Schwatka's Search: Sledging in the Arctic in Quest of the Franklin Records. William H. Gilder
learned from themselves, and this suspicion gathers strength from various circumstances related on Schwatka's journey. Be this as it may, I take my stand on far higher ground. Of course such things have happened. Strong, shipwrecked mariners, suddenly cast adrift on the ocean, have endeavored to extend life in this way when they were in hourly expectation of being rescued. But how different the case in point! The crews of the 'Erebus' and 'Terror', when they abandoned their ship, were, doubtless, for the most part, suffering from exhaustion and scurvy; death had been staring them in the face for months. The greater part of them probably died from exhaustion and disease long before they got a hundred miles from their ships, and found their graves beneath the ice when it melted in summer, or on the beach of King William Land. It is possible that no more than half a dozen out of the whole crew ever reached the entrance to the Great Fish River. We need not call in starvation to our aid. I fully believe that by far the greater portion perished long before their provisions were consumed. The only thing that would have restored men to convalescence in their condition would have been nursing and the comforts of hospital treatment, not a resort to human flesh."
Apart from these objections, of which the reader is only forewarned, the importance of the results achieved by Lieutenant Schwatka's expedition has not been gainsaid by any one possessing the least acquaintance with Arctic matters. It made the largest sledge journey on record, having been absent from its base of supplies for eleven months and twenty days, and having traversed 2,819 geographical, or 3,251 statute miles. It was the first expedition which relied for its own subsistence and for the subsistence of its dogs on the game which it found in the locality. It was the first expedition in which the white men of the party voluntarily assumed the same diet as the natives. It was the first expedition which established beyond a doubt the loss of the Franklin records. McClintock recorded an opinion that they had perished: Schwatka recorded it as a fact.
The success of this latest Arctic journey has been attributed to small, as well as to greater causes. The advantages of summer exploration were manifest. The Esquimaux of the party gave invaluable aid, building snow-huts with the skill to which none but natives attain, coating the sledge-runners with ice according to a method which only natives understand, and by their good offices enabling the expedition to hold communication and have dealings with the wild tribes with whom they came in contact. The dogs were chosen with the utmost circumspection, and justified this care by their wonderful endurance. Game was abundant. Such minor devices as the use of blue lights proved efficacious in the dispersal of wolves. Woolen foot gear, made by friendly natives, supplied a need which has often proved fatal in the Arctic. Good management kept all the Esquimaux loyal, and Schwatka's strong will helped the travellers to live while the dogs were falling exhausted and dying by the way.
Among the relics that were brought home was the prow of the boat seen by Sir Leopold McClintock in Erebus Bay, the sled on which it had been transported, and the drag-rope by which the sled was drawn. There were also two sheet-iron stoves from the first camp on King William Land, a brush marked "H. Wilkes," some pieces of clothing from each grave, together with buttons, canteens, shoes, tin cans, pickaxes, and every thing that could in any way tend to identify the occupants of the different graves or those who died without burial. They were offered to the British Admiralty, and, having been gratefully accepted, were added to the relics already deposited at the Museum in Greenwich Hospital, and at the United Service Institution in London.
CHAPTER I. NORTHWARD
CHAPTER II. THE WINTER CAMP
CHAPTER III. OUR DOGS
CHAPTER IV. IN THE SLEDGES
CHAPTER V. NATIVE WITNESSES
CHAPTER VI. THE MIDNIGHT SUN
CHAPTER VII. RELICS
CHAPTER VIII. IRVING'S GRAVE
CHAPTER IX. ARCTIC COSTUMES
CHAPTER X. OVER MELTING SNOWS
CHAPTER XI. AMATEUR ESQUIMAUX
CHAPTER XII. WALRUS DIET
CHAPTER XIII. THE RETURN
CHAPTER XIV. FAMINE
CHAPTER XV. ESQUIMAU HOME-LIFE
CHAPTER XVI. HOMEWARD
CHAPTER XVII. THE GRAVES OF THE EXPLORERS
LIEUTENANT SCHWATKA CAMP DALY IN SUMMER ESQUIMAUX GOING TO THE HUNTING-GROUND A CAIRN CAIRN MARKING DEPOSIT OF PROVISIONS THE SHIPS IN WINTER QUARTERS ESQUIMAU PLAYING THE KI-LOWTY CAMP DALY IN WINTER DOWN-HILL WITH THE SLEDGES HUNTING MUSK-OXEN THE GREAT BEND IN HAYES RIVER THE SOURCES OF THE HAYES RIVER MEETING WITH THE OOKJOOLIKS THE NETCHILLIK AMBASSADRESS THE COUNCIL WITH THE NETCHILLIKS SNOW-HUTS ON CAPE HERSCHEL CROSSING EREBUS BAY CURIOUS FORMATION OF CLAY-STONE CLAY-STONE MOUNDS THE BREAKING UP OF THE ICE THE MARCH SOUTHWARD SCHWATKA'S PERMANENT CAMP HENRY KLUTSCHAK'S CAMP VIEW ON BACK'S RIVER THE DANGEROUS RAPIDS, BACK'S RIVER THE MARCH IN EXTREME COLD WEATHER VIEW ON CONNERY RIVER ESQUIMAUX BUILDING A HUT SECTION AND PLAN OF ESQUIMAUX HUT ESQUIMAU WOMAN COOKING
[Map: THE OVERLAND ROUTE OF THE Exploring Expedition of
Lieut. Schwatka to and from KING WILLIAM'S LAND. 1879–1880.]
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SCHWATKA'S SEARCH.
CHAPTER I.
NORTHWARD.
"Haul in the gang-plank;" "Let go the tow-line," shouted the captain of the 'Fletcher'. Then he signalled the engineer to go ahead, and the little schooner 'Eothen' was abandoned to her own resources and the mercy of the mighty ocean. The last frantic handshaking was over, and only wind-blown kisses and parting injunctions passed back and forth as the distance between the voyagers and their escort kept continually increasing, until nothing could be heard but the hearty cheers that wished for us a pleasant journey and unbounded success. There was no time now for regrets, for if we would be comfortable we must direct our thoughts seaward and get our bunks ready for sleeping. So we were paired off and went immediately to work. As Lieutenant Schwatka was not only the senior officer of the expedition, but at the same time taller than I by several inches, I willingly yielded him the top bunk of our state-room, and waited patiently outside until he had prepared his lair, for it would be impossible for two to work at the same time in such very narrow space. He at last arranged his two buffalo robes to his perfect satisfaction, and I soon spread my humbler blankets to the best advantage. So much accomplished we retired to our first sleep on shipboard.
We had left New York on the 19th June, 1878, a party of five, none of us unaccustomed to hardship and adventure. Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, of the Third United States Cavalry, Polish by descent, American by birth, had been distinguished in the war; and I, who was second in command, had seen a good deal of active service. Henry Klutschak, a Bohemian by birth, a civil engineer by profession, brought us the advantage of his previous experiences in the Arctic; Frank E. Melms was an experienced whaleman; and Joseph Ebierbing, well known as "Esquimau Joe," had been with Captain Hall and Captain Hayes in their journeys, and with the 'Pandora' expedition from England. The 'Eothen', that carried us, was commanded by Captain Thomas F. Barry. Her crew included a first, second, and third mate, a carpenter, blacksmith, cooper, steward and cook, three boat-steerers, and twelve men before the mast. To prepare her for encounters with the ice, the hull had been overlaid to the chain-plates with oak planking an inch and a half thick, and the stem had been covered with oak about two feet thick, over which was iron plating to the depth of three-quarters of an inch. She was a stout vessel of one hundred and two tons. The stock of provisions laid in on board of her for the use of the party included hard bread, Indian-meal, flour, molasses, pemmican, canned meats, preserved vegetables, preserved fruits, coffee, tea, and chocolate. Horseradish was taken as a preventive against scurvy, and tobacco was stored in abundance for the use of such Esquimaux as might have stories to tell or assistance to offer. Arms and ammunition had been generously presented to us by several manufacturers, and to individual bounty we also owed many of our books, night-signals, instruments, and the timber for our sledges.
The commander of the 'Eothen' was, indirectly,