and rooms full of noisy people. Little boats hung along the rail, and these, filled with men, were lowered on the water, and as they surrounded the ship it looked as if the monster gave birth to living young. This visit at first caused great anxiety and fear among the Eskimos, but later much joy. They did not believe that the white men were real human beings, but looked upon them as spirits of the air who had come down to the Inuits. The ship remained only for a short time, then turned towards the sea A 1 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA with the sun shining on its white wings and disappeared into the horizon. Ross's visit to the simple and unprepared Eskimos certainly caused a stir, and I will therefore supplement the above phan- tastic narrative with something of that which is related in the Record of the Expedition. It is told that the ship was lying alongside the edge of the ice when suddenly, to the surprise of everybody on board, on the ice were discovered beings in human likeness, dressed in pelts and with long, black hair flowing from their heads. With strange gestures they ran by the side of their dog-sledges. They were quite close to the ship when the big white sails were manoeuvred ; and the result of this was a sudden about-turn and a scampering towards land in apparent fright. A couple of days elapsed, during which every possible effort was made from the ship for getting into communication with the Eskimos, but without success. In his despair Ross at last had a huge standard erected by an ice-mountain between the coast and the ship ; from this he hung a flag, whereon the sun and moon were painted above a hand which held out a heather plant. Furthermore, a bag of gifts hung from the staff. This clever trick was, unfortunately, not well received. If the Eskimos had been frightened before, they were now terror- stricken with this mj'^stic staff and its fluttering flag, which they obviously considered to be some dangerous ruse of war. Out of cvu-iosity they circled round it for awhile, but having scanned for a sufficiently long period the strange signs and the friendly outstretched hand, they disappeared hurriedly towards land. When this attempt miscarried a white flag was hoisted on the mainmast of the ship, and at the same time Sachseus was sent out on the ice with a small white flag in his hand. But the Eskimos did not appear to have any understanding of the peaceful purport of these manoeuvres, and the probability is that these sagacious experiments, which would merely have frightened and confounded the Eskimos still more, would have continued if Sachseus had not shown himself a master of the situation and asked Ross for permission to go to the kinsmen LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS of his tribe, alone and unarmed. By this means communica- tion was at last established. The great meeting between the Polar Eskimos and the South-Greenlander took place by a broad fissure in the ice, so that they stood right opposite each pther, with a natural obstacle between them for safety's sake. Sachaeus explained, not without trouble, that a peaceful people had come to them, and the Eskimos were just on the point of consenting to follow him on board, when Ross, who of course was eager to meet these strange men, suddenly appeared on the ice in his ofl&cer's full dress uniform, as given in the illustration of this scene in the Record of the Expedition. This phantastic apparition of a man nearly frightened the Eskimos away again ; but as the friendship with Sachseus had already begun, and as he explained to the marvelling natives that this peculiar dress was merely an outward sign of the fact that the big man was lord of all white peoples, they let them- selves be calmed down and followed him on board. It is highly praiseworthy of the Eskimos that they, in spite of all the inexplicable things they saw, allowed themselves to be coaxed on board and, in the Chief's cabin with Sachasus as interpreter, to give wise and dignified answers to the many questions that were put to them. Imagine the impression they must have received when, presumably to amuse them, a grunting Scotch pig was let loose on deck — ^these men who were only used to wild animals ! Or when they were treated to a conjurer's performance, and allowed to look at themselves in a concave mirror ! It is interesting to note that Ross sums up his impressions of them by stating that they all speak lovingly of each other and their families, and on the whole seem to live happily, with- out knowledge of disease and war. Already as a child I had in Greenland heard much about the Polar Eskimos, but it was mostly vague tales of savage cannibals, terrible hunters who lived with the North Wind himself, right at the "end of the world," where it was always night and where no summer melted the ice of the seas. 3 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA " I must go to those people," I decided as a twelve-year-old boy, and this decision, which later on I never succeeded in slinking away fronij has, through repeatedly staying among them, led, so to say, to my reception into the tribe as one of their own, as a friend and feUow-hunter. No hunter exists up there with whom I have not hunted, and there is hardly a child whose name I do not know ; but then, the tribe consists of no more than about 250 individuals. ESKIMO ARCTIC EXPLORERS These men, who have no fixed abode but live, as does their prey, ever on the move, are bom Arctic explorers. From childhood they are hardened by an unmerciful cold, and their means of livelihood exposes them almost daily to severe physical strain and sudden dangers which sharpen their presence of mind and make their contempt of death a matter of course, the consequence being that they are unsurpassed as companions on Arctic Expeditions. Kane, Hayes, Hall, Nares, Peary, the Crockerlands Expedition, and, last, but not least, I myself recognized this, and through these expeditions, comprising all those which during the last seventy-five years have explored and charted the northernmost parts of our earth, the Eskimos have in different ways done their share, which must not be undervalued. In this record, however, I will dwell especially on Peary, because his Arctic travels represent a chapter of the history of the Polar Eskimos. The Eskimos owe not a little to Peary, but, on the other hand, without their help Peary's name might have been less famous than it is now ; for they followed him on all his expedi- tions, left home and country and kind and put their whole existence at stake in realizing the phantastic travelling schemes of a foreign man. The. way in which the Eskimos risk their lives, when once they have promised a man their assistance, for the solution of problems, wherein they themselves often see merely manifesta- ESKIMOS AT IKERASAK, UMANAQ FJORD TASlnSSAQ : THE MOST NORTHERN COLONY IN GREENLAND ^ ,i\ li 1 i ! Ml i^ • 1 h t n EH LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS tions of the many queer ideas of the strange white men, shows plainly their absolute contempt of death, and what an abund- ance of courage they possess. They are not of the type which, like dogs, put their tails between their legs and run off when they meet dangers and the eternal hopelessness of pressure-ice. The Eskimos are a roaming people, always longing for a change and a surprise — a people which likes moving about in search of fresh hunting-grounds, fresh possibilities, and " hidden things." They are bom with the explorer's inclinations and thirst for knowledge ; and they possess all those qualities which go to make an explorer in those latitudes. When an Eskimo family moves on to new ground, in a sur- prisingly short time it knows the surroundings for miles around — ^paths, short-cuts, plains, mountains, all the natural features which a hunter must know so that he may track down his prey. They study the inland-ice and find places of easy ascent and sledge routes to other coasts and new chances. Soon the sea has no secrets regarding the movements and favourite haunts of its animals. On the whole, the hunter likes to leave the old ways for the stimulating excitement which accompanies seeking and hunting under strange conditions. And he also knows how to value this quality and this inclination in others. I shall never forget the happy sensation created among the hunters of the tribe when, in the spring of 1907, I drove up to them with Osarqaq and declared that I was on my way to EUesmere Land. I had never seen a musk-ox, and now I had a longing to taste musk-ox meat. You see, according to their Opinion there must always be a sensible reality behind one's actions. Oh, how well they understood me ! They knew that it was "two suns " since I left my country and my family, and that I was still on the road with the same goal constantly in view. They respected that. I felt happy and touched when an old necromancer, Masaitsiaq, greeted me with a call to the effect that it was good that in my own country I had not for- 5 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA gotten the hunting circle of my old comrades ; and then he declared that all the young hunters of the tribe would vie with each other in showing me the country which I had never seen before and the animals which I had never slam betore. And everything happened according to his promise. Iwo of the best men in the tribe immediately declared that they would come. No considerations here, and no prepara- tions ; an Eskimo is always equipped for a long voyage. On the following morning we set out on the 1,250 miles long sledge journey, and hunted together for several months and shared the strangest experiences. And we travelled together as comrades, as equals; they would take no payment for the long time they were with me, away from their families ; no, this was merely an episode in their lives, and they would cer- tainly not be my paid servants. In the same way they took part in Peary's voyages, so long as he travelled on land. It is therefore interesting to note the position they took up when the Polar voyage itself commenced. During the first expeditions they agreed with pleasure to go north, because they thought that the voyage might result in meeting with new people, in the discovery of new hunting- grounds, or, at any rate, of land fit for habitation. But later on, when they were told that they risked their lives for a geographical point only, a point somewhere in the desert of pressure-ice where neither men, nor game, nor land existed, then the toil seemed to them so utterly aimless that their participa- tion now required entirely fresh motives. Partly there was the respect for Peary — I have often been told that " he asked with so strong a will to gain his wish, that it was impossible to say no " ; partly, also, there was the wish to possess guns, wood, and knives which were the payment for participation. But their personal interest to reach the goal, their private ambition to arrive there, no longer existed. For twenty years Peary had seen among the Polar Eskimos the base of his expedition, and during this short period these people had jumped from the stone age to the present time in their technical civilization. When Peary came there for the first time the tribe was in 6 LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS all essentials untouched. Guns were hardly known, the chief weapons on land being the bow, and on sea the harpoon. Long before Peary finished his last expedition all the hunters possessed the most modern of the breech-loading guns of our time. The old knives, which consisted of little splinters of meteoric stone, laboriously hafted in bits of reindeer skin or narwhal tusk, were replaced by the finest steel; and their sledges, which once were pieces of whalebone cunningly tied together to form runners, were now of the best ash or oak. Long before Peary appeared a lively bartering with the Scotch whalers certainly took place ; but a thing like a gun was a great rarity. Commercial intercourse with the whalers seems on the whole to have been very casual, and one may therefore say that it is Peary who has given the tribe its present effective equipment for winning a livelihood. Previous to the intro- duction of modern weapons it was obvious that the Polar Eskimos were subjected to the moods of the varying years. Their own simple and primitive weapons were beautiful and serviceable inventions ; but the handling of them was an art, and when the condition of weather and ice, or even the move- ments of the animals, were unfavourable, it happened not rarely that they had to face bad winters through which they could only manage to exist with great difficulty. So far as their livelihood was concerned, Peary developed in them the white man's brain, which of course signified great progress in their material existence. But the Eskimos did not forget to repay Peary what they thought they owed him ; on his last two voyages to the North Pole about seventy to eighty Eskimos — ^men, women, and children — with several hundreds of dogs, accompanied him on the Roosevelt to the northern point of Grant Land. In other words, this included all the best young men in the tribe. And can anyone think of a more serious and extensive contribu- tion to scientific exploration than this wholesale sacrifice of the supremest? But Peary himself possessed qualities which made it possible for him to come to such an arrangement with his helpers. His 7 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA great personal endurance, his repeatedly tested fearlessness, his capacity to manage year after year in such a way that he escaped well from it all — all this won the unstinted admiration of the Eskimos. They thought it good fun to risk something with a man like Peary — ^the great Peary of the strong will, the mighty lord of inexhaustible wealth, Piulerssuaq, who himself will surely some day be the hero of one of their tribal myths. During my meetings with the Polar Eskimos I have often had occasion to hear them speak of him ; and they have always been full of appreciation and proud to have been with him, even if one often feels that their respect for the man was greater than their love. I will recount a little incident which was told me by Odaq, who accompanied Peary on all his Polar travels. It was in 1906, the year in which Peary reached 87° 14' and set a temporary record farthest north. Six Eskimos accom- panied him, and these had for several days remonstrated with him that they would have to turn now if they should not die from starvation on the return journey ; but Peary maintained obstinately that they must endure for a while longer. They had met with many mishaps. Open water had delayed them, and terrible blizzards in biting cold had hindered all progress ; but as soon as there was a lull in the storm Peary got out of the snow-hut and made his way northward, always northward, into the ill-famed pressure-ice, fighting his way, clearing a path for the sledges and the worn-out dogs which followed, driven by the Eskimos. And Peary continued his slow walk against the storm with the sledges siiaiUng behind him. Then came an evening after such a day when a longing for land, for wife and children and the delicious game far down southward seized the young hunters so strongly that they could see only death and destruction in all their desperate push northwards. They had not spoken much about it ; but Odaq thought they looked so strangely at each other ; and it struck him that none of them dared to mention land any more. He could bear it no longer, and went into the snow-hut where Peary lay sleep- ing. "I have come to speak to you for my comrades' sake," he said, "for further progress now would mean death for all of 8 THE whalers' FLBET, 1818 THE SAILING SHIPS BEEAKING THROUGH THE ICE AT THE TIME OF JOHN ROSS KETUENING FROM WALRUS HUNTING, THULE LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS us, and I know that you will not turn. Send my comrades back ; with the aid of the compass they will be able to find land, and I will go on with you so that you may not die alone." And Odaq continued : " Then Peary looked at me with such strange sadness, and it seemed to me that for the first time in all the days I had travelled with him his stern eyes looked kind ; and he gave me a slap on the shoulder to signify that he understood me, and answered : ' I am glad, Odaq, for what you have said ; but it is not necessary. To-morrow we will turn. You see, Odaq, neither have I any desire to die now, for another time I shall reach the goal which I must now give up."' This little incident seems to me to characterize equally well Peary and the young bear-hunter, who was not afraid to sacri- fice his life for his master's kingly aspirations. Otherwise the tales one hears are not entirely of a serious nature, and nothing has been more entertaining to me during the many days of bad weather, both in winter and summer, than sitting listening to the Eskimos' tales of privation and danger, tales which now, when gone through in memory, always end in sheer fun. " Oh, well, that was when we were forced to eat our dogs raw, far from land, right out on the ice., while our enormous stores of meat were rotting at home in our camps." Little finishing remarks like these contain all their wanton self- mockery ; for to an Eskimo it will always seem monstrously funny that one can let oneself be coaxed into leaving land, and go out into the cold pressure-ice of the Polar Sea, just for the sake of hewing one's ways through it, with death hovering above one in the enormous, white, lifeless desert. It is very significant of the open-air spirit of the Eskimos, and of the mind of the hunter and his obstinate ambition, that a man who could look upon his suffering through a toilsome voyage as something sensational, would immediately be made a laughing-stock among his countrymen. When one has decided on the hazards of a journey, one must take everything that occurs like a man — that is, with a broad grin. I have even GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA heard old Eskimos tell of situations wherein they were in danger of death, in such a manner that the audience knotted themselves with laughter. It may be that in this matter we highly civilized, cultured beings meet a quality in the so-called primitive natives— whom otherwise we honour with all our gracious superiority — a mysterious and humorous contempt of death which almost makes the ideas danger and death merge into one. For in- stance, consider the way in which some families, which during Peary's last expedition but one had remained behind near the big lakes at the back of Fort Conger, managed to make their way home all the distance down to the Cape York district. The men, some with a team of two, some of three, dogs, with- out provision for the journey, brought their wives and children the hundred miles' long journey southward, first across the Kennedy channel to the land, continually hunting for food like beasts of prey as they travelled. Some of the women had new- born babes in the bags on their back, others were in an advanced stage of pregnancy, whilst others, again, gave birth to their children as they travelled the toilsome, dangerous way, advanc- ing foot by foot, pushing and pulling the sledges along down to their homes. And they arrived quite unmoved by the fight for existence, bubbling with merriment as never before, everyone from the oldest down to the youngest babe strutting with health. Anyone looking at the map will understand the naagni- ficence of this deed. The hunters' sagacity and the constitution of the Eskimo race achieved in this undertaking one of their most glorious triumphs ; it is a leaf out of the history of Polar travelling which ought to be known by everyone, even by those to whom the North Pole is only a name. It was in the year 1907. At that time I came from EUes- mere Land with two Eskimos, when outside Cape Inglefield we ran across sledge tracks which we did not for a moment doubt were due to the rearguard of Peary's great army of offence against the North Pole. Their probable fate had been the sub- ject of discussion among the tribe throughout the winter. We were confronted by two tracks — one from a team of four dogs, 10 LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS the other from a team of two. And it was obvious that the dogs must have been quite exhajusted, for none of the travellers had been able to ride on the sledges. We saw the tracks of two men and two women ; and, between these, the tiny imprints of children's feet — children of at most five or six years of age. The tracks came from Humboldt's Glacier and pointed down- ward to Etah. " Look, the little ones have walked that long, long way," said one of the Eskimos when he saw the children's tracks. " Our women bear strong children !" cried the other one, examining the tracks as he ran. We decided to turn at once and make for the camp at Anoritoq, as there was a possibility of others being on the way and in the vicinity. It was impossible to tell what these people might have suffered and in what condition they might be. In great excitement we reached our destination. No one was there. Then we drove back again and on to Etah, and there at last we found them : two families, Odaq with his wife, a little son of five years, and a baby-in-arms ; Agpalinguaq with his wife, a small daughter, and an almost new-born babe. These Arctic travellers all looked like people who are return- ing from a little pleasure trip, well fed and smihngly healthy. The women and the little ones had just finished a walking tour of a hundred miles, the mothers with their smallest children on their backs, and all of them had for more than a month been a prey to the cold and the sweeping blizzards out on the ice. And if a blast is to be found anywhere in Greenland you will find it by Humboldt's Glacier — a blast vsdth a bite in it. Another eight families were still on the way ; two sledges had dropped a little behind the others, delayed because the women that accompanied them gave birth to their children whilst travelling. They told us in this manner, quietly and as a matter of fact, without any attempt to be sensational. But never in my life as an Arctic traveller have I felt smaller than when faced by these child-bearing women, who with babes at their breasts undertook journeys which might have cost many a white man his life. 11 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA THE FIGHT FOR FOOD The harsh conditions of nature which force the Eskimos into an unending fight for existence, quickly teach him to take hold of life with a practical grip— i.e., in order to live I must first of all have food ! And as he finds himself in the happy position that his form of livelihood— hunting— is also his supreme passion, one is justified in saying that he leads a happy life, content with the portion that fate has allotted to him.^ He is born with the qualities necessary for the winning of his liveli- hood, and the skill in handling the tools, which later on makes a master of him, he acquires through play while he grows up. On the day when he can measure his strength with that of the men, he takes a wife and enters the ranks of the hunters. The sledge and the kayak now become the main factors on which his subsistence depends. But whereas the sledge is used for all kinds of hunting during the ten months of the year, the severity of the climate makes the use of the kayak possible only during a very short period ; for the summer only lasts from the end of July until the first days of September. As a rower of the kayak the Polar Eskimo cannot compete with his kinsman from South Greenland, His kayak is large and clumsy, and cannot stand a rough sea, for in its equipment it lacks both the half-jacket and the whole-jacket which covers the manhole ; it is therefore unable to set out in all kinds of weather without danger of foundering. The ocean is, however, generally full of ice-floes which calm the waves, and there is not very often a chance of rowing in a high sea. The chief weapon of the kayak is the harpoon with its line and bladder. What the craft lacks in seaworthiness is com- pensated for by the astounding skill with which the Polar Eskimo gets near to his prey, so that with ease and without the aid of a thro wing-stick he harpoons his prey at quite close range. The animals hunted from a kayak are walrus, narwhal, white- whale, bearded-seal (Phoca harhata), and ordinary fjord-seal. 12 mm /■ AchtOii Friis TOBIAS GABRIELSEN Harnld Molkte SIMON, THE OLD BEAR-HUNTEEf Einar Dltlevsen AN OLD WANDERER FROM MELVILLE BAY S, A. Moellffr ESKIMO BOY FROM UPERNIVIK LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS Besides hunting on the sea, there is also extensive bird- hunting. . The whole coast, from Cape Melville up to Etah, is with very rare intervals the breeding-ground of millions of Sea- kings, which herd together in such great numbers that they are easily caught in ketches from hiding-places between the stones. The Sea-kings are small birds of the auk family, about the size of a starling ; they generally live on mountains which go right out into the sea, and here they gather like an enormous floating raft, diving and tumbling after having made those little trips which provide them with food. Their breeding-places lie on the even slope of the mountains, where they make all stone- heaps alive. They sit in close flocks, covering the stones, and their tuneful chirping and merry whistling merge into one mighty tone which makes the whole landscape resound. And when all these flocks do occasionally lift and shoot up into the air, they sweep over land and sea like a tempest. This little bird plays an important part in the household economy of the Eskimos, as everybody with a little energy can collect here a winter-store which will last all through the Polar night ; and the soft little skins can be made into underclothing which, worn next to the skin, is warm and comfortable. Besides the Sea-kings mountains there are three big auk- mountains — ^two by Parker Snow Bay and one by Saunders Island. Great flocks of auks, gulls, black guillemots, and fulmars hover round the shelves of the steep fells, and the meaty auk particularly is caught here by the hundreds in ketchers and put away for the dark period (October 1 to February 1). Finally, in certain districts, the eider-duck gives its welcome contribution to the household stores of summer and autumn. The great abundance of Sea-kings mentioned above is also put to good account in other ways, as these birds attract many blue foxes which find their food on the breeding-ground, not merely in summer but during a great part of the winter as well ; for the wise fox thinks not only of to-day : he also collects his store for the .winter, especially during the egg-laying season and before the young are able to fly. During visits to the moun- tains it is not unusual to see a fox coming along very carefully 13 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA with eggs in his mouth, and by following him one may discover quite considerable depots covered with moss and turf. These foxes were previously caught in native traps, of which several different types existed ; but now they are caught in American steel traps. After this survey of the chances which the summer offers, I will give a corresponding summary of the winter's hunting. Already by the end of September the ice lies on fjord and bay, and in October hunting on the ice begins. If the ice lies shiny and uncovered by snow for a period, a rich hunt of seals takes place. The hunter ties a piece of bear-skin under his feet and moves along the ice quite noiselessly, occasionally stopping to listen, for in his approach to the seals he depends solely upon his sense of sound. When the seals come up to breathe through the holes in the ice, they blow so loudly that they can be heard a considerable distance. The hunter now moves towards the sound, taking great care to move only when the seal breathes. When it ceases he also stops, as otherwise it wovdd hear him. The seal as a rule remains by its breathing-hole for some time in order to store as much air as possible in its lungs before diving into the deeps again, and thus, by taking advantage of the seal's respiration, the hunter is enabled to get right up to the hole. He then harpoons it with the greatest skill through an orifice which is so small that it barely allows the harpoon to pass through. It is obvious that the aim must be a sure one. But the senses of the Eskimo are so keen that even at night he is able to spot his prey and kill it by moonlight. This way of catching the fjord-seal and the bearded-seal yields not only a rich catch in a short time, but is also con- sidered the most amusing of all branches of hunting-sport. In several places walrus is caught on the new ice, and in this case it does not matter whether snow has fallen, as these big animals are not so sensitive as the seals. In November the ice between Saunders and Westenholme islands is so thin as to allow the walrus to shove its skull through it when, during its meal of mussels, it wants to breathe. The Eskimos then sneak towards it while it breathes, and no sooner 14 LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS is it harpooned than the line with lightning speed is fixed in the ice ; the walrus is now tethered, and being therefore forced to return to the same breathing-hole every time it draws a breath, it is killed with lances. In the autumn the walrus is fat and meaty, and the yield of the catch therefore goes much farther than that of the little seals. And this has its importance in a household where prac- tically every means of finding a livelihood must be abandoned for the better part of the winter, and where must be fed not only the people, but also the sledge-dogs, of which a single man may possess over a score. The type of hunting which the Eskimo values above all others, however, is the bear-hunt. I put once the following question to an elderly man : " TeU me what you consider the greatest happiness of your life." And he replied : " To run across fresh bear-tracks and be ahead of all other sledges." Scarcely has the sun and the light returned when all men, who possess meat enough to leave their wives and children alone at home, go out bear-hunting, often for months, defying cold and all sorts of weather, welcoming snowdrifts as their camps. The southern borders of these bear-hunts stretch right down to Cape Holm, while northward Humboldt's Glacier is often passed. Finally, many of them cross over Smith Sound from Anoritoq to Pim Island, and follow the coast of EUesmere Land almost as far down as Jones Sound. One has seen on these bear-hunts old men with white hair, men who during their life of hunting good and bad have experienced everything nature could offer them, hunters who have long ago forgotten the tally of their deeds ; and young men, half -grown lads — all of them go crazy with the hunting-fever as soon as there is a chance of challenging the white king of the Polar waste. And for one single harpoon duel all the resultless and evil toil which pre- ceded this supreme moment is forgotten. The track of a bear, and far in the distance a small yellow 15 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA blot on the whiteness ; and then the good bear-dogs which fly across the ice Hke a tempest, out-distancing all the rest ! This is one of the culminating points in life which every young Polar Eskimo dreams about. From May until the middle of July is the period during which the seals crawl up on the ice to sun themselves and laze about in spring drowsiness. Then the Eskimos creep up close and harpoon them before they can pull themselves sufficiently together to wake up and slide down under the ice through the breathing-holes. If, however, it so happens that the sleep is light and the animal wakes up, every hunter knows to such per- fection the art of imitating the sounds and movements of the seal that the animal imagines it sees a comrade lying there, happy in the warmth, and brushing its coat on the snow. The Eskimo continues his tricky advance, and the alarmed seal soon lies down again, to continue the sleep from which it will never awake. Previously only harpoon and line were employed in this work, but now the rifle, and the stalking-sail which has been . imported from the South of Greenland, are used. This stalk- ing-sail consists of a cloth of white skirting, large enough to cover a creeping man ; it is fixed to a small sledge which the man, lying on his stomach, can push in front of him together with the gun until he is within shooting distance. The Utut-hunting, as they caU the method described above, gives the foundation for the very important winter-stores, which during the dark period free them from cares. Of the land game, the reindeer was of great importance before the time of the Peary Expeditions, not only because of their meat, but also for the sake of their skins. These were used both for coats and for bedding. Unfortunately the surround- ing land is not extensive, and the Eskimos had not for long been possessors of American magazine-guns when the whole stock was exterminated. At present one very rarely sees a reindeer. Hares, on the contrary, are plentiful in some districts. The flesh is considered a tit-bit, and the skins are indispensable 16 ESKIMOS DRINKING COFFEB IN OLD STYLE QINGMINBGARFIK IN INGLEFIELD GULF FROM WHERE, ACCORDING TO THE ESKIMOS, ALL WHITE MEN ORIGINATE LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS as stocking-skins. They are easily hunted both with gun and snare. An animal which does not exist inside the Polar Eskimo's own territory, but which, nevertheless, within the latter years has played an important part, is the musk-ox. Everywhere along the stretches from Humboldt's Glacier down to the quite narrow strips of land among the mountains of Cape York, one finds their bones, but no person now living can give any information about the time when the last musk-ox here was slain. As long as there were suflScient reindeer the skin of the musk-ox was rejected for bedding, being awkward to use and difficult to keep clean because of the long hairs ; even now bear- skins are preferred, and are looked upon as the finest, most durable, and most convenient. Unfortunately, everybody is not a great bear-hunter, so that the musk-ox is on the point of being considered entirely acceptable. Every year in April and May great hunting expeditions for musk-ox are arranged, preferably through EUesmere Land to Heiberg Land. These expeditions often last for a couple of months, as the Eskimos camp on the killing-grounds in order to dry the skins. As there is an average of a score of hunters each season, it would scarcely be too high to estimate that about three hundred musk-oxen yearly must bite the dust. It is deplorable that the Eskimo's lack of sense for limitation threatens this big game with extinction ; but the danger is not an immediate one, as certain flocks in these regions number upwards of two hundred animals, which make a big mountain look quite alive — an impressive sight never to be forgotten by one who has seen it. WOMEN AND CLOTHES The Polar Eskimo begins and ends his life travelling. Already as a new-born babe he follows in the bag on his mother's back ; nobody considers the time of the year, and oft-times the whimpering child is transported across wild glaciers in darkness and cold, ending the toilsome day in a B 17 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA cold, newly erected hut of snow. No wonder that he, or she, frequently becomes crooked with rheumatism at an early age and has to give up. This rheumatism is a legacy of all those days spent in snowdrifts during sudden blizzards, and serves as a reminder of the many times when he was taken unawares by storms during the hunting of reindeer and birds, and for weeks had to put up with a damp and clammy cave in the mountain. Against this background, it is easy to understand that nobody has paid so much attention as have these people to the convenience of clothing. The climate of their country demands it, and it is an absolute condition that the hunter must be clothed fittingly. So the task of the woman is to make and mend the man's clothes, no less than it is to get the daily food. It is not without reason that the Polar Eskimo says that a man, as hunter, is what his wife makes of him. But the wife also knows how highly her part is valued by the man, and no praise is more flattering to her than admiration of her work. As luck win have it, she also has at her disposal the animals which yield the warmest fur from which to make her clothes. Next to the skin is worn a light and soft shirt, made out of birds' skins, the feathers turned inwards ; on top of this a coat of sealskin, with the hairs turned out, is worn during spring, summer, and autumn ; in winter-time this so-called Netseq is exchanged for a coat of blue fox, also with the hairs turned out ; and certainly this is the lightest and warmest costume in existence. For trousers the men use bear-skins — a kind of knickerbockers that reach just below the knees. Out of beautiful white frost- bleached sealskins without hairs they make boots and line them with hare-skin. For long sledge journeys they also use long- haired boots made from the skin of the forelegs of the bear, or from the leg-skins of the reindeer. A woman's costume is not much different from a man's. The chief difference consists in the trousers being shorter than the man's and made out of foxes' skin; the boots are almost as long as the legs. The difference in coats is only marked by a variation in pattern, or by the way in which skins of different hues are put together 18 ESKIMO RETURNING TO HARBOUR M '^ ft . .^'.A^i ;ftw?gr'% • ~-j-. SKETCHES BY QUJAKITSUNGUAQ ■^-alrus Keincleer Musk-Ox Hare Bear Gull Raven SeaKing Swimming Bear Flocks of Miisk-Ox in the mountains LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS The fox furs are seldom brought into the house, but are kept outside in a small stone cave. Thus the somewhat delicate skins are not exposed to the frequent changes in temperature, which would rapidly ruin them. The house-dress worn in the very warm houses and tents is reduced to boots and trousers, the upper part of the body being naked — a negligee costume free of all coquetry, as up in the bunk often twenty degrees (Cent.) of warmth is registered, whilst on the floor you will find Zero or a few degrees of frost. HOUSES AND TENTS In winter the habitations consist of little houses, built of large flat stones and with domed roofs which, with great archi- tectural cunning, are built so that the stones carry themselves without support. The houses as a rule are only planned for one family. A low and very long passage serves as entrance, and through this one creeps into the living-room itself, entering from below through a narrow opening. In spite of the primitive arrangement and the cramped space, the impression given by these huts is often one of extraordinary cosiness, the walls being covered with light-coloured sealskins. The stone sleeping-bench, which occupies the better part of the room, is always covered with a thick layer of fragrant hay, and on top of this a rug of bear-skin or reindeer. Light and warmth are supplied by two or three train-oil lamps, made out of the same kind of stone as that which forms the walls ; with their long wicks of moss these lamps generate a heat fitting to the Adam's costume which is the house-dress. The bench is seldom larger than to allow four people to sit next to each other, and the roof is so low that one can rarely stand erect. Right opposite to the entrance there is a window of gut skins stitched together. In the middle of this window there is always a small, round peep-hole. In the roof there is another hole, called the " nose " of the house, through which the bad air is carried away. Beside the permanent stone winter-house, there is also a 19 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA snow-house. The big blocks of snow which constitute the material of this house are cut out of the hard drifts of snow with long knives. These snow-houses are built with great in- genuity. The inside arrangement corresponds to that of the stone houses, skins covering walls and roof. No block-house in the world can compete with a well-built snow-house as regards warmth. The short summer is the time of the bracing life in the tents ; here also we meet with the roomy stone bench which, with all its paraphernalia, makes a delicious resting-place for the night. The skin tents consist of two layers of sealskins on top of each other ; they can therefore with ease resist the rain under all conditions. Here also are burning blubber lamps which give to the tent such a temperature that one can live in it until, by the end of September, winter supersedes autumn. PLACES OF HABITATION WHICH ARE CHRISTENED BY THE WIND The permanent camps reach from Cape Seddon in Mel- ville Bay right up to Humboldt's Glacier. As the tribe consists of so few individuals, there is plenty of elbow room for the hunters, and at the same time the game is given an excellent chance of renewal and breeding. For this little handful of hunters is distributed over a stretch of 800 kilometres. The Polar Eskimos themselves classify their places of habitation according to the wind in the following districts : Nigerdlit : Those who live nearest to the south-west wind. Akunarmiut : Those who live between the winds. Orqordlit : Those who live in the lee of the south-west wind. Avangnardlit : Those who live next to the north wind. By Nigeq they do not mean merely the south-west wind itself. Here is included also the mild Fohn-wind, which comes 20 '--/''." HARPOONING A WALRUS FROM A KAYAK ESKIMOS GOING OUT ON THE NEW ICE TO HUNT WALRUS ■■.>a5-S# HARPOONING WALRUS WALRUS BEING PULLED UP BY THE AID OF PRIMITIVE TACKLE INVENTED BY THE ESKIMOS Sketches by Asiajuk LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS from the inland-ice with great suddenness and in an instant produces a positive temperature in the middle of the coldest winter. I will give an example : Once, at the end of January, after a journey across Melville Bay, we drove in a party of twenty sledges along the land south of the Petowik Glacier on our way to Thule. The weather was good, and as the day's journey consequently had been a very long one, I felt somewhat tired and stretched myself on the sledge to take a little nap, whilst a boy who accompanied me drove the dogs. Just before my eyes closed I noticed a swirl above some doughs near the inland-ice, but as there were no other signs of bad weather on the sky, none of us paid any particular attention to it. My doze could not have lasted more than five minutes when I was awakened in the most brutal manner, being, as by a mighty grip, lifted up from the sledge and flung out on the ice. I received so violent a blow in the back that I was unable to get up for a moment, but when at last I succeeded in rising to my knees, I saw that all the many sledges which a moment ago had driven in a long string one behind the other, were swept together into one huge pile, like wooden shavings blown to- gether by a breath of wind. With such suddenness and force the Fohn-wind had sent out its first squalls as forerunners of the storm which was coming. As it was quite impossible to stand upright, not to mention driving, we let ourselves be blown up on land with sledges and dogs, until we found some little shelter in a clough by a broad tongue of ice where the sledges could be anchored and the dogs tethered. Hardly was this done when the Fohn, with the roar of a hurricane, swept down upon us from the mountains and the inland-ice and made us suspect that the world itself was going under. It pressed its enormous weight down on the thick winter ice with such violence that the waves immediately burst up through the belt of the tidal waters. Half an hour later we saw through the darkness huge fissures in the ice, frothing white, and a few hours after the outbreak there was open sea where shortly before we had driven our sledges. Altogether, one can understand the important role played 21 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA by the wind in the lives of a hunting people whose subsistence depends entirely upon the sea. The south-west wind decides the fate of the summer ; for if it blows too frequently Melville Bay and all the north-west coast is filled with pack-ice, which gives rise to raw weather and poor hunting. The only beneficent act performed by this wind is in the autumn, when it not only makes the ice settle early, but also carries a lot of ice-bears on flakes from Baffin Bay in towards the land. All camps from Cape York southward range under Nigerdlit. The mainstay in these places is the seal, but first of all it is the many bears in Melville Bay which lure people up here. The Cape York district has no real summer ; if now and then one crosses a glacier, winter hunting is possible all through the twelve months of the year. The scarcity of open water is responsible for poor hunting with kayaks and small winter- stores. The little Sea-kings are therefore a boon ; and they are found in millions in the mountains hereabout. For the winter-store they are preserved in a peculiar way. During May and June they are pickled whole, feathers and all, in big, newly-flayed sealskins stripped whole from the seal, so that only a small opening remains near head and back flappers, and this can easily be drawn together. As soon as this skin is filled it is covered securely with stones so that the rays of the sun cannot reach it, as this would give the meat a bitter taste. The birds now slightly decay, and at the same time the blubber from the skin permeates the flesh. This dish, which is looked upon as an extraordinarily delicate morsel, is offered to all guests during winter as the best thing one can give to friends. Even if there is some lack of meat here, there are other things which, according to the opinion of the inhabitants of the south-west, make this district preferable. There is an abundance of blue fox, so that the people here, besides being able to procure pelts to excess, also have many ' 'sale-foxes ' ' for disposal. Then there are the bear-skins, which give warm trousers and lovely rugs for the bunks, and bring in 22 a S ^ 'iviwl Drawn by Qarqutsianguaq SEAL BEING HARPOONED AS IT COMBS UP TO ITS BKEATHING-HOLE ;4?-T3n'iMME?Sr^S g^^^^ -'•"M-rS KILLED MUSK-OXEN BEING SKINNED : TO THE LEFT SLEDGE WITH DOGS POLAK ESKIMOS DRESSED IN FOX FUR COATS LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS some cash as well. The inhabitants glory in exciting hunting experiences all the year round, and to meet a Cape Yorker is nearly always to be counted as an adventure. All this imparts to them a certain nimbus ; but people from the sheltered side, who do not wish to seem inferior, will as a rule only admit that the Cape Yorkers may have the best clothes and the warmest bunk-rugs in all the district, "but," they add, "their houses are cold, for they have only seal-blubber to put into their lamps ; their dogs are lean and have ugly pelts because they are not fed on the meat of the walrus and nar- whal ; and finally, in spite of all their cleverness, they are very fond of coming up to our well-filled meat stores to feed up their dogs, and themselves eat their fill in Mataq when, during the dark period, short commons is the order of the day." Akunarmiut comprises the district round the present Thule. The chief means of livelihood here is the hunting of walrus, but seals and narwhals as well are killed in abundance. It is of the utmost importance for subsistence here that the ice between Saunders Island and Dalrymple Rock settles evenly in the end of October and the beginning of November ; for then the walrus remain for a long period by their breathing- holes, which they break with their skulls. This hunting season is a beautiful and exciting time, with races from morning till night. The point is to be the first one with the sledge on the hunting-grounds, wherefore one may see, early in the morning, or rather in the night, one sledge after another shoot across the ice like a swift bird flying out into darkness. It would not do to make up large parties, as this gives small shares of the catch, so one spreads out as much as possible ; and in the white darkness are discerned the contours of many fur-clad hunters distributed along the ice, with harpoon and line under their arms ready to take their chances. When a walrus has been harpooned, one sees the many bear-trousered, faun-like figures rushing up, joyful in the capture, to take their share in the division of the catch. The heavy animal is pulled up on the ice without difficulty by the aid of primitive tackle fixed in the ice. 23 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA Unfortunately this hunting of walrus often fails, and this district is therefore not reckoned as a good food-provider. Orqordlit, or the lee-side inhabitants, encompass the whole district around the great Inglefield Gulf. Many camps are to be found here, where the hunting conditions everywhere are so brilliant that meat is always to be had in superfluity. In the mouth of the fjord there is an excellent run of walrus all through the sunmier, on the new ice in the autumn, and during the light time in March. When frozen sea, after being opened by a storm, freezes again, hunting like that described above takes place here. Besides walrus, there is also a large and persistent shoaling of narwhal and white- whale, which are hunted from kayaks. These large, meaty animals provide substantial winter depots for the lee-side inhabitants. The rich blubber from narwhal and white- whale yields, as is well known, far more light and warmth than that from seal and walrus, and these districts are justified in boasting of the fact that they possess the largest and warmest houses. Their kennels are abundantly stocked, and the dogs are fat with shiny coats. Foxes, however, are scarce in some districts, and the Sea-king is only to be found near Kiatak, Igdluluarssuit, and Neqe. But the climate during the autumn is far drier here than farther southward, and one can practically always reckon on a long ice-hunting period which goes to swell the meat stores still further. The only thing really scarce is bear-skin, which is rightly considered indispensable. Without warm bear-skin trousers it would be impossible to undertake long journeys in winter-time, and where there is no bear-hunting there will be no proper bunk-rugs to lie on either. The hunters on the windward side therefore characterize the lee-side inhabitants, with some malice, as kitchen-hunters who, in spite of their wealth of meat and their fat dogs, have to trade for bear-skin with the real hunters. Avangnardlit, or those who live next to the north wind, includes the camps of Etah and Anoritoq. The conditions at 24 A — Sleeping-bench. B — Side-bench for meat. C — Stone lamps. D — Flag-stone floor. B — Inside foundation stones. F— Outside foundation stones . G— Turf. H — Space above bench. I — Entrance. J — Box of meat. K — Woman knife. L — Gut-skin window. M — Cooking pan. — Air hole. P — Drying shelves. E — Space oeneath the bench POLAR ESKIMOS HOUSE ASARPAKA KAGSSALUK BBAEDED SEAL {Phoca barbata) KILLED NARWHAL LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS Etah are excellent for walrus hunting, and at the same time this spot is one huge singing mountain where the Sea-kings live. These are not to be found by Anoritoq, but as compensa- tion there are there, besides walrus, excellent drives of nar- whal. Wherever these are killed they put their stamp on the indoor life of the winter. In both places there is excellent bear- hunting to the north and west, and conditions of life here correspond in every way to those in the south-west. There is wind in abundance, not from the south-west, but from north and north-east, and it often blows with enormous violence. Contrary to the south-west wind, however, it sweeps the coast clean of snow, and is therefore the wind one especially hopes for at the time when the ships are expected. A WANDERING PEOPLE We have now dealt with camps within the district, but one must not regard the Polar Eskimos as fixed settlers, for in all the world one can scarcely find a people who lead a more nomadic life. The stone houses built by ancestors long for- gotten merely stand along the coast ; for, as the material is stone, the tooth of time does not tear them. It requires only a minor reparation before a stranger may move into such a house w^hen it has been aired all through spring and summer. No Polar Eskimo will live for more than a year or two in one place ; then his longing to get into new conditions and to hunt on new ground awakes. With every spring comes the wander-lust, and when Nature itself shakes the yoke of winter from its shoulders the desire arises' to strike camp and follow the many birds of migration which herald summer's arrival. The removal is in reality nothing but a change of houses on a grand scale. Just as nobody owns the seal in the sea and the reindeer on land, so it follows that nobody has a right to possess a house. When Pualuna moves out of it to seek another place it is no longer his, and if Maja chooses this place of abode he may quite calmly move in. All the excitement that accompanies the decision that must 25 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA be taken nearly every spring as to where one intends to hunt the following winter, and all the merry moods of camp-striking which seize on everybody, find their expression in a shout of liberation resounding through the whole country which, for many months, has been bound in cold and darkness. It generally happens that those who live on the south-west side, or nearest to the north wind, move to the lee-side camps to spend a couple of years in abundance, in peace and quietness acquiring new dogs. Many a confirmed lee-side inhabitant will go northward or southward in order to find bunk-rugs and blazing white bear trousers. Thus these peoples' lives are based on an ingenious training for the finding of a means of livelihood, a training so well adapted to meet the demands of their harsh country that the civilization built upon it makes of the Polar Eskimos the most care-free people in the world. Nowhere else can one live, as one does here, in such a state of practical and simple communism which gives equal rights and equal chances to everybody. One has tried to counter-balance even the fickle- ness of fortune by dividing all the larger animals into pieces which are distributed to everybody who, during the hunt, has not had the luck to be the first to harpoon, say, a narwhal. By this distributive arrangement every hunter is entitled to meat if only he will keep in the vicinity of the one who kills the quarry. This seems to be the result of humane sentiments developed during the fight for existence against niggard Nature. There is yet another point. Men are not all born equally strong and supple, and it is generally only a select few who are able to avail themselves of the chance to throw the first harpoon into an un wounded animal. But if once the animal has got the huge bladder with its heavy trailer dragging behind it through the water, even the mediocre hunter can take part in the kill. It is for this work that he receives his just and generous part of the booty. For the maintaining of one's position as a bread- winner in this community one thing only is required — this is industriousness. The lazy man who will not take up his share of the work must go his own way. 26 LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS Is it possible in any community to get closer to the ideal than this, that the only reason for poverty is laziness? The Eskimos thus live merrily together, treating their women and children kindly ; and the families are bound to each other with bonds of affection, often mianifested in a striking manner. PRIMITIVE VIEWS OF LIFE It would not be possible to finish even the shortest sketch of the Polar Eskimos without briefly mentioning their peculiar and primitive views of life. The Polar Eskimos do not believe in a God to whom one must pray, but they have as a foundation for their religious ideas a series of epic myths and traditional conventions, which are considered an inheritance from the very oldest time. In these their ancestors laid down all their wealth of experience, so that those who came after might not make the same mistakes and harbour the same erroneous notions as did they themselves. The myths, which are handed down from generation to generation by the oldest to the youngest within the community, are to be looked upon as the saga of the Inuit people. These myths are partly simple narratives, partly a warning against those who will not submit to the demands of tradition, and for the rest they are tales of heroes who in every possible danger acquitted themselves in such a way that they are held up as glorious examples for coming generations. Osarqaq, a wise and intelligent man, once defined to me their own conception in the following words : "Our tales are narratives of human experience, and therefore they do not always tell of beautiful things. But one cannot both embellish a tale to please the hearer and at the same time keep to the truth. The tongue should be the echo of that which must be told, and it cannot be adapted according to the moods and the tastes of man. The word of the newrborn is not to be trusted, but the experiences of the ancients contain truth. Therefore, when we tell our myths, we do not speak for ourselves ; it is the wisdom of the fathers which speaks through us." 27 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA As an example of these myths, I will recount one which relates of " the time long, long ago when man was created." With its grotesque forcefulness and deep originality it serves as a good example of Eskimo imagination. I translate it here as literally as possible from the dictation of an old Eskimo woman called Arnaruluk. " Our ancestors often spoke about the creation of earth and man in the time of long, long ago. They did not understand how to hide words in written signs like you do ; they could only speak, the men that lived before us. They spoke about many things, and therefore we are not ignorant in these matters which we have heard mentioned time after time ever since we were little ones. " Old women do not carelessly waste words, therefore we believe them. Age does not tell lies. " At that time, long, long ago, when earth was to be, it fell down from above ; soil, mountains, and stones fell from the sky. Thus earth was. " After earth was created came men. It is told that men came from the soil. Little children came out of the earth ; they came forth between willows, covered with willow leaves. And they lay sprawling between the dwarf bushes with closed eyes, for they could not even crawl. The soil gave them their food. "It is next told about a man and a woman. The woman makes children's clothes and wanders over the soil, where she finds little children; and she dresses them and brings them home. " Thus two became many. "And when they were many they wanted dogs. And a man went out with a dog's harness in his hand, stamping the ground whilst he called ' Hok— hok, hok!' Then the dogs poured forth from mounds, tiny mounds ; and they shook them- selves, for they were full of sand. Thus man got his dogs. " But the men increased, they became more and more. They did not know death that time long, long ago ; and they grew very old. At last they could walk no longer ; they grew blind and had to lie down. 28 WALEDS BREAKING THE SUEFACE OF THE SEA LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS "Neither did they know the sun; they lived in darkness; day never dawned. Only in the houses had they light. They burned water in their lamps, for at that time water could burn. But the people who did not understand how to die became far too many ; they overcrowded the earth — and then a mighty flood came. Many were drowned, and there were thus fewer people. On high mountain-tops where often we find mussels we see the traces of this flood. " Now the people were fewer two old women began to talk. ' Let us be without day,' one of them said, ' if at the same time we may be without death ! ' I think she was afraid of death. " 'No,' said the other one, 'we will have both light and death.' And as the old woman had spoken these words so it came to pass. " Light came, and joy and death. "It is told that when the first man died the corpse was covered with stones. But the corpse returned — it did not understand quite how to die. It put its head up from the stones, wanting to get up. But an old woman pushed it back again. '"We have sufficient to drag and our sledges are small,' she said. "For they were on the point of breaking camp to go hunting. So the dead man had to return to his mound of stones. "Now, when the people had light they were able to go out hunting, and were no longer forced to eat from the soil. And with death came the sun, the moon, and the stars. " For when the people die they rise to the sky and become radiant." The rules, which played an important part before the time of the mission, can be compared to a collection of unwritten laws which tell men what, under certain conditions, they must observe and conform to. As with most primitive peoples, these rules relate especially to birth and death. All these rules of life, which, perhaps, seem unreasonable 29 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA and childish to us, were maintained with much authority by the necromancers. These correspond to the medicine-men of other primitive peoples ; they are in a position to act as middle- men between man and the powers that meddle with life. This they are able to do because they have knowledge of and inti- macies with things which are hidden from ordinary mortals. Therefore, it is not everybody who may be a necromancer, for it is not everybody whom the spirits will serve. A man must have a vocation, and very special abilities are required, which are developed in the great loneliness of the mountains far away from people. Nature is imagined to be full of invisible beings with supernatural powers and abilities, the so-called Tomarssuit. But the necromancers have the power to subject these beings to their will to such an extent that they can employ them as " ministering spirits," which are invoked under the observance of secret ceremonies, preferably with extinguished lamps and to the accompaniment of a weird and gripping ghostly chant. These necromancers are not frauds and charlatans, as one has so often been disposed to presume, but as children of their day they themselves have implicit faith in the seriousness of their mission. Their significance is based on the fact that the primitive religion lacks the worship of a deity ; thus the weak and timid find a refuge with the one who understands how to master the mystic forces of Nature, forces easily offended and dangerous in wrath. The following may serve as an example of the rules : Those who have been engaged in burying the dead must keep quiet within their houses and tents for five days. During this period they must not prepare their own food or divide up the cooked meat. They must not take off their clothes during the night or push back from their heads the fur hoods. When the five days have elapsed they must carefully wash hands and body to rid themselves from the uncleanness which they have contracted from the dead. The Eskimos themselves give the following explanation of the reason for observing this rule : " We are afraid of the big evil power which strikes down men with disease and other misfortunes. Men must do penitence 30 THE BEAUTIFUL ISI6AITS0Q ESKIMO BOY ESKIMO GIEL INDTBQ AJORSSALIK kale's grave LIFE AND HISTORY OF THE ESKIMOS because in the dead the sap is strong, and their power is without Umit. We believe that, if we paid no attention to that over which we ourselves are not masters, huge avalanches of stones would come down and crush us, that enormous snowstorms would spring up to destroy us, and that the ocean would rise in huge waves whilst we were in our kayaks far out at sea." But one may also acquire additional strength through one's life and increased powers to resist danger, with good fortune in all matters of chance, by using amulets and magic formulae. The amulet is a protector against danger, and imparts to its owner certain qualities ; under certain conditions it may even change him from man into the animal from which the substance of his am\ilet is derived. An amulet of a bear which was not slain by human hands renders the owner immune from wounds ; a part of a falcon gives certainty in the kill ; the raven makes one content with little ; the fox imparts cunning. Often the Eskimos wear a Poroq of a stone from a fireplace, because this has been stronger than the fire ; or they smear an old man's spittle round a child's mouth, or put some of his lice into a child's head, thus transferring the vital force of the old one to the young. The magic formulae are " old words, the inheritance of ancient time when the sap of man was strong and the tongues were powerful. ' ' They may also consist of apparently meaning- less connected words dreamed by old men. They are handed down from generation to generation, and the single individual looks upon them as invaluable treasures which one must not give away until death draws near. They are impossible to translate, and would therefore be difficult to recount in this short summary, which merely purports to give what is abso- lutely necessary for the understanding of these strange people who will so often be mentioned in the following narrative. Of the religious traditions of the Polar Eskimos I may mention, furthermore, that man is divided into a soul, a body, and a name. The soul, which is immortal, exists outside the man and follows him as shadow follows sunshine. It is a spirit which 31 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA looks exactly like a man. When the man is dead it rises to heaven or goes down into the sea, where it foregathers with the souls of the fathers. And both places are good to be in. The body is the abode of the soul ; it is mortal, as all mis- fortune and illness may strike it down. In death all that is evil remains in the body, wherefore one must observe the greatest care in dealing with the corpse. The name also is a spirit to which a certain store of vital power and skill is attached. A man who is named after a deceased one inherits his qualities. I commenced this chapter by stating that the Polar Eskimo does not know worship. Neither does he in the sense with which we are familiar from other religions ; he is content to bow down to the Great Unknown, and he is not afraid of admitting that he knows nothing and that his belief is probably wrong. The admission of his limitations and his complete honesty are here, as on all other points, unfailing. But even if worship is denied him through the simple religion which was handed down to him from his forefathers, he is not a stranger to devotion. And as I ami writing this my thoughts return to the many men and women out there whom in the winter evenings I have seen quietly and silently wandering up to the graves of their dead. Here they may remain hour after hour in a mute devotion, which assuredly is no meaner expres- sion of the feeling of human impotence than that which, amongst more highly cultured peoples, manifests itself in prayer and supplication. 32 ^ ^'\x 4 ^ ^ X ^■■^' ^^, Jn -f^-- AT ^'^■. \ ^ k ^1' K • - ^ i - ^m. ■23 -*3 (^ ■3 o ° > s s o a o >> cs g O S4 J to 05 O s a THULE STATION A JOLLY EVENING AT THULB BEFORE BREAKING UP FOR THE JOURNEY CHAPTER II THE GREAT SLEDGE JOURNEY TO THE NORTH COAST OF GREENLAND : FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER DEPARTURE FROM THULE THE preparations for long journeys are made in a very serious spirit; but, as compensation, when the actual start is made and leave is taken of the camp, the mood changes to one of happy geniality, and one goes out to meet one's fate and adventures filled with joyful expectation. And thus it is now with us when at last the sledges are loaded and the dogs stand harnessed by the side of the old Danmark. By a strange coincidence, Mylius-Erichsen's old ship is to-day the background for our departure. April 6th, 1917. — In celebration of our departure we were invited to breakfast on board, and the Eskimo members of the expedition and their wives were included in the party. Captain Hansen of the Danmark had done everything possible, and our appetites did justice to the luxuries of the table. But the fever of travel had seized on us and we had in mind only the idea of getting away. Wulff and Koch had already set off, and were one day ahead of us. It had been necessary for me, after everything was clear, to spend the last night alone, so that once more I might go over all the lists and memoranda of those things which must not be forgotten. This, more than anything else, requires the peace of solitude, for there is the ever-present menace that if a single little thing is forgotten, it is impossible to procure it when one is hundreds of miles away from the depot, however urgently it may be needed. Probably most leaders of an expedition spend the last night before the C 33 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA start without sleep. All the keener is the feeling of relief and the appetite for work when at last everything is clear and ready for the journey. The impatient dogs lie on the ice awaiting the signal for departure ; whimpering and barking they strain at the traces, and a man is posted by each sledge so that no team may interfere with the right succession of events by forging ahead before the drivers are ready. Alas ! when they are no longer in the vicinity of the permanent camp, where there is always plenty of blubbery walrus-hide to be had, this exaggerated joy of life will soon wane. This loud eagerness, this overflowing energy, will be damped all too soon when day after day they are offered many hours of monotonous toil on meagre rations. But to-day there is no limit to their wild, youthful courage, which bubbles over after the many days of rest and strong food. Everyone is in festive mood. The weather is glorious, with a high sun above the white snow : the ice-mountains of the fjord gleam in the light and the basalt of the mountains out towards Cape Parry flash in merry colours. The crew of the ship wander around examining vdth interest, and with the eyes of experts, the securely-roped sledges. Now and then they go out to stroke the dogs. The fuss of departure amongst these many sledges and all the busy people reminds one of the stir of a fair-ground. When at length the start is made and the men have said their last word to the women who must remain behind, each man throws himself down on his sledge and races along the fjord for the first modest kilometres towards the point which we have set ourselves as the goal for the coming half-year. In an hour the Danmark is out of sight and the mount Umanaq, where lies the camp, is outUned as a small cone far, far away in the horizon behind us. The dogs are in excellent condition and stretch out for dear life, and though the loads are heavy we hum along. Driving on the ice is easy, and the smooth iron runners of the sledges smg across the frozen snow. We started about four in the 34 THE DANMARE IN WINTER HAKBOtJE : THE SLEDGES OF THE EXPEDITION BEING COLLECTED FOE THE START ^ j!J^, ONE OF THE SLEDGES NEAR tJLUGSSAT FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT GLACIER FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER afternoon and already by two o'clock in the morning we have covered the first 94 miles to Netsilivik, where we meet our comrades. April 7th. — Netsilivik is a little camp consisting of three houses, and it is only because of the big heart of the Eskimo that it is possible for us all to get a roof over our heads. We are fifteen men in each house, and for the first few hours every- thing is sheer confusion. The dogs are tethered on the ice outside. We make camp and cook a well-deserved cup of coflPee on the humming Primus, whilst the dogs are fed from the abundant meat stores of Netsilivik. A glance through the peep-holes of the small gut-skin windows shows that our comrades and all their friends still lie in the sweetest of slumbers. The heat in the overcrowded stone house is scorching, and I therefore decide to pay a morning call at Iterfiluk's house, which lies a quarter of an hour's walk away from the others. Iterfiluk is a gossiping widow of fifty years of age, and she is a great friend of mine. In the course of the winter she has often been to Thule to make boots for the members of the expedition, and she therefore receives me with a shrill shout of welcome as I crawl through the passage into the house ; I am only discovered at the very moment when I crawl up on to her greasy stone floor. Her house also is filled with travellers, and while her visitors are asleep she herself sits stark naked by her lamp, like one of the holy virgins guarding the lamp so that the precious light shall not be extinguished during the night. For up here it is reckoned a great disgrace if the guests of the house should wake up in the cold with the lamps gone out. According to the custom of the country I also must pull off my clothes and press in between Iterfiluk and one of her friends, the fat Kiajuk, who wears the same paradisaical costume as the hostess. I sit chatting with her for a long time, until tiredness and the atmosphere of the house rob me of all strength, so that I, as all the other guests have done, droop down and slip into unconsciousness . However, we could only afford a few hours of sleep and then 35 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA we had to push on. For when one has many dogs requiring food it is considered good manners to leave the camps early. By noon of the same day we had started for the camp of Ulugssat on Northumberland Island. The camps in this district generally consist of from three to five little stone houses ; consequently, when occasionally one comes to a place vrith ten or twelve houses an' impression of crowdedness is created akin to that felt by the countryman when he visits the capital. Up here we are so accustomed to expect nothing out of the ordinary that an uncommonly large town like this quite overwhelms us. Along the fronts of the houses we see everywhere stagings built of snow-blocks, covered with lovely fresh walrus meat, flaming red against the white snow. The dogs of the camp were all tethered in a row, team behind team, on the ice-foot, and they gave vent to savage yelps at our arrival. According to the old traditions, which demand of the visiting sledge parties a polite reserve, we all stopped on the sea-ice, some distance from the ice-foot. On land, the Eskimos were standing by the houses, looking down at us silently but interestedly. In accordance with the custom of the country, long minutes passed before both parties gave vent to their joy over the reunion. At Ulugssat it was easy to find quarters, for our hosts vied with each other in their invitations to us. Before we went in to see to our own comfort, however, all teams which were to take part in the long journey were given a thoroughly good feed from the abundant meat stores of our hosts. This was really great extravagance, as ordinarily the dogs are only fed every second day. But one permits oneself such extravagances when one is going out on an expedition. The houses of Ulugssat were of all dimensions. There was the big Tomge's palace, in which the interior was divided into two benches with a sleeping capacity for at least twenty — a comfortable room, entirely lined with wood, and festively illuminated by three brilliant train-oil lamps. Delicious meat and glossy narwhal skin were temptingly laid out on platforms of flat stones built for this purpose near the lamps. Such was the 86 FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER house of the greatest hunter; but there was also the den of old Simigaq, where the passage was so narrow that, in spite of honest attempts, I did not succeed in squeezing myself through to pay her a short call. Simigaq, "The Corked-up One," is the oldest woman of the tribe. In a small way she still invokes the aid of the "ministering spirits " when fate, or the camp, seems to oppose her desires. Otherwise she is like a living book for all those who like to listen to old stories and myths. And Simigaq is never pressed in vain. THE MEAT IS GATHERED In Ulugssat the afternoon was passed in the buying in of meat for men and dogs; and we had a busy day of it as we ourselves had to be present everywhere. It is of importance to select the best flensing parts of the meat, preferably pieces where the skin is already separated from the flesh. Furthermore, during the winter the women of the camp had been given commissions to make a lot of kamiks (shoes) and mittens, and these articles now had to be delivered, criticized, and paid for. In the midst of all this business which could not be delayed, we had to find time for all the unavoidable meat feasts given to celebrate our departure. Well meant as they were, we found them somewhat of a strain ; fourteen meals of walrus meat in the course of one day is a considerable feat. It certainly eased the strain that the meat was served in different ways. Some of it was freshly boiled ; some newly killed but frozen; some, again, decayed but frozen. This last sounds bad but tastes good. But this excessive hospitality made us all so heavy with food that we looked forward with longing to a night's rest. In Ilanguaq, " The Little Companion's," house drum-songs were sung with great enthusiasm. I called, but I had to clear out quickly again as the heat was so excessive as to wet one through. Nevertheless, I was told next morning that the singers kept it up all night. As the population from the sur- 37 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA rounding camps had poured in to bring me meat and accompany us on our way, there were many sledges about. Such an occasion for improvised musical feasts is greedily seized upon, and each one sings exclusively the drum-songs which he himself has composed. Late in the evening, long after my housemates were asleep, I heard creaking footsteps in the frozen snow. A little later the door opened, and when she had carefully convinced herself that everybody else was asleep, old Simigaq entered and sat down by the head of my sleeping-place. It was her intention, she said, to make my sleep light. She wished to prepare my way towards the land of dreams with little sayings and legends ; but first of all she wanted to give me for my journey the advice of an old woman, for she believed that age gives certain powers which one may hand on to the young. She felt herself in debt to me since last we met. I had once saved her and brought her to my home from a bird-mountain, where her not very courteous son-in-law had deposited her for the time being ; now she wanted to pay that debt before I left. If it be true that age gives to old people's words a strength which can be transmitted to the young, old Simigaq was certainly a tre- mendous source of power. Not only was she the oldest woman in the tribe — red-eyed, toothless, baldheaded, crooked with rheumatism, nearly blind, and thus in possession of every scar which a long and hard life leaves— but, in addition to all this, she had now become so ugly and withered that they said she could not sink even if she were thrown into the sea. But in spite of this, the memory of the time when she was young, and her powers were directed to quite different ends, still lived fresh and merry in her consciousness. She herself told that she had been the possessor of an extra- ordinarily fair complexion, and of thick hair which, Uke a water- fall, hung down about her naked body. She was also tall and deep-bosomed, and to all these charms was added a care-free and happy temperament. The men vied with each other in their efforts to win her favours, and her attractiveness resulted m several marriages. At last she had found a haven with a 88 FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER man called " The Little Throat " ; she had been married to him for several years. But this was when the white men only fit- fully visited " The Land of Men," and when guns and the other implements for the daily catch were unknown. The use of the kayak had been forgotten, and now one camped near the bird- mountains during the summer when the sea was open. It happened not infrequently that there was a famine during the winter, for one must gather many Sea-kings before one could lay in a store large enough to see one safely through the Polar night. On one occasion, when there had been a poor hunt and everybody was hungry, " The Little Throat " suddenly disap- peared from the stone hut. It was no longer good to be there. But, strangely enough, the whole stock of puppies disappeared at the same time, and this aroused Simigaq's suspicions. She went to the mountains and tracked down her man, who sat gorging himself on the puppies, which he had roasted on a flat stone. The annoying part was not so much the fact that the puppies, which should have hauled their sledges on their journeys next spring, were killed, but rather the circumstance that "The Little Throat" had deceitfully eaten them alone, without asking his beautiful woman to share in the feast. Naturally this led to a divorce. Thus " The Corked-up One " had again passed from hand to hand for some time until she had married Kajok, called "The Yellow One," with whom she had lived happily until his death. And now this weather-worn and hardened old woman, who had lived such a life of good and evil, was sitting at my head, wanting me to share the benefit of her experiences, the result of her long life. On a long journey it would be as well to be on good terms with the spirits that rule over mountains and abysses ; the loneliness also had its powers, of which puny man must beware. Therefore she came to me this last night with a few magic songs. Oh, she said, these magic songs were poor and insignificant, a collection of short, meaningless words. But what about that? 89 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA After all, we humans understand so little of that which is met with in places where one is alone with the silent world. This was her explanation and her excuse. And while, possessed like a pagan priestess, she mimibled her songs through her toothless gums, I lay close to her on my rug and listened. Here is the song of life, the song for him who wishes to live : Day arises From its sleep, Day wakes up With the dawning light. Also you must arise^ Also you must awake Together with the day which comes. She murmured the words to me, whispering and distant in her ecstasy, until they were as if burnt into my consciousness. Then came the song sung by men who, driving heavily and slowly, are in danger of death : Forth, forth. Sledge, glider, travelling tool ! Your fat cheeks you must smooth, That they may run easily ! If the game disappears, so that one must starve, the follow- ing is sung : Heigh — from the deep Sea-beasts I caught, Heigh — heigh, Walrus I killed From the deep. Heigh — heigh, Narwhals I harpooned. Black-sides, seals did I take From the deep. . . . Thus a good catch is secured. She chanted words which disperse the fog; the bear-song which lures forth the bear ; the drinking song which procures water for the thirsty ; and songs to be sung during the climbing of mountains — all of them useful and indispensable for him who travels to unknown countries. The mountain-song was the last one I heard, then the 40 YOUNG BEAR-HUNTER TWO ESKIMO BOYS OF SEVENTEEN YEARS FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER monotonous voice overpowered me, and when I opened my eyes after a few hours' sleep, old Simigaq had long ago crept home to her modest den. I jumped down from the bench and peeped out through the window to look at the weather. It was light as day now, even in the middle of the night ; the sky was clear, without a single cloud, rounding itself like a blue dome above the land and the white ice. A faint pink tinge announced that sunrise was not far away, but it was yet too early to break camp. Next day, in brilliant sunshine, I drove on with Ajako to the camp of Igdluluarssuit, while all the other sledges went directly to Neqe. We still wanted a couple of pack-sledges and some more meat, and at Igdluluarssuit lived Sipsu, an ex- cellent hunter and experienced sledge-driver, whom I would fain have with me on the last pack-sledge right up to Fort Conger. April 9th. — The following day the sledges and all the meat procured at Neqe were collected. The heaped meat formed a considerable bulk, and we had twenty-seven sledges and 354 dogs to transport it. This was rather a large apparatus to set moving for the sake of six sledges, and to understand it the following explanation is necessary : As already mentioned, all our equipment was Eskimo throughout, as were also the provisions. Walrus meat is excel- lent food for the dogs, but it has the great drawback of containing 65-70 per cent, of water. This makes it very heavy for transport, and whilst one can reckon a pound of pemmican a day for each dog, one must reckon of walrus meat or skin about three pounds a day, or from five to six pounds every second day. And besides our own dogs we had, of course, to feed the teams of the pack-sledges as well. We planned our journey so that altogether fifteen sledges were to go to Humboldt's Glacier, thirteen to Cape Constitution, eight to Thank God Harbour on Polaris Promontory, and by the time we arrived here the loads would be so reduced that the six sledges for the long voyage could take over everything. The meat, ordered beforehand, lay ready for us on the ice- foot. I had only to pay for it and then distribute the loads. 41 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA The payment generally demanded consisted of powder, lead, and percussion caps. This part of the business was easily and quickly arranged. It is not difficult to come to an agreement with Eskimos with regard to provisions for a large expedition for an indefinite period. They fully sympathize in a matter like this. Greater difficulties arose in the distribution of the meat on the twenty-seven sledges ; for here one had to consider not only the strength of the teams but also the quality of the sledges. When everything was in order the motley train set out, and the eager dogs rushed across the ice to the accompaniment of screeching whip-lashes, soon to disappear behind the nearest headland. Our road for the first six miles lay across the frozen ocean as far as Cape Alexander, where the water is always open, even in the severest weather. This water we had to get round by driving up across the inland-ice. We started at four o'clock, and the glacier where the ascent was to commence we reached at about seven in the evening. Here we all stopped and made the inevitable cup of coffee, the local cup that cheers. The passage does not take more than a couple of hours, but it is generally exceedingly hard work. First one toils up the steep slopes, dripping with perspiration ; then, at a height of three hundred metres, comes the biting north wind which, in clear weather, always rages round the neck of Cape Alexander. The drifting snow is as thick here as an English fog, cold and damnable, and often so violent as to make it almost impossible for one who comes from the south to drive the dogs up against the wind. The habit of strengthen- ing oneself with a cup of good, strong coffee is therefore not to be wondered at. It was difficult to get the heavy sledges up the glacier, which is always blown hard and smooth; but as there were many of us to share the burden, the crossing was successfully accomplished. The storm and the drifting snow we accepted with a good temper, knowing that we would doubly appreciate the calm weather which always awaits the traveller on the frozen sea. 42 FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER GUESTS OF THE AMERICAN EXPEDITION April 10th. — At four o'clock in the morning we arrived with all our train at Etah, where we camped on the ice just outside the headquarters of the Crockerland Expedition. In spite of our early arrival, we had the heartiest reception from Captain Comer, who is always early up and about. He invited us into the house, where Mr. McMillan offered us breakfast, an invitation we could only accept a few hours later when our populous and elaborate camp was made. For three days we were the guests of our American colleagues, and during that time we were shown every kindness. We had originally decided to spend only a day here, but bad weather forced us to prolong our visit. During our stay Mr. McMillan kindly helped us with some pemmican and biscuits, an excellent supplement to our own stores. April llth-12th. — ^We spent the days at Etah killing time in various ways. We dived into the very extensive library of the Crockerland Expedition, visited the Eskimo families which were all old friends of ours, and every evening ended with a ball which lasted into the early hours of the morning. The Americans had a wonderful gramophone, which enter- tained us greatly with its varied and select repertoire. There was something for everybody's taste, so that at times we heard songs from all the operas of the world, sung by Caruso, Alma Gluck, Adelina Patti, etc., and at other times we abandoned ourselves to musical debauches, for a change indulging in tangos and one-steps. People at home who have access to real music, performed either by themselves or by professional artists, generally turn up their noses at our joy in the gramophone, which they regard as a musical disgrace. I do not consider that I am more un- musical than the average man, but I confess, nevertheless, that I am one of those who pay homage to the gramophone. Wherever I have met it, be it in a winter camp among the 43 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA Eskimos or among the Danish famihes in the Greenland colonies, it always brought a pecuUarly pathetic greeting from all that which we up here so keenly long for, but must forgo ; and I have seen many a man, whom one could not otherwise accuse of sentimentality, forcibly subdue the emotion which the gramophone's music aroused. The three days spent in involuntary idleness took a good slice out of our meat stores. But one day, as I was trying to make up my mind as to how much more we could permit our- selves to eat in case the storm should last, a man named Majaq appeared, and he rid my mind of all cares. He had spent spring and autumn by Renslaer Harbour and told me that he still possessed considerable meat stores there, which he put entirely at the disposal of the expedition if only we would pay him in ammunition ; this offer we of course accepted with joy. On the 13th of April, in the afternoon, the weather at last calmed down so that we could think of breaking up. There was still a gale, but as under all circumstances here in Etah wind and good weather go together, we made ready and drove up against the wind. Towards morning we reached Anoritoq and camped for the night. ICE-BEAR, THE WIDOW'S SON By a freak of fate Anoritoq possesses a name which means " The Windswept One." This little camp, which has become world-famous as the winter quarters of Dr. Cook's pretended Polar Expedition, is, however, the only place in the neighbour- hood of Etah which is always dead calm. Anoritoq's name is derived from an old tale about a certain Anoritoq who reared a bear. The woman Arnajaq tells the following : Once there was a man named Angutdligamaq, who himself never hunted. He occasionally went out on the ice, and if he chanced to meet a man dragging a seal along, he killed him and took the seal home as his own catch. In this way he lived. 44 FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER His countrymen dared not rebel against him because he was so strong, and thus it came to pass that through many years he lived by murder and robbery. But one day they decided that he was going too far, so they agreed to defeat him with cunning. "Listen, Angutdligamaq," someone said, "you do not know what fun it is to go hunting with others ; you ought to try it, I am sure you would then join us every day." When Angut- dligamaq heard this he joined the hunters of the camp on the next day. But as he was quite unused to the life outside the houses he was very clumsy, and his comrades had to ^lelp him in everything he did. In the evening they all lay down to sleep in a snow-hut, but he did not know how to set about this either. " How does one rest in a snow-hut?" " One sleeps best if one pulls one leg out of the trousers," the others replied. This he did and soon he was fast asleep. But as soon as his comrades saw his bare behind, they rushed up and buried a spear in it. And Angutdligamaq, bellowing with pain, jumped up in the air, and thereby forced the point of the spear still further in and died. His comrades then returned home. " What has become of Angutdligamaq?" the mother asked, she who was called Anoritoq, " The Windswept One." "He was killed," the others answered. " When next you catch a pregnant bear, then give to me the embryo that it may be my child," the woman begged of them. Then one day, when the hunters had caught a pregnant bear, they, brought the embryo home to the woman, and she reared it with blubber from her lamp, and soon it was so big it could catch seals for her. The bear was called Anoritoq 's son. In the winter, when the great darkness came, the bear could no longer see to catch the seals, and then it started stealing from other men's meat stores. " You must not steal," the foster-mother anxiously warned it ; "your cousins will stop you and the people will kill you." The dogs were called the bear's cousins. 45 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA " Oh, I will run away before the wind," the bear said, " then the dogs cannot scent me." Nevertheless, one day things went wrong. The dogs stopped the bear, and the people killed it. For many days the woman waited anxiously, for although nobody had told her, she feared that this animal, of which she had now grown fond, had been killed. One day when, as usual, she had warned it not to steal, she had blackened one of its sides with soot from her lamp. " In this way I shall at least know for certain if it should be killed," she said. She now told the people in her camp to drive out and ask in other places whether anyone had killed a bear Avith soot on one side ; and before long sledges returned and told her that a bear like this had been killed in one of the neighbouring camps. The woman sorrowed greatly when she knew that her foster- son was dead. Weeping, she left her house and sat down on the headland outside the camp. As she looked- across the endless ice which had previously been the bear's hunting- ground, she sang : In vain looks the waiting one, In vain cries the sorrowing j Hard is the lot of the woman Who must shed tears without comfort ; Heavy is the lot of the woman who must survive Her only son. Bear, bear. Will you never return, Bear, bear ! Days and nights elapsed, and the woman would take no nourishment. Sobbing, she sang her song until the tears stiffened on her cheeks as her body turned to stone. One still sees her lifelike form on the headland by the camp. Her mouth is covered with a layer of hardened blubber, for they say that it brings luck to the bear-hunter if, before he goes out, he tries to feed the bear-mother with blubber. And in the quiet winter nights, when the northern light sends its ghostly rays across the heavens, one sees old hunters going towards the 46 FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER mountain under some plausible pretext. The next day fresh tracks in the snow show that the bear-mother has had visitors, and her face glistens with blubber. THE FIRST POLAR-ICE Before dawn, just as we had got up to light the Primuses, we were surprised to hear the barking of dogs and strange voices outside. Two young men had returned from a successful hunt of musk-ox in EUesmere Land, where they had slain forty animals. They provided us generously with fresh meat and tallow ; we then parted, each going his own way. From Anoritoq to Renslaer Harbour we had a beautiful but strenuous day's journey. From Cape Inglefield to Cape Ingersoll we travelled through strongly pressed-up ice. During this part of the autumn the whole of Kane Basin consists of huge drifting ice-floes; the current here sets very strongly towards land, and, whilst new ice is being formed, blocks of ice are pressed up where the drifting floes freeze together. These pressure-ridges are often so tall that one must hew a way through with axes. The heavily loaded sledges have to be slowly and carefully worked across, so that they shall not be crushed in a sudden fall from a height of several metres ; often they stick in awkward and desperate positions, where several men's strength is required to free them again. This is hot and laborious work, which, however, generally leads to so many comic situations that the task is shouldered with good temper. Near Cape Ingersoll we climbed on to an ice-foot about sixty metres broad which stretched before us as a beautiful and easy snow-free road. Above us towered the high red sandstone mountains, with an even gradient of snow-clad talus at the foot and steep precipices near the top. The red rays of the evening sun were refracted on to the snow and the mountains, and with this beautiful landscape before us we drove at a rapid trot to the camp by Renslaer Harbour which the Eskimo calls Aunartoq. The inner bend of this bay gives an exceedingly friendly impression. The country hereabout consists of beautiful 47 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA rounded hills of light granite, with moss and grass peeping out wherever the snow is blown away. Along the coast tall, elegant, and proud sandstone mountains stand on both sides of the bay, like a majestic porch leading to the Httle cove where the Eskimos have built a camp. The coast mountains, especially at sunset, are tinged with red, which contrasts beautifully with the greyish-white gneiss in the sheltered cove from which an even and uniform high plateau stretches like a large plain right up to the inland-ice. MAJAQ'S MEAT-PITS We were all curious to know how far Majaq would be able to keep his promise. He had spoken about masses of meat, but the Eskimo's idea of masses is often quite relative. As soon as we had made camp and tethered the dogs, I went with Majaq up to the little headland where his depot was supposed to be. With justifiable pride he pointed out over the plain and said: "All the meat which lies here is now yours; may your dogs grow strong on my catch." I saw at once that the man had not exaggerated; on the contrary, it would be difficult for us to use all he had offered. Here were seals and meat in abundance. While the tents of the expedition were pitched and snow-houses were being built, we pushed the huge stones away from the meat-pits to get at the seals. Thirty-five large, fat seals we took, and four delici- ous bearded seals. This represented such a large addition to the meat we already had that we decided to rest for a day for the express purpose of allowing the dogs to eat as much meat as they could possibly get down. We spent this hoUday, which abundance of meat allowed us to take, in studying the historical place whereto Majaq's meat-pits had led us. Majaq is one of the best hunters of the tribe, and is to be counted among those who are not fain to leave the neighbour- hood of Cape York, where the bear-hunts in Melville Bay tempt one to remain. But last year he had promised his wife 48 FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER and half -grown son that for once they should be given an oppor- tunity of a good airing for their clothes. They had lived by Cape York for such a long time that they almost stank with fixity of abode; therefore they had decided on this great removal. THE EIDERDUCK • Anoritoq had at that time been uninhabited for fifty years. The last man to settle here was called ' ' Eiderduck. ' ' Originally he had lived further southward, where there were many people, and where one thus did not suffer from the emptiness and longing due to the lack of people between the camps. But a local hunter had tried to rob him of his very beautiful wife, and as the wife did not appear to have sufficient respect for the " Eiderduck's" rights, the latter at last decided to move further northward. But on their way through the camps along the lands they fell upon illness and bad hunting. This happened in the time when evil fate might sweep down on men suddenly and un- mercifully ; and at that time it was the custom to leave behind, in some empty house which they casually came across, those who could not keep up with the other travellers. As a rule, those left behind were children. Windows and doors were covered with large stones, too heavy for the exhausted ones to move; thus they were left buried alive. This was not done with evil intent, it was in accordance with one of the traditions of the restless hunters. Weeping, and with loud lamentations, they tried to get away as quickly and as far as possible from the doomed, who in the course of a short time died of starvation and cold. In this way the " Eiderduck " left his children, one after the other. Only one child, the parents' favourite, accompanied them on a sledge, bundled in a skin. But as during the journey they became half-witted through illness, hunger, and exhaustion, the "Eiderduck" in the end asked his wife to throw the child from the sledge, so that it might have a quick and painless death in the cold. And this she did. The following day they repented of their heartlessness, but D 49 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA too late ; and in their regret over their own inhumanity they continued to travel further and further north. At Anoritoq they met many people who lived happily ; but sorrow weighed on their minds and they could not bear the company of people, so they continued their journey northward until at last they settled by Aunartoq. Here they lived alone for many years, and never travelled to visit other people. Those few who visited them always spoke of their great hospitality, but never did they open their mouths to let out a superfluous word, never was a smile seen on their lips. Once when someone went to visit them they were both found to be dead. There was a sufiiciency of meat in their stores, arid the visitors concluded that they had starved themselves to death so that they might follow the child which they had killed. Since the " Eiderduck's " time nobody had lived by Renslaer Harbour; the place was in evil repute. First now in 1916 Majaq had moved out here, but although the catch of spring and summer had been so abundant that all his meat-pits were flowing over, he nevertheless moved in the autumn down to Etah, so great was his longing for companionship. Majaq chose to struggle through the dark period far from his own meat stores, wherefore his countrymen said that he was mad ; but the loneliness had weighed on him so heavily in the place where lay the bones of the " Eiderduck " that he preferred to live in poverty among fellow-creatures. "SPRING-TIME" CAMP The camp Aunartoq, the place where spring comes early, consisted merely of three houses, and these were all very old. Among some ruins I found a piece of a sledge which seemed to have been made entirely from whale-rib. There was also a whale's head built into the wall. It was strange to see that even so far north, in places where the ice seldom quite disap- pears, the whale has played an important part, just as it has done in other parts of Smith Sound. Besides these things I found bones of walrus, bear, and musk-ox, and, of course, an 50 V" ^ Hr ^g 1^^ V '^H ^K>^^S psfc^pja %--'- ^'j.^m j^' ■ ■ ",^^^ ^■^ WINTKR-HOUSB BEFORE THE SNOW FALLS MY OWN DOGS READY FOR STARTING FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER abundance of gnawed seal bones. Many meat-pits of the usual form were built about the houses. I was somewhat surprised to find no bones of reindeer ; for this peaceful expanse between the ocean and the inland-ice has, at any rate during an earlier period, given the necessary con- ditions of life for many reindeer. The reason may, of course, be that this place was uninhabited at the time when the Eskimos hunted reindeer. Strange as it may seem, the reindeer has been looked upon by the present tribe as an unclean animal not to be eaten. It was only after 1864, when the immigrants from Baffin's Bay brought new customs to the country, that one learned to consider the reindeer as a meat giver ; since then it has been hunted with such thoroughness that it is almost extinct. The hunting conditions of Renslaer Harbour are briefly as follows : Every spring many seals and bearded seals are caught by the Utut method on the ice ; one can engage in Utut-hunting here practically all through the summer, as the ice generally remains on the water in the bays. Not until the middle of August does the melted water above the ice become so deep as to make this method of hunting impossible. Of late years the ice has not broken along the land, although very broad fissures have appeared round the headlands. Occasionally, however, walrus will be found in these clefts. Many hares are to be found inland, and occasionally reindeer. In the afternoon as soon as our work about the meat-pits was finished and the bearded seals and seals cut up into pieces of convenient size for the requirements of our journey, we had a party. We could not help rejoicing because of the great abundance which Majaq's meat depots had suddenly added to our possessions. The feast began with the production of a cinema film, which was a great success for all the actors. It was played near Majaq's hut, and even some of the largest and best of our dogs were allowed to take part in the play. The action of the play was as simple as possible, as it merely pictured the arrival of a lot of visitors to Majaq, who, with smiles and large gestures of 51 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA the hands, led them towards the piles of meat which we had just collected from his depots. Here we then partook of a brilliant feast. Although the proceedings amused them, the Eskimos re- garded the performance merely as a series of mad antics, and the actors did not seem to put great trust in Ajako, who, during his visit to Denmark in 1914, had seen similar things, and now told them that the pictures would at some time become alive. They listened to his explanations but paid only slight attention to such postulates, as they did not wish to accuse Ajako of a loose connection with the truth. Wulff handled the camera, and he did it in such a way that their spirits were further raised by the shouts with which he stimulated the actors. Unfortunately, a year and a half was to elapse before the result could be shown. After this mimic feast we started a real feast on rotten meat of bearded seal. The bearded seal is usually divided among the hunters, the most coveted parts being those from which the indispensable seal straps are taken. But Majaq had already cut out so many straps from his great catch that the last bearded seals he caught were cut up without separating the skin and blubber from the meat. The result of this mode of preserva- tion is that the big flensing pieces which are put down during early spring in stone mounds, far down in the cold soil, get only the slightest touch of decay. No ray of sun must reach the flesh which, when the sparing warmth of summer has gone, looks like half-dried, smoked meat, and tastes excellently. One very seldom sees bearded seal served in this way, and our appetites were voracious. Our dogs also were given their share, and although they numbered 185, they had as much as one dared to stuff into them without danger of bursting their in- ternal organs. After the meat coffee was served, succeeded by an exhibition on ski which furthered digestion of the solid meal by much laughter. Very few Eskimos have any practice in ski-ing down the hills, and as most of their efforts resulted in somersaults, we had plenty of opportunity for the exercise of our diaphragms. 52 Ww^'^sSi *«^ FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER That evening will never be forgotten. Soon the sun would be shining night and day, but as yet it still disappeared below the horizon for a few minutes, and created at its setting those wonderful ranges of illumination on the sandstone mountains and the white snow. These beautiful moments are over as soon as the more uniform light of the midnight sun shines night and day. The landscape was wonderful, not merely because the coast with the broad ice-foot and the beautiful coast mountains was in itself so charming, but also because the whole of Kane Basin, with its irregular plain of pack-ice, gave a wild and grand view to the north ; and every night the mountains of Grinnell Land appeared in the fleeing sunlight as burning, phantastic castles on the western horizon. GREAT BLOOD-BATH FJORD April 16th. — On the 16th of April we continued our journey northward on a broad ice-foot which gave easy and rapid pro- gress. The ice-foot is only formed in places where the water ebbs and flows to a considerable height. When the water falls, at ebb-tide, the cold is already so severe by the end of September that the coast, up to the high-water mark, is covered with a crust of ice, a thin layer being deposited at every ebb. In the course of October and November the ice-foot has reached its full thickness and forms a belt along the coast, a ribbon of ice following all the branchings of the shore. The level of the top of the ice-foot marks the highest tide of the year. Viewed from the sea-ice it stands boldly like a wall. Where the coast consists of steep mountains the ice-foot is quite narrow, because in these places it hangs on the sides of the cliffs without support beneath ; but where the coast is flat the bottom of the sea supports it, and in this case it is often very broad. In no place is it broader than along the coast of Kane Basin, where it measures from sixty to one hundred metres. It was a joy to us all to shoot along this lovely road. We 58 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA followed the foot of the beautiful sandstone mountains which, with flaming red colours, fresh as ruddy cheeks against the white snow, flanked our way. Out to seaward of us were the pressed-up ice-floes of Kane Basin, where deep snow made bad travelling, and, as we passed above it, raised beyond all its difiiculties on the chaussSe of the tidal waters, wantonly we cracked our whips at all this devilment which we had robbed of all opportunity to trip us up and hinder our quick progress. Washington Land could already be discerned ahead. Every- where was April's sun and high spirits. At Cape Taney we passed four large tower-traps and six ordinary fox-traps; the former are rather common here but unknown in the rest of western Greenland. A tower-trap is about 170 centimetres high, built in the form of a beacon ; the Eskimos call it Uvdhsat, which signifies a trap which may be left for several days without inspection. The foxes are caught in the following manner : Rotten seals are put at the bottom of the hollow stone beacon, which is built in such a way that it is roomy at the base and very narrow towards the top. So as not to arouse the suspicions of the fox, the opening is covered with willow branches smeared with blood. When a fox jumps down into a trap it cannot get up again; and in the course of a few days several foxes may be caught in the same trap. At Marshall Bay we divided into two parties, so that eleven sledges, with Dr. Wulff as leader, drove right out on the broad bay where travelling was easiest, while Koch and I with two other sledges drove inland by the head of the bay looking for Eskimo ruins. For our guide we had the great Tornge, who had lived here himself in 1916. His longing for reindeer- hunting had lured him to these northern parts. Next to bear- hunting, reindeer-hunting is the most exciting game an Eskimo knows. It is considered more "swell" to catch a bear, but otherwise the hunting of reindeer is without comparison the most elegant. Wild reindeer are very shy, and to get within shooting distance not only skill and cunning is required but also an incredible amount of endurance. They provide both tender 54 FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER and savoury meat and delicious tallow, and their skins are in great demand. The place where Tornge wintered is called by the Eskimos Inugarfigssuaq or "Great Blood-Bath Fjord." As in all places where human activity has left its marks, tales are bound up with the country. Tornge tells the following : At the time when there were many people and all countries were inhabited, many houses were to be found by the Bight of Qaqaitsut near Advance Bay, not far from the great glacier. One day two boys started fighting here ; their grandfathers stood looking on. It so happened that one of the old men interfered and started thrashing one of the boys. But the other grandfather became so enraged by seeing his grandchild thrashed, that he went forth and killed the grandchild of the other man. But then the first grandfather killed the other grandchild and the murder of the two boys gave occasion for everybody at the camp to take sides; so the first thing they did was to kill both the grandfathers. This beginning made people wild and gave rise to a senseless slaughter. A madness which no one could explain had seized on the camp, and all travelled southward, fleeing and killing, so that all the little bays the sledges had to cross were filled with slaughtered men. And all the dead showed black against the white ice, just like seals sunning themselves on a spring day. How long the killing lasted no one knows ; but suddenly they discovered that rage had carried them so far that really one had no quarrel at all with the man one killed. Then they stopped, heartbroken over the wrong they had committed. But the flight continued southwards to lands where the sun was warmer and the winter nights shorter. And the largest of the fjords where most dead were lying was later on called "Great Blood-Bath Fjord. ..." This is a simple and naive Eskimo tale of the origin of war — naive, but eternally true wherever man kills. This myth Tornge told us as an introduction to the tale of 55 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA his wintering. He was interested in everything connected with the camp and the hunt, and with great perspicuity he gave us a picture of the Uf e he had led so that all his great and small joys stood lifelike before us. As a rule the winter-ice lies untouched until the following autumn. But the end of August or the beginning of September— so late that a thin ice is already being formed — the rivers melt round basin-like holes in the ice at their mouths, and a fissure which during summer-time has formed off Cape Russell widens out broadly. This is all the open sea they have. The inland tracts were prolific in hare and reindeer. Tornge and three camp-fellows had killed no less than a hundred during the autumn. They had moved far into the country to some large lakes situated near the inland-ice, and here they had camped in small stone huts during August and September. These huts are primitive houses, having walls of stone and roofs of hide. Women and children accompanied the men on these expeditions, remaining by the huts while the men were hunting. The best hunting memories of Tornge's life were linked up with his visit to the surroundings of Marshall Bay. The wintering had one drawback only — it was difficult to find sufficient food for the dogs, as the seals did not last out well. One felt the lack of narwhal and walrus, which yield more lasting food. Eiderducks and ice-gulls were to be found in all openings of the ice, and on the lakes long-tailed ducks and loons. During a hunt for reindeer, salmon was found on the top of Cape Russell at a height of about 300 metres. The lake was not very large, but notwithstanding this many salmon .were caught, some of them as long as a man's arm. In the camp were found altogether eighteen ruins of houses, with many tent-rings and meat-pits. Tornge's house was an old ruin which had been repaired. In the wall we found the remains of whale-ribs, and in the midden remains of whale, walrus, bearded seal, seal, musk-ox, reindeer, fox, and hare. Fishing-hooks made from the antlers of reindeer had also been found. 56 FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER Tornge's house was large and beautifully built ; it was of the type called Samisulik, containing a large main room with a .small room at the side, both provided with benches. In the small side room his daughter and son-in-law had been living. A short distance away we found an unusually large ruin, which had an inside circumference of rather more than 30 metres. This points to the probability that local hunting conditions must have been, also during an earlier period, ideal. The head- land where the houses were situated was full of gneiss, inter- sected by many well-grown grass meadows. The place looked kind and smiling ; and there was plenty of water, both in rivulets and lakes. Three kilometres from the mainland there is a small, steep, and rather inaccessible island of gneiss, whose entire breadth is about 200 metres, and whose length is 500 metres. On this little island we found no less than ten houses. This strange choice of a place of habitation was probably due to the easy access which it provided to the open sea by Cape Russell and Cape Taney; besides which, the ice outside the island is probably a better place for the Utut-hunt. We named the island Avortungiaq's Island, after Tornge's daughter, who was the first to discover the ruins. On another little island nearer land, ruins and houses are also found. The ruins, which are the remains of an earlier Eskimo camp, in this comparatively small bay number about sixty. In addition to the camps here mentioned ruins were found by Cape Russell, Cape Wood, Dallas Bay, and in the bight of Advance Bay. On the stretch from Anoritoq to Cape Agassiz one can thus reckon with at least a hundred houses — a surprising number. Good ice-hunting must have taken place here during spring and autumn, and, in connection with the land-hunting, which must have been uncommonly good for a district like this, it has evidently tempted many people to settle here. The country from the coast inward seems a perfect oasis in this desert, for one must go right down to the south before one finds such a broad expanse of land. With the exception of the houses on the gneiss headland 57 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA by Torage's home, all ruins of houses on this coast are remark- ably small in size. The ruins at Cape Wood consisted of eight houses in a row, built of sand. The bank of earth encircling the house was quite plain and large, and small stones had been added to it ; but everything seems to indicate that the builders must have had some difficulty in procuring material. Re- mains of turf walls were not to be found at all, neither was there any trace of vegetation; the country was absolutely barren, and no peat was discovered in the neighbourhood. The camp gave one the impression of having been an " experiment station." The conditions for hunting must have been excel- lent. By a big stone near the houses one yet saw soot from a cooking-fire. Wherever possible the ruins were measured, but a proper exploration was out of the question, as we passed them in the beginning of April in 30° (Cent.) of cold. Everything was covered by deep snow. April ISth. — On the 18th of April we reached Dallas Bay, from which, near by Cape Kent, we drove out on Peabody Bay to cross over to Washington Land. The first day's journey we made fifty-six kilometres, though for the first twenty kilometres we had to toil slowly through deep snow. In some places we drove across awkward fioes of old ice, similar in character to the edge of the inland- ice. These floes have a rugged surface with deep holes, due to many summers of sunburn ; they look like a high sea, and the heavy sledges bob up and down on them as ships on the waves. April 19th. — ^When we arrived approximately in the middle of the bay, we built a camp of snow-huts, and here for the first time we had an excellent view of Humboldt's Glacier, the largest glacier in Greenland, so highly praised by Dr. Kane. Our expectations were tremendous because of his picturesque descriptions, which really do give the picture of an imagination overwhelmed by the great unknown. I will therefore quote this white man, the first who set eyes on this region. "I will not attempt to improve on reality by a flowery description. Man can only improvise about Niagara or the 58 FROM THULE TO HUMBOLDT'S GLACIER ocean. My notes speak artlessly of the long ever-gleaming- line of mountains, and of the dazzhng plain of ice. The mountain-line raised itself like a massive, glass-like virall, 300 feet above the sea, with unknown, unfathomable deeps at its foot; and its arched surface, sixty miles long from Cape Agassiz to Cape Forbes, lost itself in unknown spaces, no more than a single day's train journey from the North Pole. The inland regions with which it was connected, and from which it issued, was an unknown mer de glace, an ocean of ice of, so far as one can see, limitless dimensions. " In my inmost mind I had expected to meet with such a great glacier if ever I was happy enough to reach the north, coast of Greenland ; but now, when it lay before me, I could hardly grasp it. Here it lay, plastic, movable, a half-solid mass, crushing out life, swallowing cliffs and islands, and forcing its way with an irresistible movement down through a frozen sea." Reality proved a great disappointment to us. The glacier certainly was mighty in extent, for it was about a hundred kilometres broad ; but for one who is accustomed to travel under the extravagant glaciers of MelviUe Bay, which in a, single sneeze throw gleaming ice-mountains out into the ocean, Humboldt's Glacier seems to be merely a good-natured attempt at a half-dead ice-stream — scarcely capable of repro- duction. The edge of the glacier, which, almost without crevasses, slopes evenly as a high road out into Peabody Bay, is in most places of a height not exceeding fifty metres. In several places it runs smoothly down into the water, so that it is easily accessible from a boat. Our survey showed that the water for the greater part in Kane Basin is very low ; and the little ice-mountains, which approximately have the character of pieces of Sikussaq, are aground. A measurement of their height proved that Peabody Bay, as far out to sea as fifty-six kilometres, was no deeper than forty metres. Advance Bay itself consists of a lot of small, low islets, and the coast from Cape Agassiz is cut up by many shallow bights, 59' GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA .«o that a comparatively small rise in the ground here by Kane Basin would reveal large stretches of land. It is only possible to understand the nature of Humboldt's Glacier rightly by looking upon it as a continuation of the quiet and fissure-free edge of the inland-ice which runs down on Inglefield Land. Thus it is not correct to characterize Humboldt's Glacier as a glacier, but only as an even edge of ice to which the sea reaches up. The overwhelming impression made on Kane and his fol- lowers by this glacier must have been due to its extent. I fully admit that, looked upon as an ice-stream, it is imposing in its calm and quiet enormity, even if its kindly round back is quite different to what one would expect from the largest glacier in Greenland. rm FORWAKD AT AN EVEN TROT THE LITTLE BEAR, SURROUNDED BY ALL THE DOGS FROM HUMBOLDT GLACIER TO NEWMAN BAY CHAPTER III WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND ESKIMO bear-hunters had often told me that on the other side of the "Great Glacier" I should find a country dissimilar to theirs. In many places the cliffs were whitish-grey, in other places their foot showed up black as coal ; but only rarely did one find vegetation of any kind in the barren valleys. Now and then hares would come jumping from the moun- tain plateaux, and it also happened that the dogs would suddenly scent big game, presumably musk-ox; but in spite of many expeditions inland, these had never been found. What was of most interest to us, however, was that the bear-hunters also spoke of many places along the great headlands where heavy currents met and opened up the ice very early in the year. Many bearded seals were to be found here, which would pro- vide us with a welcome addition to our stores. It was therefore in a state of great excitement that we approached this country which the Eskimos call Akia — i.e., "the country on the other side of the Great Glacier," whilst the Americans have christened it "Washington Land." April 20th. — Driving had been easy across the whole of Peabody Bay, so with a distance of 66 kilometres behind us we made camp by an ice-mountain off the cliffs of Cass Bay on the evening of the 20th of April, under a heavy snowfall and grow- ing storm. The next morning we woke up to the same kind of weather, but, as we were all impatient to get northward, we had no time to consider this. Lauge Koch went on land near Cape Clay, whilst I rounded Cass Bay along the ice-foot to see 61 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA if I could not come across winter-houses which might continue the chain of the surprisingly many we had passed at Inglefield Land. The result was a negative one, and we had to be con- tented with the finding of a number of meat-pits of the ordinary Eskimo type; a single tent-ring we also found, but it was a .square one, and therefore would be one of the remains from Morton's and Hans Hendrik's voyage. Late in the evening we came back to the tent-camp, with wind-bitten faces and stiff limbs, and soon discovered that something joyous must have happened. The camp was in a ■tumult. The Eskimos ran towards us with loud shouts, and now and then they would spring up in the air slapping their thighs — always a sign of happiness. As soon as we were -within shouting distance, we were informed that Koch and Inukitsoq had shot a bear off Cape Clay, and the " Star" and Majaq had slain another two bears not far from the tent-camp. This news meant fresh and savoury meat in the pots for many -a day ahead, and a change in diet from walrus to bear is always beneficial. In addition to the successful bear-hunt, Koch had had a .great geological success, as he had found rich stone-bearing strata on the stretch of coast which he had examined. Nothing is more stimulating on a voyage than the success of a comrade, and as the results of the day had been rather poor so far as I was concerned, I decided to continue the jour- ney towards Humboldt's Glacier on the next day whilst my comrades continued northward. At this early stage of the voyage we could not afford to let the whole of the expedition wait for me, wherefore I must try to make a double journey and overtake the others in the course of the next two days. I knew there ought to be houses in the vicinity, as many liunters, through their parents, had heard tales of a camp north of Humboldt's Glacier; but nobody knew where it was situated, and the problem was to find the place. I therefore started my journey in along the coast early next day, while all the other sledges in a long row continued slowly northward. Koch wished to pay a supplementary call at Cape Clay, and 62 WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND with Inukitsoq as our companion we started explorations in good spirits, having firmly decided not to give up. We pro- gressed along the ice-foot, so that nothing could escape our attention. The passage here was often impossible and certain distances had to be driven on a most uncomfortable Sikussaq ice, a sign that the bays here are hardly ever free of ice. At last, 12 kilometres east of Cape Clay, some way into Benton's Bay, my toil was rewarded with success. The ice- foot in this place was very high and ridged, but a sudden impulse made me stop by one of the most inaccessible places, and I climbed upwards across neck-breaking ridges. My instinctive scent of houses was correct, for before me lay the camp for which I had searched in vain. It consisted of alto- gether six winter-houses, numerous tent-circles, and large, roomy meat-pits. The houses were built right on the beach on sand and pebbles. The material consisted entirely of stones, flat and oblong, and although some of them were not quite small, it was easy to see that it had been difficult to procure fitting material. A well-built house has an elaborate joining of walls and roof, but there was no sign at all of any such arrangements here. In spite of a thorough examination, I did not find any kind of vegetation in the vicinity. One of the houses was square, which is quite unusual in Eskimo architecture and must owe its form to consideration of the material. The others were of the usual beehive shape. We found only one remark- ably large house, a so-called Quarajalik, consisting of two houses built together, but with a common entrance. Whale- ribs were also found built into the houses ; they seemed to be inevitable in the architecture of this district. The m^eat-pits were similar in form and size to those we had measured and sketched in Melville Bay ; in some instances the stones had been put on edge — an uncommon method. Fur- thermore we found Qulisivit — stone hives wherein meat is dried. All this bore witness that the catch here had been a good one. In addition to the ruins already mentioned I found ten tent-rings. Some of these were unusually large and built with 63 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA comparatively high stone walls, so that they gave one the im- pression of having been a sort of structure between a house and a tent. It may be that lack of material has led to an invention peculiar to this locality. I have mentioned the excellent conditions for seal-hunting which this neighbourhood offers ; even for Eskimos with very primitive hunting gear it cannot have been difl&cult to procure their daily food. The catch must have been chiefly seal, and there may also have been, especially in spring and autumn, a good hunt of ice-bears in Peabody Bay, and of reindeer and musk-ox in Inglefield Land. April 23rd. — I was glad that the energetic explorations during these latter days had given such good results ; for the ruins found and measured by me pushed the record of Eskimo ruins to the north side of Humboldt's Glacier ; and as my aim was to collect material for a contribution to a study of the Eskimos' wanderings north of Greenland, I considered the start made was a good one. The point was now to prove whether camps had existed further ahead along our route ; and even if at the outset one might take it for granted, with some degree of certainty, that habitation must have been somewhat fitful all the way along this inhospitable coast, I had some reason to hope for decisive results in the great fjords between Cape Bryan and Cape Washington north of de Long Fjord. Encouraged by our good luck, we set out at once to over- take our comrades and the pack-sledges which had already a day's start of us. Near Cape Webster we met Uvdloriaq, previously a mem- ber of the first Thule Expedition. He was now engaged with a pack-sledge, and although he originally should have accom- panied us right up to Cape Constitution, he had had to stop here, as severe and painful sciatica prevented him from navigat- ing the sledge across the pressure-ice and on the, in some places, rather awkward ice-foot. Round this steep red cape a fresh wind and a sweeping snow-spray is always blowing, and Uvdloriaq had been forced, in spite of his pains, to build himself a snow-hut against the 64 WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND mountain-side. Here we stopped, and as we found Koch busily collecting fossils a little way ahead, we took the oppor- tunity to make ourselves a cup of cocoa to celebrate as cheer- fully as possible the parting with our old comrade. The whole coast of Washington Land had, like Inglefield Land, a broad ice-foot where driving was easy; we first mounted this at Cape Webster, as the sea-ice up to that point had been good. After an hour's rest we continued the journey, but unfortunately we did not succeed in overtaking our comrades on that day, for when we came to Morris Bay we had covered a distance of 90 kilometres ; we ourselves were sleepy, and it is always unwise to overstrain the dogs at the start. The coast mountains, reaching a height of from 200 to 300 metres, were everywhere rich in fossils and often of unusual beauty. The reaches from Cape Webster to Wright Bay especially impressed us. Here we found limestone mountains of phantastic formation, with grey, cold colours at their foot, and near the summit glowing red shades finely attuned. The formations themselves with their massive contours led one's thoughts back to the burghs of the Middle Ages, where the wide gateways were not the least imposing feature of this natural architecture. Near Cape Callhoum the country changed character. The steep mountain-sides, which gave an impression of sky-scrapers — ^because we on the ice-foot drove right underneath them — were relieved by low country sloping evenly and picturesquely upwards ; simultaneously the ice-foot turned into a broad and snowless chaussee which made the dogs go for dear life. We looked in vain for game. Sometimes the dogs got the scent, so that any moment we expected to see the black fluttering coat of a musk-ox in one of the broad-bottomed doughs. But nothing living could we discover. We made camp hurriedly and after six hours' rest we con- tinued, to overtake our comrades at last near Cape Jefferson ; they had camped right off a coral reef which, in this landscape, had a paradoxical effect. E 65 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA The reunion was a merry one. They had shot a small bear, which was already half eaten when we arrived; and, in spite of its shyness, a small hare also had had to lay down its life for Tornge's sure aim. The antlers of a reindeer which were found a short distance inland we looked at with interest. After a short rest, during which we were given our part of the tender bear-flesh, we drove on and reached in the morning Cape Constitution, having passed a lot of pressure-ice in Lafayette Bay. April 24sth. — In Lafayette Bay the dogs had repeatedly got the scent, and after some minutes of hot pursuit we had as a rule met with fresh tracks. But as it was difficult to follow the trails across the awkward pressure-ridges, where the sledges frequently toppled over among the uneven ice-blocks, we had had to give up the hunt. But the dogs' keenness was now aroused, and although the journeys of the last few days had been very long, and the load on the sledges weighed at least 500 kilograms, the speed increased during the night. In the neighbourhood of the big Crozier Island the dogs forgot all their weariness and galloped along towards Cape Constitution. During the monotonous everyday drive the dogs are always hypnotized forward by the will of the driver ; herein lies all the art of dog-driving. But if something unusual happens and the dogs stand trembling against the wind with quivering nostrils, then it is often the animal which influences the man. Thus it was to-day ; even we were smitten with the contagious hunting fever. Hardly had we pulled in under the grey mountain-sides when off they rushed with us. Three times fresh bear-tracks pointed forward, and the dogs, who had been cheated several times during the day, now seemed flrmly decided to overtake the bear so that the journey might end with a meal of fresh meat. The wind had blown away the snow along the mountain- sides, and the sledges shot across little blocks of pressure-ice with such speed that I often feared that the runners would break. In a bay between Cape Constitution and Cape Independence I made a halt by an ice-mounlain, well adapted 66 WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND for a camping-ground. The dogs were very disappointed because the hunt had been interrupted, and gave vent to their impatience with a loud yelping which made the echoes vibrate between the steep mountains of the bay. A little way behind me the other sledges came on, and as soon as they discovered that I was on the point of unloading, they gave their dogs the bear-signal and came rushing towards me at a desperate speed. We spread out over the ice in different directions, but even here it was difficult to follow the tracks because the snow had drifted so firmly together that no marks were left after the bears' paws. After four hours' tracking we had to give up the hunt, and one by one the sledges returned to the camp, slowly and hesitatingly, with dis- appointed drivers and disgusted dogs. But up above from the highest summit of Cape Constitu- tion a falcon sailed down to meet us ; proud and silent, it swept towards us with pointed wings restfuUy spread out, to bid us welcome to its royal hunting-grounds. But as it reached our camp and set its little cold eyes on our loads which, in our eagerness for the hunt, we had thrown about in wild disorder, we heard a screech which quickly turned into derisive laughter. It saw in an instant that this was not a meeting with com- petitors, and to show its contempt it beat out in a quick circle across the ice where the bears had escaped. We all stood near our sledges, looking after it with poorly disguised envy; for we knew that the falcon would, with the same shrill laughter, in the course of a few minutes glide above the big game which in vain we had tracked all through the day. WE WRITE TO DENMARK April 25th. — For the last time we made a large camp. Five pack-sledges must now return, so that only two men remained to accompany us to HaU's Grave. But before the sledges left us, we were to write our last letters home ; for one of the musk-ox hunters we met at Anoritok, and who lived right down by Cape Seddon in the 67 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA southern part of Melville Bay, had promised to wait for our mail. From Cape Seddon they would be brought by one of the whalers by the end of May to the district of Upemivik, from whence they would reach Denmark some time during the course of the summer. Our camp was bitterly cold and there was a strong wind, but nevertheless we worked busily at our reports ; the already considerable collection of fossils was suitably packed for being sent southward. In the afternoon everything was ready, and the pack- sledges at once started on the homeward journey so that they might not unnecessarily waste our provisions and the food for our dogs. Their departure was quick and without cere- mony, as is the custom amongst hunters ; but we knew that their thoughts would often dwell on our fate, for they are all men whose lives have been spent on long journeys, and they know by experience how quickly evil and good interchange in the life of a hunter. They are : The great Tornge, who, after an unsuccessful journey towards the North Pole, has fought for life through a long winter by the big Lake Hazen in Grant Land ; the hand- some Pauluna, who has shared in the adventurous winterings by Cape Sheridan ; and finally Majaq, the courageous hunter who played the part of the northernmost provision dealer in the world at Renslaer Harbour. When we took leave of these men something happened which moved me deeply. Besides those mentioned as re- turning, young Inukitsoq was also present ; he had his bap- tism of fire during the first Thule Expedition, and together with Uvdloriaq he is well known to those who have read my travelling diary of 1912. Once during serious diflSculties we promised each other that we would never undertake such a journey again. Inukitsoq kept his word, I broke mine. We remembered this incident during all the fun of leave-taking, which the Eskimos appreciate so highly, and he became sud- denly very serious and went up to his team of dogs, which is renowned throughout the tribe as the strongest and most 68 WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND enduring. Without a word he unharnessed three of his strongest and best dogs and brought them to me with the pro- posal that I should exchange for them the three poorest ones of my team. Only the man who knows the value of sledge- dogs will be able to appreciate this friendly act. In the afternoon, immediately after the pack-sledges had left, we made ready to break camp, and drove off in the cool sunlit night northward along Brown's coast. We constantly came across bear-tracks, but having gained experience through our many unsuccessful attempts, we decided not to put an extra strain on the dogs; keenness for the hunt wears them down, especially when the result is a negative one. Some way out on Kennedy Channel we met with a high, difficult pressure-ridge, through which we had to hew our way with axes. It represents several years of Polar-ice which has drifted into the channel and been ground together by current and wind. For long stretches we passed the ill-famed Sikussaq, which is so dangerous for heavy-laden sledges. And right enough, one of our sledges was driven to pieces. When we had tied it together with straps we decided to break through towards land; we succeeded, and here, to our great joy, we found good and easy new ice. April 26th. — Thanks to this circumstance, we reached the south-west side of Cape Bryan, where we made camp at ten o'clock in the morning during the beginning of a snow- storm. The distance covered during the day's journey of four- teen hours was 66 kilometres, in spite of considerable delays caused by the pressure-ice. All through the night we had a view of the steep coast mountains on Grinnell's Land, which with their glacier-swathed peaks looked like spirit forms against the banal pressure-ice of Kennedy Channel. Thanks to the snowstorm, we had our first long and un- stinted sleep since the departure from Etah. The violent gusts which occasionally swept down from the 300 metres high mountains occasionally threatened to tear down the tent above our heads ; but the thin canvas bravely resisted the attack of the GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA storm, and we were warm and comfortable in our sleeping-bags and relished doubly the sweetness of rest which is the reward only of honest toil. April 27th. — A little after midnight we woke up and pulled ourselves together suflBciently to make a refreshing cup of cocoa ; then, as the storm persisted in sweeping across the tents and seemed to be still on the increase, we let sleep have its will with us and slept sweetly until dawn. We then broke camp and continued. Taught by yesterday's experience, we kept closely to land, occasionally driving upon the ice-foot wherever this was possible. Thus driving was fairly easy along our route, whilst out in the channel the pressure-ice was even worse than on the previous day. Off Cape Bryan we got quite clear of the pressure-ice and made good speed on the almost snowless ice which seemed to have settled late in the autumn. Off Hannah Island we found the carcase of a seal, half -eaten by a bear. We passed Bessel Fjord in a fresh breeze, and the peculiar indentation, surrounded on all sides by steep mountains inter- sected by hanging tongues of ice, looked eerie and desolate. We halted by Cape Morton, and as the storm was still on the increase, we succumbed to a momentary laziness and made camp, although we really meant to cross Petermann Fjord on this day. April 28th. — However, later in the day we found that our laziness was merely a proof that we had eyes in the back of our head as well. This is how it happened : As soon as the dogs were fed, and the tent stayed so as to be able to withstand the storm, Koch and I decided to take Inukitsoq and set out on a small excursion to the bay in our immediate vicinity. Surrounded by high mountains, the head of the bay looked very inviting with a high terrace-Uke beach stretching like an amphitheatre up towards a broad, dead glacier. Here Koch and Inukitsoq found an old depot from Nares' 1875-76 Expedition a little way above the beach. It consisted of six boxes, each containing four 9-pound tins of Australian 70 WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND mutton, fresh and delicious as if it had been left only the previous day. Next to the boxes we found a broken barrel marked : Arctic Service. H.M.S. "DISCOVERY." Sugar. Unfortunately a sweet-toothed bear had been here before us, and this was all the more annoying as sugar happened to be the article which we all coveted. So we had to content our- selves with unusually well-preserved boiled beef. The tins were marked : " Meat Preserving Co., Ltd. Agents, Wother- spoon and Co. Works, Winton Southland, N.Z." For a long time we were thus able to live grandly on food originally meant for Arctic colleagues who had travelled here before any of us were born. Our thanks to the brave English- men who left it here ; our compliments to the excellent firm which prepared this durable article ! Besides the mutton we found a large tin containing 20 kilo- grams of tallow, which was the dogs' share in this unexpected meal. April 29th. — We had to stay here for yet another day because of the violent storm. Although the snow seemed firm and the ice in many places lay bare and shiny, now and then there was such a thick drift that the high mountains on the other side of Petermann Fjord disappeared. At length, towards evening, the wind calmed down so that we could break up and cross the fjord. This fjord looked quaint and foreign in its surroundings. Everywhere the mountains along the coast fall steeply down towards the ice, and the dark-brownish tones showed gloomy and serious against, the even, white inland-ice which appears everywhere as a bank of white fog behind the coastland. In several places along the fjord, tongues of the glacier shoot down between the mountains, but at no point here is the pro- duction of ice-mountains apparent. On the whole, it seems that the ice up here on the northernmost latitudes differs from the ice further southward, in that in no place does one find real 71 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA ice-mountains. Even the blocks which now and then calve off from Humboldt's Glacier look like huge pieces of Polar-ice. In some places these are rather large, but never did we see them of such a height that they might be called icebergs, such as we know from the glaciers near Inglefield Gulf, Wolsten- holme Sound, and Melville Bay. After a few hours' driving it was manifest that we had been right in waiting whilst the storm was on, for even now, after the snow had ceased to drift, the wind blew so hard from the fjord that we had difficulty in standing when the Fohn-hke squalls whirled around us. The sky was uncannily beautiful, with big balloon-like clouds drifting along under the pressure of a hurricane. The ice seemed to have lain immovable here, as it consisted entirely of uneven Sikussaq. Frequently we were blown out into great basins formed during the ice-melting of the summer, big lakes up to 1 kilometre long covered with fresh- water ice, shiny as a mirror where neither men nor dogs could find a footing. Powerless to resist, we were flung away and slid along limply towards the opposite shore with the sledge in front and the miserably whining dogs behind us. Here we had to keep all our wits about us in order to prevent the sledge- runners being broken. But it would have been hopeless to attempt to make camp here, and in spite of everything we had to let matters take their course, for in no place could we find shelter for a tent ; and the complete absence of snow on the ice seemed to indicate that in this neighbourhood storms were the order of the day. After twelve hours' tussle with wind and slippery ice, we at last reached Offley Island. April SOth. — In the shelter of the small but high and steep island the tent was erected, and after that we attempted a musk-ox hunt. This tract consisted of dark limestone ; it was quite barren and gloomy. The storm whipped across it with such violence that it was often quite impossible to go against the wind. In spite of all our efforts the long chase had no result. We found no track of game and the country was almost void of vegetation. 72 WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND During the night we continued northward under the same difficult traveUing conditions, being swept along the shiny ice by the wind. Not until we were about six miles from Hall's Thank God Harbour did we reach a quiet zone with sufficient snow ; then the dogs, joyous in the sensation that they could once more stand firmly, set off at a sharp run so that early in the morning we were by Hall's Grave, where we camped. On this last part of our journey we saw several breathing- holes of seals, but although we might have hunted near these holes with some success, we were, thanks to the many tins of savoury mutton which Nares' Expedition so kindly had left us at Cape Lucie Marie, more interested in our progress than in the procuring of fresh meat. The sea-ice between Offley Island and Hall's Grave was young autumn ice, a broad belt stretching from the coast and outward. It would seem that everywhere here, probably dur- ing the month of August, the sea opens up along the land. But one need not go far out into the basin before one finds floes of several years' old Polar-ice, which is just as uninviting for sledges as it is for ships. I do not think it would be a mistake to lay down the rule that the ice right from the northern part of Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin, and Robeson Channel works loose during the short period of transition in August and September, when sudden autumn storms fight with the short Arctic summer. This is proved not merely by the ice we had an opportunity to observe every- where, but also by the experiences of all previous expeditions. But a real open Polar Sea is quite out of the question, for even that part of the Polar Sea which under the name of Lincoln Sea washes round Grant Land and the north coast of Green- land, has almost the same appearance summer and winter. In certain places basins of open water are found, but they are never very extensive and always owe their existence to some local cause or other. In the same way broad or narrow fissures in the Polar pack-ice are formed, but these also are quite local and temporary. It happens every summer that the pack-ice which is forced 73 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA in from the great Polar Sea through the relatively narrow channels which lead to Bafl&n Bay, beats down all resistance and tries to find air towards south-south-west. As soon as this enormous mass of ice starts moving — partly owing to the open water off the coast, partly aided by the current — commences towards Baffin Bay that drift of ice from the north which for periods creates comparatively open water. But it is only open water in a certain sense, as on all horizons one sees masses of huge drifting floes. These are the facts of the open Polar Sea, which right up to this year has tempted Polar expeditions. As a rule sailing is out of the question — one merely drifts with the ice in the direction of the current. These theories tempted the first North Pole pioneers to push ahead as far as possible northwards along the lands, and it was for this reason that they chose winter camps so far north ; they thus succeeded at a comparatively early period in giving us some idea of the nature of the country and the life of its creatures, whilst at the same time they charted the coasts. HALL'S GRAVE May 1st. — We arrived at Hall's Grave on a beautiful and sunny spring day and camped on the ice-foot. We had for a long time been anxious to see this place of which we had read so much, and where a large Polar expedition had fought through the dark period of the years 1871-72. As soon as the dogs were tethered at a sufficient distance from the sledges we ran up the steep clay bank which led to a plateau. The Unes of the landscape were beautiful. A plain-like sweep of several kilometres lay like a carpet in front of the high mountains which comprise the inner region of Polaris Promontory. The plain led eastward round the peninsula down to Newman Bay and, being covered with snow, appeared to provide easy driving. 74 WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND But how barren and desolate was all the country one could survey from this point! In no place could one find the slightest sign of vegetation ; everything was sand and pebbles, monotonous and bleak. We had been hoping for a hunt before we parted with the last two pack-sledges, but this hope seemed to be sheer vanity. A short distance from the clay bank we found Hall's Grave, easily distinguished at a distance by the copper plate between two wooden pillars which Nares' Expedition had erected in front of it, this great Polar expedition which visited the same regions four years after Hall's death. The inscription on the plate is as follows : SACEID TO THE MIMOET OF CAPTAIN 0. P. HALL, 01' THE U.S. SHIP " POLARIS," WHO SACEIFICED HIS LIFE IN THE ADTANCEMENT OP SCIENCE ON NOTBE. 8th, 1871. THIS TABLET HAS BEEN ERECTED BY THE BRITISH POLAR EXPEDITION OF 1875, WHO FOLLOWING IN HIS FOOTSTEPS HAVE PROFITED BY HIS EXPERIENCE. A bear had paid a visit to the grave a short time previously and tried to destroy the monument; some of the wood was splintered, but the stout pillars which supported the plate had resisted the attack. The marks of the animal's teeth were plain. A short distance away we found two more graves. The inscription on one of them had been made on a wooden plate and was now illegible ; but on the other it is scratched on to a flat limestone, which, however, has been broken by a bear. One can merely decipher the word Discovery, but this is suffi- cient to show that it is one of Beaumont's men who sleeps his last sleep here. 75 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA Our minds were impressed by the atmosphere of this little Arctic cemetery; for the men whose earthly remains rest in this place lost their lives in an attempt to reach the places which are now our goal. Some distance from the grave we found remainders of a small wooden hut which had probably served as a scientific station on land ; also some wood, a couple of zoological scrapers, and a large rusty stove — a bizarre-looking piece of wreckage on this coast. By the side of this stove we found some huge, unwieldy cooking utensils, pots and kettles which, weighing from 5 to 10 kilograms each and being of iron, must have formed rather unpleasant loads for a dog-sledge. Our Eskimos, whose senses are always doubly keen during an examination of old, previously inhabited camps, found under a stone mound two large tins of coffee which proved excellent. A mouthful of port wine in a bottle had also pre- served its bouquet in spite of -fifty years of frosty nights near the Pole. It was, of course, drunk in a mood of devotion, although each man's share was no larger than just to wet the tip of the tongue. We further discovered some lead and some large pellets suitable for the hunting of hares, which our pack-sledges appro- priated with delight. We had, however, to turn our thoughts towards hunting, and as soon as the neighbourhood had been examined we set out in two parties, one making with sledges and dogs in the direction across the plain towards Newman Bay ; here we hoped to meet musk-ox, for Hall's Expedition had shot no less than twenty-six animals in this vicinity. A find amongst the ruins of the houses on the bank, furthermore, encouraged us ; for in a hollow in the ground which had been dug out for a sleeping- place, we found three musk-ox skins which did not appear to be very old. Sipsu's opinion was that they were put there about 1900 during one of Peary's stays at Fort Conger. By way of a broad valley which stretched itself inward through the Polaris Peninsula itself, the second party went to hunt hares. 76 WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND WE TAKE LEAVE OF OUR LAST PACK-SLEDGES There was a feeling of summer in the air when we paid our visit to Hall's Grave, for quiet, mild weather and warm sun greeted us pleasantly after the three days of storm by Peter- mann Fjord. The sun, which shone night and day, was most agreeable in the cool night with its softer light. As we were not troubled by the cold we could give ourselves whole-heartedly to the busi- ness consequent on this being our last day of companionship with Sipsu and Inukitsoq. They had to leave us here and hunt their way homeward via Grant Land, so for the last time we were able to send a greeting home, with a message as to how we had fared hitherto. I have already mentioned that Sipsu was not new to this territory. He was an experienced traveller who had often fol- lowed Peary on his Polar Expeditions and knew Grant Land well ; as a hunter he made certain and safe dispositions — a calm man when luck turned against him and intrepid in a dangerous situation. He was helpful, always good-tempered, being merely enlivened by the risk attendant on a long journey where success in hunting constitutes the thin thread by which life hangs. His companion Inukitsoq had really only accompanied us because he was Ajako's brother. He was a good-natured fellow, in no way remarkable, but in the company of Sipsu he could always be used with advantage for driving those loads which a pack-sledge had to carry. These two men were to take with them southward the geological collections we had gathered from Cape Constitution to Polaris Promontory. As we could not spare them any pro- visions, they were to take the road across Fort Conger, Greely's famous winter quarters, where musk-ox was always to be found. We ourselves had reckoned on the possibility of having to cut across Hall Basin in order to get our provisions in Grant Land before we lay a course north to the unknown and 77 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA doubtful hunting-grounds. But as for the time being we had sufficient dog food, this was not now necessary. We did not expect to find the same good ice as that on which we had driven along the coast in Hall Basin, where the great land between Robeson Channel and Sherard Osborne Fjord acts as a buffer against the enormous pressure of the Polar Sea. Not a single ice-ridge was found on the ice-foot, which in certain places was quite broad and easy to drive on, though in other places it was too narrow for the passage of sledges. Towards evening the different hunting parties returned ; . Inukitsoq and Hendrik had been almost to Newman Bay, but had seen nothing alive — they had not even come across an old track. Ajako and Bosun had been inland on the Peninsula and had killed two hares. For the last time we made our camp with three tents and feasted modestly on the hares. The fine weather continued so that we rarely stayed in the tents ; it was far better to be outside. We paid a visit to two beacons in the mountains near by, but could not find any records. By one of them, however, we found a big flat stone with the inscription : A. A. ODBLL. 1872. E. W. 0. Odell was one of the engineers of the Polaris. The neighbourhood was beautiful, though its history turned our mood to one of seriousness. For we were camping near a cemetery, and the men whom fate had broken here were young and capable ; but they had met difficulty and toil stronger than their own strong constitutions. Opposite to us the Discovery wintered during 1875-76, and the Alert farther northward the same year. Both ships had sacrificed brave and intrepid members of their crew for the exploration of this land. Finally, the Greely Expedition had wintered in Lady Franklin Bay — an expedition which gave 78 WASHINGTON LAND TO HALL LAND rise to the greatest tragedy which has ever been played in these regions. The ground on which we stand is dearly paid for; its exploration has cost the life of many a brave young man of iron will. But for each one who fell there were others who offered to take his place ; thus our knowledge of the northern- most regions of the earth moves farther and farther North. North ! North ! From our tent-camp in towards Cape Tyson the land stretches itself in soft, even lines. This landscape, which is merely a desert of stone and sand, has the contours of a gentle sea swell. At Cape Tyson the panorama changes in character. Wild mountains lie inward toward the inland-ice by the bight of Petermann Fjord, darkly edging its blue, glistening ice. Against this background big rolling clouds drive out from the fjord where the air never seems to be at peace ; and while we are lying far outside the mouth of the fjord in golden spring, the colours of the storm above the cliffs change in threatening hues. Much more fertile looks Grant Land, this no less historic place, separated from us merely by the narrow Robeson Channel. Here, again, the mountains are grandly and phan- tastically formed, whilst the even land sweeps away in all directions. Westward, through broad doughs, we catch a glimpse of the valleys where hundreds of musk-ox graze on the banks of broad rivers, and where thousands of hares tumble like a ravine of snow down to the plains, curious and over-eaten, white, woolly hordes, often of such enormous size that it seems as if the earth itself were alive. And all this huge, white landscape somehow seems to gather round the tall Ballot Island, which in the mouth of Lady Franklin Bay lifts its head like a sky-scraping monument over man's fight for the North Pole. A memorial here by the very threshold where the word is always : North, North, farther North ! 79 CHAPTER IV CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT MAY 2nd. — We started at ten o'clock. We expected bad driving, and we got it. According' to its position, the Polaris Peninsula lies like a wedge in the midst of a strong drift of ice-floes which, under the pressure of all Lin- coln Sea, break their way past the large capes to be ground in through the narrow Robeson Channel. By midnight we had nearly reached Cape Sumner and made camp utterly worn out. The dogs also were worn out by the pressure-ice, and as soon as the signal to stop was given they laid down almost on top of each other, never stirring all through the night from the spot where they had flopped. The quality of the ice showed that there had been open water along the coast until late in the autumn. From Hall's Grave to Cape Lupton we therefore had excellent going, but here the character of the ice changed, and, as it was not always possible for us to follow the belt of the tidal water, we often met pressure-ridges which towered up in front of us to a height of 10 to 15 metres. It was quite impossible to drive across these huge blocks, which lay piled together as if thrown there by a giant's hand. For hours we had to stop in order to make a road for the sledges with our ice-picks. In some places the ice was pressed up towards land, lying like an exquisite diadem round the ice-foot, gleaming in beau- tiful colours when the rays of the sun caught the many broken crystals. While the country south-east of Hall's Grave is low with occasional rounded hills, the north coast stands like a steep wall of cliffs with a beautiful design in brown and grey on its 80 CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT enormous flanks. A snow-shower had just swept the awl- pointed peaks standing in white and brilliant contrast to the dark bands lower down. There was a storm from south-east, and the gusts of wind swept down from the mountains with such force that it was impossible to stand upright under their attacks. We pitched the tents with great difficulty, and as soon as we had strength- ened ourselves with some food, little Hendrik and I walked along the ice-foot to Newman Bay to reconnoitre. We crawled up on the ice-foot and crept slowly forward against the storm. What we saw was not very encouraging; on the morrow we should once more have to hew our way towards the bay where the ice seemed more even. We climbed the mountains to get a view of the places where travelling might be easiest ; then we returned to our comrades. On one crossing of the mountain we were overwhelmed by weariness and the pain of our wind- lashed faces, so we sought shelter behind a hummock of ice. Whilst we tried in vain to doze, our thoughts reverted again and again to Markham's journey across this very Polar-ice, through the frozen spray of which we were now about to force our way. I have mentioned before in how slight a degree we were impressed by the natural phenomena which so often had ren- dered our predecessors speechless. But here, where for the first time in my life I looked across the mighty ocean of the Pole, I had no words to express the feeling with which this living though ice-bound sea overwhelmed me. The infinitely distant horizon, where on all sides one sees only endless white ice-steppes, lying there without the evenness of the plain and full of unrest, is like an Epos of nature which renders one dumb. And whilst the wind raged round us and the steep moun- tains of Cape Sumner stood threatening above our heads, the surroundings forced me to go through again in imagination all the sufferings which the stubborn Englishmen from Nares' Expedition had undergone. F 81 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA Right opposite to me was the north-east coast of Grant Land and, as a blue line in the horizon, the faint contours of Floeberg Beach, the Alert's winter harbour. Nares' Expedition of 1875-76 was made at the expense ot the British State during the reign of Queen Victoria, and was equipped with everything which at that time was considered necessary for Polar exploration. Expense had on no pomt been considered. The expedition left Portsmouth on the 29th of May and arrived at Disko with three imposing ships ; from this harbour one of the ships, the Valorous, was returned, so that Nares had now command of two big, strong ships, the Alert and the Discovery. The plan was that one of the ships should go no further than N. Lat. 82°, where it was to take up its winter quarters. The other ship was to push on as far north as possible. The goal of the expedition was the North Pole, and, as soon as it had passed Cape York, it worked its way system- atically northward, leaving in all suitable places depots to be used in case of shipwreck. Simultaneously beacons were built where information was laid down for eventual search expe- ditions. It was one of these depots which we found at Cape Morton, as previously described. According to plan, the Discovery took up its winter quar- ters in Lady Franklin Bay, whilst the Alert made its way up to the north point of Grant Land, which it reached on the 25th of August. The winter was spent on Floeberg Beach, In the beginning of April, 1876, all the long sledge jour- neys started, which, due east, seaward due north, and due west, were to accomplish the task of the expedition. I will mention here only Markham's voyage. Markham's task was to push northward as far as possible, preferably to the North Pole itself. He started with a train of nineteen men with sledges whereon provisions and baggage were distributed in such a way that each man would have a load of 230 pounds. Besides the sledges they also brought two boats much too heavy and unwieldy for such a long sledge 82 CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT journey. Very soon after the expedition left land, they had to leave the first boat behind. Daily these men fought a terrible fight against both the cold and the natural obstacles in their path, and it was not long before they began to suffer from frost-bite. They faced this misfortune bravely. But when the dreaded scurvy* made its appearance, the expedition was on the point of breaking down altogether. On the 19th of April it became evident that three of the men had contracted this dreaded and terrible complaint. On the 24th, N. tat. 83° was passed, and then no less than five men were ill and unable to do any work. On the 7th of May the position was already such that three men had to ride with the baggage, while two of the patients were yet able to manage for themselves, although they were hardly able to walk. On the 10th of May it was obvious to Markham that it was hopeless to continue, and, while the patients were given two days' rest, he himself and the strongest of the men set out on an excursion to N. Lat. 83° 26', the farthest north ever reached — a record which was destined to remain unbeaten for many years. On the commencement of the return gourney five men had to drive, whilst a further five were only enabled to keep up with their comrades because the drivers must cover the dis- tance three times in succession to bring up all the baggage. * J. Lindhardt, M.D., Professor at the University of Copenhagen, and member of the Danish Expedition of 1906-08, has kindly supplied me with the following information : " Scurvy (soorbut) is an illness due to an improper dietary, the cause of which is now attributed to the lack of vitamines in the food. These vitamines are to be found in fresh meat, and, more especially, in vegetables, but they are destroyed by unsuitable preservation. Thus they are not to be found in the salt meat which previously constituted the chief food of Arctic expeditions. The illness manifests itself by tiredness and weakness, often accompanied by pains similar to rheumatism, haemorrhage under the skin, sores on the legs, often also on internal organs, and a peculiar affection of the mouth with swollen, tender, and delicate gums which give rise to heemorrhage and wounds and, occasionally, a loosening of the teeth. The treatment of the illness is hygienic-dietetic (fresh vegetables). In severe cases death follows general exhaustion or is caused by complications, especially afEections of the lungs." 83 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA When they approached land, still another three men fell ill, and as there were now only two officers and two men left, they decided at length to leave the second boat, which they had dragged along fearing that they might meet open water. On the 5th of June they reached land, and after two days of rest Lieutenant Parr had sufficient strength to cover the distance to the ship on foot. A relief party was promptly sent out, and all the men were brought on board, but several of them were already so ill that, in spite of all efforts, they died after having reached harbour. The men who left the ship were fine fellows — ^they had been picked from a large crew ; but of what avail is youth and strength when the constitution is undermined by scurvy? This is briefly the tale of the first journey across the Polar- ice, which now lies before us. The story the ice axes hewed out here was just as gloomy as, in consequence of its surround- ings, it must necessarily be. It was a fine and noble record, and Markham has for all eternity carved his name on the scroll of the foremost in Polar exploration ; but hard was the journey and dearly were the results paid for, for this great cold Polar Sea claims a sacrifice from every man who tries to unveil its secrets. Hendrik and I got up stiff with cold, but were blown home- ward and soon got warm. Often we were flung along the ice against pressure-ridges which did not receive us kindly; and it was with genuine joy that we arrived, bruised and stiff, at the camp of our sleeping comrades at four o'clock in the morning. This was a cold and inhospitable coast ! May 3rd. — We had pitched our tents between the big pressure-ridges close to the ice-foot, attempting to find shelter from the storm. The landscape would have been gloomy had it not been for the warm sun, which gave life and colour to everything : even the precipitous mountains behind us changed in warm tinges. We hoped that we should wake up in quieter weather, as 84 CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT the gusts of wind made progress so difficult on the shiny ice between the big ridges. During a storm one is unmercifully flung down, and the dogs, which had worn down their claws during the last days of fighting for a foothold on the shiny ice, were swept together in bunches which were flung against the sledges ; here they lay until a lull in the heavy squalls gave them a chance to push ahead for another short distance. We had the same weather to-day as yesterday, and we pressed on to get out of this awkward neighbourhood ; in the course of the day we reached the strongly folded ground of Cape Sumner, from which point driving was easier, resting us whilst we passed Newman Bay. I discovered no young ice in the bay ; everywhere was several years old Polar-ice, hilly and rough, slippery and bare of snow, but nevertheless fairly easy to cross, as it was not necessary for us to use our axes. In the afternoon we camped near Cape Brevoort, a high limestone mountain standing as a counterpart to Cape Sumner. These monumental coast mountains are worthy memorials of the two American senators whom Hall wished to honour by this christening. From their summits one has a view not merely over the Polar Sea and the north coast of Grant Land, but also far inland across the country behind Newman Bay, where the land at an even gradient trends inward, ending in a great tableland near the inland-ice. The success with which Hall's people met on their various hunting expeditions in this neighbourhood tempted us to try our fortune once more. The musk-oxen had had a close season of many years' duration, ever since the days of 1871, so two men were now sent out. Ajako and Bosun walked for ten hours across the stony land, and then returned tired and foot- sore to the tent, late in the evening, without having seen any sign of game. May 4sth. — One day succeeds the other in great monotony during this period ; all our attempts to find game for ourselves and the dogs are unsuccessful, but we have yet sufficient stores to continue the journey on full rations. 85 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA The fight for progress through the Polar pack-ice was monotonous and strenuous. Hour after hour was spent in the same way. Sometimes the axe had to break the ice-blocks; sometimes we had to lift the sledges when they toppled over ; and the whole time we had to force the dogs forward with iron-fisted discipline, through sharp and slippery blocks of ice where it was difficult to find so good a foothold that the sledges could be pressed through the difficult passages without delays. At all the great capes the same pressure-ice was piled across the ice-foot as an obstructing wall, through which we could not hope to pass. We therefore had to work our way either along the belt of tidal water on the shiny ice, or, where this was impossible, along those rare places where a belated lane from January and February had stretched an arm of young ice towards land. But we tried as far as possible not to get too far out to sea, as these new lanes often end in a cul- de-sac and force one into a wilderness of pressure-ice. During the forenoon we passed Gap Valley, where Beau- mont and his men pulled their heavy sledges up across land when they found the route forward blocked by open water near Cape Brevoort. As the name implies, the valley here forms a broad gap between two steep mountains, a stony valley full of doughs which goes in towards the great lowland near Newman Bay. We who have our dogs to help us bow down in deep respect to those sick and exhausted men who them- selves had to pull their heavy, iron-mounted sledges up across the trackless terrain with its many large stones which lay bare of snow. Maybe those old pioneers were unpractical as regards their equipment, but what stubbornness and pride they must have possessed, these enduring and herculean mariners who were the first beasts of burden for the Polar travellers ! Near Repulse Harbour we succeeded in climbing on to an ice-foot along which driving was possible, although the gigantic Sikussaq ridges in some places towered up and formed banks from 10 to 30 metres high. These phenomena testify to the fights which every year are fought out between the 86 A PAGE OF PEARY's REPORT FOUND IN THE CAIRN CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT creaking, ' current-harassed ice-ocean and the mountain-sides, the outposts of the lands. Inukitsoq, who during one of Peary's Polar Expeditions wintered on the north coast of Grant Land, remembers that he has seen rifts and holes with open water far into the winter. It appears that the ice here between Greenland and Grant Land is seldom firm and dependable until February or March. Near Repulse Harbour we passed a beacon as tall as a man, where, in an empty brandy-bottle, we found the following record from Peary : , " June 8th, 1900. " Am passing here on my way to Ft. Conger. I left Etah March 4th and Conger April 15th. Reached Lock- wood's farthest May 8th ; the northern extremity of the Green- land archipelago on May 13th ; a point on the sea-ice north of that N. Lat. 83° 50' May 16th; and a point down the east coast about North Lat. 83° May 21st. There followed over a week of fog, wind and snow, this made the travelling very heavy and the return slow. This is my 16th march from my farthest and 9th from Lockwood's farthest. Yesterday passed Black Horn Cliffs with much difficulty over loose ice. There is open water now off this point and a lane of open water this side of C. Brevoort extending clear across the channel. Have with me my man Matthew Henson, one Eskimo, 16 dogs and 2 sledges, all in fair condition. " This sledge journey is part of a program of Arctic work undertaken by me under the auspices of and with funds fur- nished by the Peary Arctic Club of New York City. "R. E. Peary, "U.S.N." We were now free of the pressure-ice and enjoyed the even going inside the fjord-ice. But unfortunately the sledges ran heavily on the snow, which, here mixed up with little grains of sand and gravel, hampered our iron runners. It was with great difficulty that we made the dogs keep up a slow trot, but this, nevertheless, represented a good push forward. On this 87 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA stretch of the coast WuLff found a living saxifrage with fully- developed flowers on stems an inch high ; in full bloom it had been suddenly surprised by the winter, which it had allowed to pass over its head as if it did not exist at all, and it quite calmly continued its life now when spring and sunshine once more melted the ice. All its tissues were full of life although the temperature of the air was minus 11° (Cent.)? and there had as yet been no thaw during the year. Near Black Horn Cliffs we made our camp after twelve hours of driving, as neither the dogs nor we ourselves could stand any more. After a slight meal and a refreshing cup of tea I climbed the mountains with the Eskimos so as to ascer- tain what conditions for travelling the next day would offer. The ice was similar to that of the preceding days, and in spite of all difficulties this was a pleasant surprise ; for the ice of Black Horn Cliffs, which run steeply into the sea without a trace of ice-foot, is not dependable, open water being often found. Inland we looked across even land with knolls which almost entirely consist of pebbles, clay, and sand. In spite of the absence of vegetation, the view, with its soft, calm lines, is a kindly one. Behind it all the mighty Mount Punch was enthroned, broad and solid with a skull-cap of white snow. The land was bare of snow and in vain our two good field- glasses ransacked plains, valleys, and doughs. Not a hare, let alone a musk-ox, was to be discovered anywhere. From the wind-swept look-out of our mountain we could see clear across to the country round Grant Land, looming far, far to the north amidst a sea of ice like blue banks of fog. Furthest away Inukitsoq recognized Cape Sheridan, the winter harbour of Nares in 1875-76, and later on Peary's quarters during no less than two Polar expeditions. Looking from this point across the huge plain of rugged Polar pack-ice with very occasional narrow lanes of new ice, one cannot but feel the greatest admiration for the old English sailor who already forty years ago found a way for ships so near to the North Pole. 88 CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT May 5th. — As usual, we camped on the ice between the highest ice-banks so as to be sheltered from the sweeping blast which whirled across the ice-foot and whipped our tents with showers of snow and gravel. An inhospitable country to wake up in when the day's journey must begin after a good night of rest in a comfortable sleeping-bag ! Each day has to be started with a little reconnoitring. One or two men go seaward armed with ice-picks in order to rid the road of the first obstacles. It is always a good thing to get quickly away from a camp, for nothing is more demoralizing than looking too long at the place where last one slept. We soon found that by going seaward we quickly came across fairly good ice, though it was old Sikussaq with slippery hilly slopes and annoying hollows. But this old ice alternated with good driving, and thus it happened to our great surprise that we quickly crossed the place where we had expected the greatest struggle. Near Cape Stanton we once more got up on the ice-foot, which was everywhere bounded on its outer side by ridges of from 5 to 20 metres high. We were now rid of the pressure-ice, but the clayey snow gave the dogs hard work in pulling the sledges. During the previous day's journey we had seen tracks of Polar wolves, a very large male and its mate, which a few days ago had travelled in the very direction in which we were now struggling. On this day also we ran across the same tracks, and the dogs, which scented the strange animals, were animated a little by the hope of a possible hunt. Also we were interested in the tracks, for where wolves exist one will, as a rule, find musk-ox, and we were all longing for fresh meat. In several places on land we found excrements of musk-ox, but unfortu- nately they were all very old and covered with moss. So far the day's journey differed only from the many others of laborious and weary struggles along a monotonous and barren coast, in that we passed two beautiful bays. There was Hands Bay, with two peaceful valleys edged by high mountains which further emphasize the idyllic aspect ; at the head of this bay the ice was even and appeared to have been melted during the 89 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA summer. Similarly in Frankfield Bay, which with a narrow mouth cuts broadly into the country. The background of this country is formed by Mount Punch with its genially- sounding name, lifting its snowy cap rakishly towards the clouds. The wind appears to be the only guest in these harsh tracts where even the snow is forbidden to lie as a cover for the sparse vegetation — ^the charitable gift of surmner to the insects, the little birds, and the stray hares and lemmings. But there was sufficient food for musk-ox, for wherever small, clough-like hollows give shelter for the snow, or where a river forces its way from some lake towards the ocean, there is plenty of grass and wUlow. The result of the hunt was three lean ptarmigans. One of these was so tame that Harrigan, stealthily creeping towards it, got so near that he could easily take it with his hands. The ptarmigans were boiled in our porridge and imparted to it, with their keen delicious juices, a new and agreeable flavour. Our two tents were pitched under a steep ice-bank, screwed up under the pressure of the Arctic Ocean to a height of 30 metres above the ice-foot. This bank looked phantastic with its many knotted ice-blocks crawling over each other, and pro- vided a welcome screen from the wind. The place is called, quite appropriately, "Rest Point." The day's journey had been fifteen hours long, and, after this last wandering across the mountains, we all accepted the blissful rest which bathes our tired limbs as a rain-shower a thirsty field. May 6th-7th. — It was six o'clock in the afternoon before we were once more ready to start. Again on this day the ice-foot made travelling heavy. It was almost impossible for the sledges to get along because of all the sand and gravel blown on to the snow, and it was difficult to make the dogs go ahead. The coast was desolate and cheer- less, monotonous and depressing. The ice-foot on which we travelled is along its inner edge covered by rather low rounded heaps of gravel, without character and entirely without the 90 CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT variation of form which otherwise breaks the monotony. Every- thing about us bears the stamp of the iron cUmate of the country. The eternal blast has whipped the sparse vegetation flat along the ground, nothing has had a chance to grow erect. All life here bears the yoke of storm and frost. We snailed along from headland to headland, and every point of land ahead looked like the one we had just passed. The whole coast is clipped and cropped, blockaded by ice-ridges and chilled through by an ocean of ice. We made occasional halts to give the dogs a short rest, and, in the meantime, we ourselves walked into the sandy desert, where not the slightest track encouraged us to persist. The crushing monotony of death seems to be the only ruler in this district. During the journey I suddenly discovered a piece of wood placed by human hands in a conspicuous place near a large stone mound. Although in a way it formed a link with other men who have visited this coast, owing to our mood our thoughts involuntarily turned to graves. I hurried up to it to see whether it was not some sad memorial or other connected with Beaumont, but soon discovered that this place had once been merely a depot of provisions, perhaps a salvation for those who, starving and exhausted, managed to reach it. The coast trends sharply and strfiightly due north-east and permits no view ahead; little headlands continually block the horizon. But under Cape Bryan the coast suddenly turns southward and opens at once the view to the north, where all the lands which we had dreamed about for months rise up from the ice-ocean and show their brilliant contours in the clear, sharp air. It was two o'clock in the morning. The sun had not yet reached such a height as to emit a flat and monotonous light ; sharp shadows were thrown on to the dark mountain walls, and a fine, tender red still trembled round the topmost peaks, covered in ice and snow. It suddenly seemed as if the low, dreary coast which we had followed from Rest Point sank into the ocean behind us 91 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA and no longer existed. We could now see far ahead, and with the wide view came that excitement of travel which always carries one across dead points; it was as if suddenly we approached our fate with visors raised, in a manner much more dauntless than before. Quite near us we saw St. George Fjord, narrow as a river of ice cutting into the land, encircled by high mountains, which, w;ith steep fells seaward, run right in to the inland-ice. Dragon Point juts out like a wedge between this narrow fjord and the broad, far more impressive Sherard Osborne Fjord, where the broad lines, with the quiet country behind Cape May, put one in a mood quite different to the one created by the wild St. George Fjord. There is a breadth here and a depth, a wild monumental grandeur which fascinates one, especially when one looks upon it from this point and contrasts it with the rest of the landscape. Far seaward one gets a glimpse of Beaumont Island's sharp profile, like a clenched fist in the midst of eternal snow. Even the highest mountains here do not seem to be covered with snow, thus forming an agreeable contrast to the white immensity spreading out at their feet. Across the lowland behind Cape May, where the cone- shaped Cape Hooker dominates the horizon, we discern Cape Britannia's gimlet-pointed peaks on John Murray Island near the mouth of Nordenskjold Fjord. The sky was dazzlingly clear, the air deep blue and fresh, and it was as if the wind itself had other songs here than on the dead coasts from which we had come. On the uttermost horizon of the ice-ocean one sees occasional mirages lifting the sun-bathed pack-ice up towards heaven, giving relief to the monotony which rests over the frost-bound ocean. The im- mensity, the power and violence which Nature breathes here, where we have halted for a moment so as to take possession of all these new things, communicates itself to our will ; and with the enthusiasm only known by men who have dared to leave the high road for the by-ways, we approach the land which holds our future fate. The glorious immensity gives us new power, and merrily 92 CAPE SUMNER TO DRAGON POINT we turn the dogs down across the ice-foot, driving to Dragon Point along the even ice of St. George Fjord. At five o'clock in the morning we land on the outmost point, and for the first time for a long period we stand where the rays of the sun are allowed to warm us right through. Not a wind stirs, and a tiny, curious bunting circling above our heads gives us a welcome to our first spring camp. CAPE SUMNEK : DRAGON POINT. 93 CHAPTER V SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD TO NORDENSKJOLD FJORD BEAUMONT AND HIS MEN IN the month of May, forty-two years ago, in the very neigh- bourhood through which we are now traveUing, one could have seen a remarkable trail of sick people, exhausted and stumbling, fighting their way through the snow for the purpose of mapping the land, and later on in order to save life and results under an immensely toilsome wandering southward. It was Beavunont and his men from Nares' Expedition. On our expedition we had passed many historical points, but here more than anywhere else did we feel the contact with those brave Englishmen whose goal was identical with ours, and whose trail we had hitherto followed. As soon as we arrived, we dis- covered in the mountain a beacon, which we visited, and here we found Beaumont's report of the 25th of May, 1876, deposited in a beautiful, water-tight copper case. Besides the report, of which I here give a facsimile, we also found an original map of the tracts which had been visited and charted with English thoroughness. We took this record so that it might later on come into the hands of the British Admiralty as a chapter of Polar history, and put down another reco]:d in the same beacon, seizing the opportunity to express our admiration for our brave predecessors. Lieutenant Beaumont set out from the Alert on the 20th of April with a band of twenty-one men, pulling four sledges on which the loads were so distributed that every man would be pulling 218 pounds — a rather stiff proposition. 94 MAEKHAM PLANTS THE UNION JACK FARTHEST NORTH LIEUTENANT L. A. BEAUMONT, ROYAL NAVY GREENLAND SLEDGE PARTY, H.M.S. BISCOVEBY, 1875-18TG 50" 45* 83' % ftrr f^ lci^a^C cf- eocf}Uir-mp fit f^^ fi^u/ti t<^4iL ■ . . :; ; -' , - .If O*'/ ^^^ P^'^'^'^i^ ^^^(^ 2T^>ff^. vP^^«&^ Ji^Z^^jTl^^^ I ^hc ^&ttAt^xJ^piazK. cjbedi^L H Ura^ t/cw a^tf^d ■' Xu^L^L^ (f'B-U , \ 4V1- )*:&-■■: ■,, -■. . .„S3l.A,. ^ !£!■ m^l-^^i.mxi.1. :■.: '.r ~ ___jk:_.„^aM Beaumont's report 1876 SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD for there was a possibility that a rehef party might have been sent out and would be waiting there. And there fortune met them, and saved those who could still be saved, as they fell in with Lieutenant Rawson, Dr. Coppinger, and Hans Hendrik with his dog sledge. After a long rest near Hall's Grave, Beaumont continued his, journey across Hall Basin to Lady FrankUn Bay, where the Discovery was lying. On the 14th of August, after a most, adventurous journey on drifting ice-floes, they at length reached the ship. TO WORK AT LAST We now started in earnest. Our expedition had covered the first thousand kilometres of the journey, and we were already in tracts where we might hope for a good hunting. We had left home with provisions for two months, but half of them we used up on our journey, the other half being deposited a short distance below Beaumont's beacon. This latter half consisted of pemmican, biscuits, coffee, oats, tea, sugar, tobacco, and a quantity of ammunition, the last so far superfluous. We hoped that, before our departure, we should be able to supplement this with some fresh meat for ourselves and the dogs. We did not yet know from which point we should ascend on to the inland-ice on our return journey, but as the probability was that it would take place here, we relieved the sledges as soon as possible of superfluous things, so that we should not drag on unnecessary baggage. We also left two sledges, and the teams of these were distributed among the other sledges. Above everything, it was of importance that we should make good speed, and so we burnt our boats behind us by providing ourselves with food for men for three days only, and for the dogs only one meal, which would be given to them the first time we made camp. We had now six dog teams of altogether seventy dogs, and if these could only have a few days' rest and strong food, they would soon regain their full strength. At the moment the posi- tion, so far as the dogs were concerned, was somewhat critical ; G 97 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA the fight against the pressure-ice had obviously worn down both their bodies and their tempers. They no longer walked proudly with tails erect, the expression of their eyes was subdued, and their skins no more possessed that glossiness which is the surest proof of well-being and strength. Their tails flopped limply between their legs, and we all felt it our duty to restore their strength as soon as possible. A reconnoitring in the neighbourhood had a discouraging result. We walked far into a snowless, stony terrain, but nowhere could we find fresh tracks of musk-ox. Scattered flocks seemed to have been here many years ago, but not even the clay showed recent tracks. Of ground game there was a fair amount of hares ; they were very shy — an unfailing indica- tion of the absence of musk-ox. In all places where the hares eat grass side by side with the wandering wolves, they flee as soon as they get a glimpse of any other living thing. And, according to the tracks, it would seem that there were not a few wolves. It was obvious that the hares were used to meeting enemies only. But where they live on land with peaceful musk- oxen, they show, on the contrary, no nervousness even if one takes them by surprise rather suddenly on the hill-crest. We often saw ptarmigans, but only in single pairs ; but these were too small, so for the time being we would not kill any great amount of them. Their white winter coats, which previously made them so conspicuous in snow-bare spots where they seek their food, were already beginning to give place to the brown feathers of the summer. They filled the landscape with their cooing, which between these silent mountains sounds like a song in the loneliness. The tableland inside St. George Fjord, dotted with moun- tains, so far did not tempt us to waste our time hunting ; and those parts of Sherard Osborne Fjord which from the moun- tain we had been able to survey with our field-glasses were, to our great disappointment, so glaciated that a visit there would be too risky. I therefore decided to postpone the exploration of these fjords for the time being, until we felt our existence some- what secure by successful hunting. We were beginning to feel 98 q i> z >< Em o m * SHEBARD OSBORNE FJORD a little of the hazard which is bound up with the life of the Eskimo and of the expeditions, whose future, after the manner of the hunters, depends upon hunting on new grounds. THE FIRST HUNTING May 8th. — ^We have been continually looking out for the snow which caused Beaumont and his men such great difficulties, and only to-day on our way to Cape May do we find it. For the first time since we left Thule the dogs lie down and refuse to continue, and, so that the whip might not be used too indus- triously, we prefer to go in front on skis. The dogs then will- ingly follow, dragging the heavy sledges. We have all taken to our snowshoes and skis, for without them it is quite impossible to make one's way through the siiow. Once more we admire Beau- mont and his men who, with the intolerable pains of scurvy, stumbled across ground like this, with stiff legs, tender, skinned feet, and, from the traces of the sledge, sores on shoulders and back. After six hours of toilsome marching, we reach a large block of ice where we make a halt, as thick weather from the west draws across the fjord and blocks our view. A clammy fog envelops everything and a raw breeze gives us a gloomy greeting from the Arctic Ocean. May 9th-l 1th. — The following day we have to continue in the same weather, for it would be impossible to remain here. Some distance from Cape May the weather clears and turns out fine, and we hurry ahead and reach land after six hours. We round Cape May through difficult pressure-ice, and when we have passed a headland where the ice is even and bare of snow, the dogs set off at a trot whilst we ourselves for the first time during a long period throw ourselves down on the empty sledges. We know from previous American expeditions that half a score of years ago there were musk-oxen in this neighbourhood, and I therefore decide to try to hunt in earnest before the dogs are too far gone. Ajako and Inukitsoq are sent up through the valleys to some large mountainous stretches, topped by glaciers, 99 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA which certainly appear more generously covered with ice than suits us. Koch and I accompany them for some distance, and discover to our joy that the land here has a far richer vegetation than the barren coast between Newman Bay and Sherard Osborne Fjord. We also find tracks in the clay of musk-ox and a quantity of excrements which cannot be very old. And while the two hunters continue their way, each dragging his dog along, we hurry back to the sledges to find a convenient place for a camp further ahead. As soon as we find a place, I run off to the mountains with Bosun and Hendrik, while Wulff and Koch are left behind to pitch the tent. After a laborious climb up the mountain-sides, consisting only of small stones which slide downward under our feet, we reach the top of a high tableland stretching inland. We pass two skeletons of musk-oxen, but they are too old to damp the excitement which has seized upon us . A little later we reach the edge of the stony tableland, and from this point we look across a broad, large valley penetrating far into the land. Two large rivers still lie frozen on both sides of the valley, right against the high mountains. We barely get a glimpse of some large lakes, the fertile banks of which would surely present a tempt- ing abode for the game we seek. The land shows a grand alternation of plain and mountain, but in vain do we examine with the field-glasses all doughs, river-beds, and valleys which our eye can reach. Not a living form do we discover, and we return disappointed to our tent. Disappointment always increases a hunter's weariness ; we therefore all felt as if we had weights of lead round our ankles when we returned without a catch. Slowly we slid down the mountain without energy in our movements, without spirit as we rushed down the steep snowdrifts. But hardly had we got near the tent before Wulff tore aside the flap, running towards us ; Ajako had shot the first musk-oxen on our voyage — three cows ! This certainly put new life into us ; our tiredness seemed blown away, and we began at once to crawl up the big moun- tain from which we had just rushed down, and where the hunters 100 SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD were still busy flaying their quarry. I need not describe this beautiful finish to a long day's journey ; suffice it to say that we gorged ourselves with tongues and choice morsels far into the night, and that the sleep, which later overwhelmed us and all the sated dogs lying around the tents, was as long as it was well-earned. We have now to exploit the country through systematic hunts, wherefore we divide into two parties. Wulff, Ajako, Inukitsoq, and Hendrik go in different directions into the great valley which we saw from the mountain yesterday. Inukitsoq had on his hunt found a lot of fresh tracks and excrements in sand and clay. It would therefore appear that the hunters would have an exciting time if only they would persevere. According to this arrangement we should have sufficient hunters for the immediate vicinity, so I myself chose to drive in Vic- toria Fjord with Bosun, partly for the purpose of hunting, partly so that I might more closely examine the country. We have the advantage of being relatively many, so that in the course of a few days we shall have obtained a perfect survey of the new land. When I mentioned the first disposals for our journey, I emphasized that we could with certainty expect to catch seals some time during the spring, as Eskimos who had accompanied American expeditions in these regions had told of the many breathing-holes they found in places where the ice was young. But we could not reckon on a catch yet, as it was still too early in the spring. Neither could we reckon on find- ing bears so far north, where the massive quality of the ice would make it difficult for them to find food. We found a track off Cape May, but that was the only one we had so far observed. During the coming few months we must thus rely upon the musk-ox only, and as, according to the map, the inner reaches of Victoria Fjord contain large stretches of land. Bosun and I hurriedly collected our best dogs and set off before our com- rades were ready. Yesterday's meals of solid meat had revived the dogs, and in the beginning we made good speed. We 101 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA drove into the narrow inlet between land and the tall Stephenson Island, impressive with its steep, exclusive mountains, the inmost regions of which are covered by local glaciers. We set off in the evening, and in quiet, beautiful sunshine we struggled inland, taking turns at leading. Bosun, a boy not yet twenty years old, had repeatedly shown a surprising capacity for endurance; he had a healthy, even temperament and did not seem susceptible to any kind of adversity, if only he could get somewhere near the rations which his young muscles demanded. He enjoyed his meals very much, and occa- sionally surprised us with his voracious appetite. A rather large island behind Stephenson Island is marked on the map, but it proved to be non-existent. Twenty-five kilo- metres into Victoria Fjord we got the view which we were in search of, and drove into a bay to the west of the big island, look- ing for a place suitable for a camp, so that the dogs might rest while we, in snowshoes, continued further inland. We ascended the mountains immediately, and found to our surprise that this fjord, which had previously been described as an enormous arm of the ocean, so deep that one could not even dis- cern the land at its head, is hardly more than 80 kilometres in length. The head of the fjord ends in a broad glacier which, faintly sloping, merges into the inland-ice itself. The great stretches of surrounding land, which the old map promised we should find here, do not exist. Far to the north-east we found land, but it consisted only of steep, glaciated mountains, stand- ing like narrow walls with their backs clean against the inland- ice. Also to the south-west we saw far inland a steep alpine landscape with occasional broad doughs, but the entrance to this was blocked, as the inner reaches of the fjord consisted of floating inland-ice, slowly moving outward, so that trackless ravines were apparent not very far from our look-out. This fjord, from which we had expected so much, proved to possess none of the means of subsistence necessary for the accom- plishment of our scientific work. Hunting in this country would be both dangerous and futile. We could only hope for better conditions round Nordenskjold Fjord. We discerned moun- 102 SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD tains far away to the north-east, but even from the point on which ,we were now standing, it was obvious that the land would not stretch far in ; for the back of the inland-ice shot up all-embracing over the tracts where we had expected land-hunting. The only place left to us was the big peninsula between Vic- toria Fjord and Sherard Osborne Fjord, but even this did not seem promising. Although occasional, even stretches with low knolls exist here — a landscape much favoured by musk-oxen — many little local glaciers shot in between them, killing all life. Our hunt over the surrounding neighbourhood resulted in a bag of two hares, one of which we cooked before, disappointed and tired, we started the long return journey to our comrades, whom with unwilling and weary dogs we reached after an absence of twenty-four hours. On our arrival Koch came running out of the tent, and his gestures showed us at once that he had good news. Ajako and Wulff had shot six musk-oxen, and all the three sledges had gone out to fetch the animals ! Great joy ! Towards morning — it was one of the first really warm days — the sledges returned with barking, overeaten dogs. Inukitsoq had, during his hunt for hares, met a flock of ten animals right opposite to the six which had already been shot, and which they had come to fetch, and the hunt of the day thus brought in sixteen musk-oxen. Still greater joy ! At eight o'clock in the evening Koch and Inukitsoq drove in Victoria Fjord for the purpose of charting it. DAYS OF REST AND FATTENING May 12th-17th. — The welcome meat which we have now collected makes it possible for us to give the dogs the rest which they so richly deserve. They will now be allowed to laze about for a week or so, and to eat as much as they can get down ; then they will once more be fit to take up the work which for the 103 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA time being is interrupted. And these days of good hunting do not merely mean that in the course of a few days we shall again be ready to continue our journey with fit and willing dogs ; they also mean that we shall be able to clear up behind us before we continue. For we are now going back to Sherard Osborne Fjord so that we may chart this fjord as well. To-day we choose a convenient site for our camp, where we can enjoy life at not too great a distance from the killed musk- oxen. We drive up the river which runs through the southern side of the valley to the big, beautiful lake on the banks of which the welcome big game had to bite the dust. The tracts round the river and the sea look kind and fertile, comparatively large grass plains stretching across the well- watered spaces. We, who for a long period have been accustomed to barren, stony fields, feel that all this grass dotted with willows is a greeting from the summer, which fights its everlasting battle against the ice. Here is plenty of excrement of musk-oxen ; every stretch of clay and sand bears the imprint of their hoofs, and all signs point to the probabihty that the killed animals must have Uved near this sea for a long time. Behind the sea the lowland stretches inland as a broad clough-like valley. Wherever the eye rests, stone predominates ; but nevertheless it is apparent that the many Uttle rivulets, which during summer-time seem to run down the brown sides of the mountains, water the neighbourhood so plentifully that in the midst of this desert of stone one finds little oases where herbivorous animals can exist. Apparently here is also an abun- dance of hares, and for the first time since we left the flesh-pots of home we have the feehng that we can eat our fill, without the fear that a greedy appetite shall take too big a sUce out of the rations apportioned to each man. The ice on the lake bears witness that we have arrived in no quiet valley. Along the bank it is bare of snow and shiny, but further in the drifts have been whipped stony hard by sand and gravel. On the snow-bare grass plain we pitch the tents and It IS deUcious for once to lie on ground which does not con- 104 '^^S^g^asg^-fzSnU'-ats^^iK THE FIRST THREE MUSK-OXEN inukitsoq's ten musk-oxen o o Q z O [A w fe- SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD sist of cold, creaking snow. The nearest musk-oxen are being dragged down and the dogs have a meal so substantial that they lie down with big, balloony stomachs, groaning and overgorged, dreaming of the time when there was nothing called expeditions. We men sink into the same materialistic state, but with the difference that we carefully select all the delicious morsels which constitute the chief relish of an Eskimo hunter after a successful catch. Of the killed animals, fourteen are cows and eleven bulls. Round the hearts and kidneys of the oxen we find not a little fat, and also in the hollows of their eyes there are large adipose deposits ; this we eat with a specially keen appetite, for the meat we have lived on hitherto has been very lean, and in these regions one's craving for fat is greater than in other places. The days are raw and cold in the valley, and, although the temperature registered is only between 10 and 12 degrees of frost (Cent.), the wind is unpleasant. There is an incessant drift of sand and stone, and when we go out for meat, our coats are covered with dirty, sandy snow, which sticks between the hairs and is almost impossible to shake off. We therefore decide as far as possible to remain in the tents, where we spend a pleasant day munching. May 15th. — The 15th of May is uncommonly raw and windy. We bring the last carcases down to the tent, and make ready to go down on the ocean-ice again, where there is more shelter and more warmth from the sun than in these windy quarters. A couple of the large animals, which were deposited near a mountain from which transport was particularly difficult, were fetched immediately before we moved. On this trip we found behind a big stone a dead musk-ox which strikingly illustrated animal life up here. The musk-ox was a young animal ; it had been pursued by a wolf, and in its fear of its deadly enemy it forgot to use its eyes and got its legs squeezed in between two large stones. In this helpless position it was an easy prey for the wolf. With one single snap the thick gristly throat was ripped up, and the rent, as if cut with a blade, went straight downwards through the chest to the diaphragm, which had been 105 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA torn up with a single wrench of the iron jaws of the wolf. The whole cut was dealt by an expert possessing a certainty in the method of killing achieved only by the habitual perpetrator of violence. Only the tongue, the heart, and the fat round the intestines was eaten, otherwise the flesh had not been touched. There were traces of fox round the spot, but strangely enough it did not appear as if the fox had feasted greatly on the huge car- case ; perhaps they prefer the tender and fat lemmings to the tougher big game. Early in the morning of the 16th of May, Koch and Inukitsoq arrived from Victoria Fjord. Not only had they examined and charted the fjord, but in addition they had had the good fortune to shoot six musk-oxen on the lowlands which Bosun and I traversed in vain. We could not withhold our shouts of joy when we received this news ; for beside the chart- ing work of this last fjord, our stay in Nares Land since the 9th of May has resulted in a catch of twenty-six musk-oxen and thirty hares. The survey of Sherard Osborne Fjord now remains. I consider it advisable to set the course southward again as soon as weather permits, and the expedition is divided into two parties : One hunting party, consisting of Dr. Wulff, Hendrik, Inukitsoq, and Bosun, continues northward towards the supposed land round Nordenskjold Inlet. The charting party consists of Koch, Ajako, and myself. We return tem- porarily to Sherard Osborne Fjord to finish our work there. But we decide that Hendrik and Bosun shall accompany us in order to fetch part of the goods left at Dragon Point, whilst Inukitsoq drives in Victoria Fjord to fetch the rest of the meat deposited there by himself and Koch. Wulff remains in camp to hunt hares in the neighbourhood until his party is collected and clear for the journey. In the meantime dirty weather seems to be brewing, and in order not to prolong unnecessarily our stay in this valley of the far too powerful lungs, we move our camp on to a little island at the mouth of Nares Fjord where, at the same time, we deposit all our precious musk-ox meat. Whilst the rest of us drive the meat-laden sledges to the depdt, WulflP elects to walk the 5 kilo- 106 SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD metres across land to the little island which we call Dep6t Island. Although the distance is short, it took Wulff fourteen hours to find his way through the heavily driving snow. We were unable to search for him, as none of us knew in which direction the hunting might have led him, and great was our joy when at last he arrived with a catch of ten hares. The hares here appear in big flocks, and are surprisingly tame compared to those we have hitherto met. They are obviously accustomed to grazing with the musk-oxen, and therefore con- sider man to be just as peaceful as are these huge animals. BACK TO DRAGON POINT May 18th-19th. — The storm of the last few days has added more than a foot of soft, new snow, aggravating the old and already awkward going on the fjord, so that we now have the " icing-sugar " state of which Beaumont complains in his report. Although the dogs have had eight days' rest, during which time they have been gorged with food, it does not take long before they are again ready to give up. Once more we have to start our old game of walking in front of the dogs on snowshoes and skis, but it is slow work, and progress is made vnthout the good spirit usually attendant on a sledge-train when the dogs trot willingly ahead. We have twenty-two shoulders of musk-ox meat, and these we hope will enable us to accomplish the work which we have decided on. During our stay in the musk-ox valley we have already killed all the dogs which we thought we could do without ; for even if hunting has been favourable so far, it is an advantage to have as few mouths as possible to feed in these regions — partly because musk-oxen are very lean at this time of the year, partly also because the bones are too mas- sive for the dogs to gnaw. All our dogs lack the saw-edges of the raptorious tooth, these having, according to the custom of the Eskimo, been removed whilst the dogs were young. This operation is advantageous for the travelling explorer, in so far as the dog is unable to eat his harness and traces >vhen hunger 107 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA forces him to make such an attempt, for harness and traces are unplaceable during a journey. But, at the same time, it is robbed of the abiUty to eat very hard bones. We had fine, beautiful weather, but for all that we did not succeed in reaching the depot in one run. We had to camp right out on Sherard Osborne Fjord, just as we did on the outward journey, and not until the 19th at noon did we reach our old camp. May 19th. — Immediately before our arrival at the depot we saw to our great pleasure the first seal crawling up on the ice to sun itself ; unfortunately it was not killed, although Ajako got very close to it, the bullet passing above its head. In spite of this mishap, the occurrence was of the greatest importance to us. For when the seals begin to crawl up through the old thick Polar-ice already by the middle of May, we are sure of good hunting here nearer the end of June. Successful seal- hunting in this neighbourhood will simplify our return journey very much. Twenty hours of hare-hunting gives the very meagre bag of only one animal, for in this neighbourhood the hares are so timid that they run off long before a shot can reach them. Some distance from the camp we found the skeleton of a seal on the shore ; it had been caught and eaten by a bear. It thus seems that the bears pay occasional visits here, and it is to be hoped that we may succeed in meeting one of these wandering fellows. While Hendrik and Bosun drive back to Depot Island, the rest of us make the last preparations for the journey into Sherard Osborne Fjord. First, however, we watch their start. Slowly, very slowly, the dark figures move across the ice. The snow is deep and so loose that the sledges sink into it in spite of the skis. The dogs sink down to their bellies, dragging their tails behind them. For a long time we hear across the quiet fjord the drivers desperately shouting to the dogs. 108 SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD IN SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD May 20th-22nd. — The ice in along the fjord proves to be better than we expected, and for the first 20 kilometres we could drive at a loitering pace without an outrunner. Six kilo- metres from Dragon Point we again see a seal. Unfortunately we do not get within shooting distance, as it heard us before we caught sight of it, and plopped down through its breathing-hole as soon as we stopped in order to attempt to creep up to it. We pass the tall, beautiful Castle Island and get 30 kilo- metres into St. Andrew Bay, as further in the snow gets deeper, absolutely unnerving the dogs. The ice here is very uneven and has the characteristics of floating inland-ice. East of Castle Island we come across a couple of large pressure-ridges running at right angles on to land, parallel to the glacier ; this indicates that the ice, even so far out as this, has been under the pressure of the main glacier itself. At nine o'clock in the evening, Koch and Ajako go into the mountains with a theodolite to take the bearings of St. George Fjord. At three o'clock in the morning they return, having had a view of the fjord, discovering large snow-free land behind and to the south-west. They have also seen an evenly sloping glacier which, between a couple of large mountains, seems to have an even and good connection with the main glacier. This observation further strengthens my resolve later on to try an ascent from this vicinity, when the return journey will some- time lead us on to the inland-ice. Ajako has shot two hares, which constitute a delicious even- ing meal and enable us to save the musk-ox meat for the dogs. We have only brought one single, though abundant, ration for them, depositing the rest at Dragon Point for the return journey. Shortly after the arrival of my comrades two snow-white wolves are silhouetted high up on a hill-crest. Their slender bodies show their plastic beauty against the sharply-blue sky, and they look quite anciently Norse as they trot down towards our camp, sniffing and scenting, full of wonderment. 109 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA They stop suddenly by the ice-foot about 500 metres from our tent and follow for a whole hour, thoroughly examining the trail of Koch and Ajako, trotting up and down, now and then stopping to sniff. Then they lift their heads and howl long and persistently, a strangely melancholic and lonely-sounding song of lamentation, which echoes between the mountains. Our dogs prick their ears and look landward in surprise, as if they heard well-known but forgotten tunes ; they arise and stare searchingly towards the mountains, but they do not join in the chorus. As the wolves do not appear to wish to come nearer, Ajako approaches them with gun and a dog, a small, lean bitch .which has previously shown itself to be a good bear dog. One of the wolves, evidently the male, is very large and strong, and its trot is springy and the fall of its feet rapid. The other one seems somewhat frailer, but nevertheless it is more sinewy than a dog. As soon as the little white bitch catches sight of these rare beasts of prey, which have the same colour as itself, it rushes barking to the land, with tail erect, ready to attack. But the big, silent hermits, which are so much stronger and in full possession of their knife-sharp teeth, put their tails between their legs and flee cowardly in among the mountains. They both have blood on their chops, and have presumably just been feasting on musk-ox meat; a smaller animal could hardly have smeared them so extensively vnth. blood. An hour later the little dog returned, steaming with heat, but apparently disappointed over the lost opportunity of an open fight. It is six o'clock in the morning when we go to rest after a long day full of events. On the inward journey travelling conditions are yet more difficult ; the uneven ice and the snow, which becomes deeper and deeper the further we go, take the strength out of the dogs to such an extent that I decide to abandon driving and attempt to continue on skis. We make a halt by a headland and shoot four of the slackest dogs. After this, we give the remaining dogs a feed of musk-oxen. The original decision was to con- 110 SHERARD OSBORNE FJORD tinue inward at once, but this has to be given up, as Koch is so exhausted after several days of diarrhoea that he has to rest; furthermore, Ajako has gone snow-bhnd. Thus the distance covered during the day is only 10 kilometres; but then, the dogs were unusually slack and weak. The only encouragement the day had to offer us was the trail of a lemming, which showed that this strong and obstinate little animal had set out on a journey which was to take it from one coast of the wide fjord to the other, May 23rd. — At one o'clock in the night Koch and I, respectively on snowshoes and skis, begin our toilsome walk through deep snow in towards Cape Buttress, which stands as a mighty signboard on the point where the fjord contracts into a narrow channel, from which it widens out again to a great breadth. Ajako, who is now perfectly snow-blind, has to be left in the tent. The journey is very strenuous and takes us fourteen hours, but it is with interesting results that we return. Sherard Osborne Fjord was marked on the map as the largest of all fjords, as Cape Buttress formed merely the half-way point to the inner widening which contracted here, and later on, in the full breadth of its mouth, swung slightly towards south- west up towards the white inland-ice. Cape Buttress is a wild and monumental complex of high mountains, the summits of which are covered by a glacier, gigantic and brilliant with red hues, blossoming out under the rays of the sun. We had followed the coast on the western side rather close to land, and every time we looked eastward we saw a low cloud- like brim which often covered the lower part of the shore. It was like a small bank of fog which, white and trembling, encircled the feet of the mountains. Only when we arrived quite close to the great cape towards which we made our course did we come suddenly out on the fog-bank itself, and we now discovered that the mystery was low-floating inland-ice, reach- ing right down to Cape Gray on Castle Island. This floating inland-ice, which further out raises itself only a couple of metres above the old Sikussaq ice, mounts quite evenly inward where, 111 GREENLAND BY THE POLAR SEA with the real characteristics of a glacier constantly increasing in thickness, it passes Cape Buttress on the inner side. No fissures were apparent, wherefore this ice-stream, which runs out between two beautiful mountain tracts, would present a convenient point of ascent on to the inland-ice itself if one did not run the risk of finding clefts further inland. At any rate, both Peary and Astrup mention that on the main glacier inside Sherard Osborne Fjord they often had to take an inland course to get inside the many broad and deep clefts which blocked their way. The discoveiy of this far-reaching tongue of the glacier reduces the extent of Sherard Osborne Fjord to a bare third of what previously it was supposed to be, and at the same time it gives an explanation of the belts of pressure-ice which a few days ago we saw at the height of Cape Gray. This ice-stream, then, is in constant, even movement outward, and thus exerts a pressure on the old Polar-ice, so that the ridges arise in places where otherwise one would not expect to find any movement. To the south-west of Cape Buttress a fjord cuts in, sur- rounded by a great lowland ending in a high cape on the western bank. This fjord, with its surrounding land buried in deep snow, we christened " Ski Cove." When we had completed our survey we turned homeward, and it soon became apparent that Koch, who during these last few days had not been well, was much more ill than I had sus- pected. A few times before we reached our tent he had to lie down on the ice to avoid fainting, and I am sure it was with the utmost effort that he succeeded in accomplishing the journey, which even for a healthy man is very tiring, as we had con- tinually to toil through the deep snow, which was so soft and fine that neither skis nor snowshoes would carry one. May 24