[Contents]CHAPTER VCHAPTER VUPERNIVIK AND THE DUCK ISLANDSWe left Proven about midnight, and as we started out from the little harbor past some bare rocky islands Dad and some others went ashore to try some shooting. When we came in we had seen a great many birds and ducks flying around there.They stayed ashore from one o’clock until five, while I was asleep. Later Dad told me it was very beautiful, the water all grey and calm like silver, with a sky sort of lead color with gay tints of orange and yellow and lemon where the sun was low. They brought back tern, eider ducks and some gulls, some to eat, others to be skinned for specimens.The next day it was very foggy so we went[50]slowly, dodging icebergs which we could see only when we got very close to them. At about nine the following morning we reached Upernivik, which is the last town that amounts to anything in North Greenland and is I think the furthest north town in the world. There is a Danish Governor there and a few other Danes. His name is Governor Otto and he was awfully nice to us, then and later on when we came back.Upernivik is a nice little place built on an island. Where we landed there was only a little wharf and some store houses and supplies. From this harbor a little path or trail led over a steep hill to the real town, which was down on the other side on a slope to the south, with a grand view of Sanderson’s Hope, quite a big mountain a few miles away and overlooking an open fjord which was no use as a harbor. The village has a dozen wooden houses, including several that are very nice indeed, chiefly the Governor’s house and one[51]for the doctor who lives there, which also is used for a hospital. And about the wooden houses are the sod huts of the natives, most of whom seem to stick to their own style of living. There is a fine new church on the hill just over the village.We had lunch with Governor Otto and his daughter Ruth, a girl about twelve years old, at his house, and afterward in the harbor we took some movies of an Eskimo turning over in his kayak. He didn’t seem to have a hard time at all. He just kind of fell over on one side, sitting right in his kayak or skin boat, and then came up on the other side with just a twist of his paddle. Doing this he wore a watertight suit of sealskin and a hood over his head, drawn tight about the neck. And around his waist, where he sat in the hole or cockpit of the kayak, there was a skin fastened tight about him so that no water could get in.Robert Peary thought he would try it so[52]he changed into a sealskin shirt, got into the Eskimo’s kayak—it was hard for him to squeeze in he was so much larger than the Eskimo—and turned half way over. The kayak was upside down and then his head stuck up on the other side and went down again, sputtering. He just couldn’t manage to get up again, and hung head down in the water, the boat upside down right over him. I really thought he was drowning.Robert Peary Tries a Kayak.Robert Peary Tries a Kayak.Then he came up a second time and yelled for help. Of course we were close to him and right away Carl got there in a rowboat and he pretty nearly fell in himself helping to get Robert straightened up. And you should have seen the Eskimos laugh! They thought it was a great joke. But Robert seemed to feel he had swallowed about all the ice water of Baffin Bay that he wanted and he was so cold he went back to the ship and changed his clothes. But I’ll bet that next summer at home in Maine he learns the trick.[53]We had sent some natives out to catch sharks for specimens and Doc, Ralph and myself went after them in the launch. They had caught four big ones and had lost another overboard. These Greenland basking shark, as they are called, are very slow and sluggish. They don’t fight at all. They move very slowly and don’t seem to be savage or a bit like the sharks I have seen caught in Florida.The next morning Governor Otto took us over to see his dogs, which during the summer he keeps on a bare rocky island about a mile away, where they are entirely to themselves. About every three days during the summer they are fed, mostly ducks which are taken out in a big basket. Most of them seem to have been kept a pretty long time and become pretty “ripe.” But the dogs certainly like them.Art Young Tries an Eider Duck Egg from the Eskimo Cache on the Duck Islands.Art Young Tries an Eider Duck Egg from the Eskimo Cache on the Duck Islands.We went over to the island in our launch with the Governor and a couple of Eskimos carrying the food. When they saw us coming[54]the dogs, about a dozen in number, crowded down to the shore and followed along as we went by, yelping and barking crazily. They knew it was dinner time.We landed and decided to give them the birds up a bit from the water, where it was more level and Kellerman could get movies better. As the Eskimos carried up a big basket of the birds, one of them had to keep the dogs off the man with the basket. He used an oar and beat them. And at that they jumped up and tried to get at the basket of meat on the man’s shoulder whenever they got the slightest chance. I don’t doubt they would have knocked him down if he had been alone.Then the birds were thrown out to the dogs, a few at a time. In a second they were torn to pieces and gobbled up. A dog will rip one up in a flash and choke down everything but the feathers. There were many fights. And all the time there was a great racket,[55]with the dogs howling and barking and yapping at each other.It was very interesting to see the King Dog. Each team up in this country has a head dog, the King, who is boss. He is usually the heaviest and best looking dog, and certainly is the best fighter. I believe he just fights his way up to the leadership. Certainly when he “says” anything to one of the others, they do what they are told pretty quickly. Or else they get a licking.The King has a queen, and it is fun to see the way he looks out for her. When the Queen got a duck or part of one, the King just sort of looked on and saw to it that no other dog interfered. If one of them got excited and started to move in on the Queen and her dinner, the King gave a growl—and that ended it. Or if another dog had a bit of duck, and the King came along, the other fellow just dropped what he had, perhaps running off or sort of turning over on his back[56]and grovelling on the ground. There certainly was discipline on that island.When it was all over there was just a few feathers scattered around on the rocks and the dogs were mostly with bloody mouths and heads where they had torn up the meat. Anyway, they all seemed to have had a good meal and for the first time settled down quietly, to wait for the next dinner time three days later. In the winter they have their work, and lots of it, and of course they are awfully important in the life of the northern people. There are no horses and of course no automobiles or anything like that. So everything is drawn on sleds, and the sleds are moved by dogs.The King Dog of Governor Otto’s Team, with His Queen.The King Dog of Governor Otto’s Team, with His Queen.The dog skins are especially fine. The fur is heavy and soft and glossy. Dad bought some dog skins to have a coat made.That afternoon we left Upernivik to go north across Melville Bay. Everyone was on hand to see us off and the Governor fired[57]the little cannon up on the hill where they had the Danish flag hoisted. They gave us a salute of three guns and we answered with three shots from a rifle.The Duck Islands are a few little rocky islands a dozen miles or so off the mainland of Greenland just at the south side of Melville Bay. About two o’clock the next afternoon we reached them, anchoring in a sort of harbor between the two largest islands. The bigger one is I suppose about two miles long and half a mile or so wide, very hilly and all rocks. About the shores, where there is a little level land, the rocks are covered with moss and there are stretches of bog and mud.We went around a good deal on both islands and saw a great many eider ducks which nest here in large quantities. In the old days when the whalers came into Baffin Bay this was a headquarters and then they used to gather duck eggs by the boat load.Feeding the Dogs at Upernivik.Feeding the Dogs at Upernivik.[58]We saw many ducks nesting. The nest is just a little fluffy round mass of the soft feathers, right on the ground. They pull the feathers out of their breasts, so that when you get the female ones they look as if someone had plucked a handful of down from their undersides. This is what is called eider down, and is used in very fine mattresses and pillows. It is very warm and is also quite valuable. The Eskimos collect the eider down from the nests and from the birds, and it, with skins of foxes and seal, and a few other articles like walrus ivory and narwhal tusks, is one of the chief ways they have of trading with the outer world.The male and female eider ducks are very different. The female is all brown, while the male is brown only a little on his breast and belly, and with a lot of white on his back and neck, and feathers that are dark grey or nearly black. The female moves very slowly and is very tame and easy to get close to and to kill.[59]We got a good many for eating, and they are kept hung in the rigging to be used as Billy the cook wants them. The male is much wilder and flies faster and is pretty hard to shoot. There were very few male at Duck Island. While the females are nesting the males seem to go off by themselves. Later we saw a good many up in the fjords back of Upernivik. Both are very big and heavy birds, and awfully good eating.Back in 1850 and on for thirty years or so there was much whaling in these waters. Many of the ships came from Scotland. On the hill or small mountain at Duck Island there is a whaler’s cairn, and also a walled-in place where they had their lookout. In that cairn, by the way, in 1888 Peary left a record. We could find nothing. Probably the Eskimos had cleaned out everything long ago.In one piece of lowland near the water, where there was a little dirt, we found the[60]graves of some whalers. They were covered over with stones and only one head board with a name, was left. It said: “In memory of William Stewart, A.B.,S. S. Triuneof Dundee, June 11, 1886. Aged 24.”Art took me shooting with my sixteen-gauge shotgun, but I didn’t do so well. I haven’t tried shooting on the wing much and I’m pretty bad at it. Shooting with the twenty-two rifle seems easier. Art himself is a grand shot, with either rifle or shotgun.We found many eggs, and Dad and some of the others, on the other island, found great caches of eggs, hundreds of them evidently gathered by Eskimos who had visited the islands earlier in the season and left them there to get them later. They were put away in a sort of hole with rocks piled up around and over them so that they were perfectly protected, and with the chinks of the rock packed up with moss. They also found the skull of a polar bear.[61]We found three eggs with little ducks just hatching out. These we brought back to the boat. I put one under a mother duck which I had found alive in an Eskimo trap and the other two behind the galley stove where it was nice and hot. Two of them lived quite a while and then they were killed, painlessly, and put away for specimens. We got some nests for the Museum and I got one for my own collection.[62]
[Contents]CHAPTER VCHAPTER VUPERNIVIK AND THE DUCK ISLANDSWe left Proven about midnight, and as we started out from the little harbor past some bare rocky islands Dad and some others went ashore to try some shooting. When we came in we had seen a great many birds and ducks flying around there.They stayed ashore from one o’clock until five, while I was asleep. Later Dad told me it was very beautiful, the water all grey and calm like silver, with a sky sort of lead color with gay tints of orange and yellow and lemon where the sun was low. They brought back tern, eider ducks and some gulls, some to eat, others to be skinned for specimens.The next day it was very foggy so we went[50]slowly, dodging icebergs which we could see only when we got very close to them. At about nine the following morning we reached Upernivik, which is the last town that amounts to anything in North Greenland and is I think the furthest north town in the world. There is a Danish Governor there and a few other Danes. His name is Governor Otto and he was awfully nice to us, then and later on when we came back.Upernivik is a nice little place built on an island. Where we landed there was only a little wharf and some store houses and supplies. From this harbor a little path or trail led over a steep hill to the real town, which was down on the other side on a slope to the south, with a grand view of Sanderson’s Hope, quite a big mountain a few miles away and overlooking an open fjord which was no use as a harbor. The village has a dozen wooden houses, including several that are very nice indeed, chiefly the Governor’s house and one[51]for the doctor who lives there, which also is used for a hospital. And about the wooden houses are the sod huts of the natives, most of whom seem to stick to their own style of living. There is a fine new church on the hill just over the village.We had lunch with Governor Otto and his daughter Ruth, a girl about twelve years old, at his house, and afterward in the harbor we took some movies of an Eskimo turning over in his kayak. He didn’t seem to have a hard time at all. He just kind of fell over on one side, sitting right in his kayak or skin boat, and then came up on the other side with just a twist of his paddle. Doing this he wore a watertight suit of sealskin and a hood over his head, drawn tight about the neck. And around his waist, where he sat in the hole or cockpit of the kayak, there was a skin fastened tight about him so that no water could get in.Robert Peary thought he would try it so[52]he changed into a sealskin shirt, got into the Eskimo’s kayak—it was hard for him to squeeze in he was so much larger than the Eskimo—and turned half way over. The kayak was upside down and then his head stuck up on the other side and went down again, sputtering. He just couldn’t manage to get up again, and hung head down in the water, the boat upside down right over him. I really thought he was drowning.Robert Peary Tries a Kayak.Robert Peary Tries a Kayak.Then he came up a second time and yelled for help. Of course we were close to him and right away Carl got there in a rowboat and he pretty nearly fell in himself helping to get Robert straightened up. And you should have seen the Eskimos laugh! They thought it was a great joke. But Robert seemed to feel he had swallowed about all the ice water of Baffin Bay that he wanted and he was so cold he went back to the ship and changed his clothes. But I’ll bet that next summer at home in Maine he learns the trick.[53]We had sent some natives out to catch sharks for specimens and Doc, Ralph and myself went after them in the launch. They had caught four big ones and had lost another overboard. These Greenland basking shark, as they are called, are very slow and sluggish. They don’t fight at all. They move very slowly and don’t seem to be savage or a bit like the sharks I have seen caught in Florida.The next morning Governor Otto took us over to see his dogs, which during the summer he keeps on a bare rocky island about a mile away, where they are entirely to themselves. About every three days during the summer they are fed, mostly ducks which are taken out in a big basket. Most of them seem to have been kept a pretty long time and become pretty “ripe.” But the dogs certainly like them.Art Young Tries an Eider Duck Egg from the Eskimo Cache on the Duck Islands.Art Young Tries an Eider Duck Egg from the Eskimo Cache on the Duck Islands.We went over to the island in our launch with the Governor and a couple of Eskimos carrying the food. When they saw us coming[54]the dogs, about a dozen in number, crowded down to the shore and followed along as we went by, yelping and barking crazily. They knew it was dinner time.We landed and decided to give them the birds up a bit from the water, where it was more level and Kellerman could get movies better. As the Eskimos carried up a big basket of the birds, one of them had to keep the dogs off the man with the basket. He used an oar and beat them. And at that they jumped up and tried to get at the basket of meat on the man’s shoulder whenever they got the slightest chance. I don’t doubt they would have knocked him down if he had been alone.Then the birds were thrown out to the dogs, a few at a time. In a second they were torn to pieces and gobbled up. A dog will rip one up in a flash and choke down everything but the feathers. There were many fights. And all the time there was a great racket,[55]with the dogs howling and barking and yapping at each other.It was very interesting to see the King Dog. Each team up in this country has a head dog, the King, who is boss. He is usually the heaviest and best looking dog, and certainly is the best fighter. I believe he just fights his way up to the leadership. Certainly when he “says” anything to one of the others, they do what they are told pretty quickly. Or else they get a licking.The King has a queen, and it is fun to see the way he looks out for her. When the Queen got a duck or part of one, the King just sort of looked on and saw to it that no other dog interfered. If one of them got excited and started to move in on the Queen and her dinner, the King gave a growl—and that ended it. Or if another dog had a bit of duck, and the King came along, the other fellow just dropped what he had, perhaps running off or sort of turning over on his back[56]and grovelling on the ground. There certainly was discipline on that island.When it was all over there was just a few feathers scattered around on the rocks and the dogs were mostly with bloody mouths and heads where they had torn up the meat. Anyway, they all seemed to have had a good meal and for the first time settled down quietly, to wait for the next dinner time three days later. In the winter they have their work, and lots of it, and of course they are awfully important in the life of the northern people. There are no horses and of course no automobiles or anything like that. So everything is drawn on sleds, and the sleds are moved by dogs.The King Dog of Governor Otto’s Team, with His Queen.The King Dog of Governor Otto’s Team, with His Queen.The dog skins are especially fine. The fur is heavy and soft and glossy. Dad bought some dog skins to have a coat made.That afternoon we left Upernivik to go north across Melville Bay. Everyone was on hand to see us off and the Governor fired[57]the little cannon up on the hill where they had the Danish flag hoisted. They gave us a salute of three guns and we answered with three shots from a rifle.The Duck Islands are a few little rocky islands a dozen miles or so off the mainland of Greenland just at the south side of Melville Bay. About two o’clock the next afternoon we reached them, anchoring in a sort of harbor between the two largest islands. The bigger one is I suppose about two miles long and half a mile or so wide, very hilly and all rocks. About the shores, where there is a little level land, the rocks are covered with moss and there are stretches of bog and mud.We went around a good deal on both islands and saw a great many eider ducks which nest here in large quantities. In the old days when the whalers came into Baffin Bay this was a headquarters and then they used to gather duck eggs by the boat load.Feeding the Dogs at Upernivik.Feeding the Dogs at Upernivik.[58]We saw many ducks nesting. The nest is just a little fluffy round mass of the soft feathers, right on the ground. They pull the feathers out of their breasts, so that when you get the female ones they look as if someone had plucked a handful of down from their undersides. This is what is called eider down, and is used in very fine mattresses and pillows. It is very warm and is also quite valuable. The Eskimos collect the eider down from the nests and from the birds, and it, with skins of foxes and seal, and a few other articles like walrus ivory and narwhal tusks, is one of the chief ways they have of trading with the outer world.The male and female eider ducks are very different. The female is all brown, while the male is brown only a little on his breast and belly, and with a lot of white on his back and neck, and feathers that are dark grey or nearly black. The female moves very slowly and is very tame and easy to get close to and to kill.[59]We got a good many for eating, and they are kept hung in the rigging to be used as Billy the cook wants them. The male is much wilder and flies faster and is pretty hard to shoot. There were very few male at Duck Island. While the females are nesting the males seem to go off by themselves. Later we saw a good many up in the fjords back of Upernivik. Both are very big and heavy birds, and awfully good eating.Back in 1850 and on for thirty years or so there was much whaling in these waters. Many of the ships came from Scotland. On the hill or small mountain at Duck Island there is a whaler’s cairn, and also a walled-in place where they had their lookout. In that cairn, by the way, in 1888 Peary left a record. We could find nothing. Probably the Eskimos had cleaned out everything long ago.In one piece of lowland near the water, where there was a little dirt, we found the[60]graves of some whalers. They were covered over with stones and only one head board with a name, was left. It said: “In memory of William Stewart, A.B.,S. S. Triuneof Dundee, June 11, 1886. Aged 24.”Art took me shooting with my sixteen-gauge shotgun, but I didn’t do so well. I haven’t tried shooting on the wing much and I’m pretty bad at it. Shooting with the twenty-two rifle seems easier. Art himself is a grand shot, with either rifle or shotgun.We found many eggs, and Dad and some of the others, on the other island, found great caches of eggs, hundreds of them evidently gathered by Eskimos who had visited the islands earlier in the season and left them there to get them later. They were put away in a sort of hole with rocks piled up around and over them so that they were perfectly protected, and with the chinks of the rock packed up with moss. They also found the skull of a polar bear.[61]We found three eggs with little ducks just hatching out. These we brought back to the boat. I put one under a mother duck which I had found alive in an Eskimo trap and the other two behind the galley stove where it was nice and hot. Two of them lived quite a while and then they were killed, painlessly, and put away for specimens. We got some nests for the Museum and I got one for my own collection.[62]
CHAPTER VCHAPTER VUPERNIVIK AND THE DUCK ISLANDS
CHAPTER V
We left Proven about midnight, and as we started out from the little harbor past some bare rocky islands Dad and some others went ashore to try some shooting. When we came in we had seen a great many birds and ducks flying around there.They stayed ashore from one o’clock until five, while I was asleep. Later Dad told me it was very beautiful, the water all grey and calm like silver, with a sky sort of lead color with gay tints of orange and yellow and lemon where the sun was low. They brought back tern, eider ducks and some gulls, some to eat, others to be skinned for specimens.The next day it was very foggy so we went[50]slowly, dodging icebergs which we could see only when we got very close to them. At about nine the following morning we reached Upernivik, which is the last town that amounts to anything in North Greenland and is I think the furthest north town in the world. There is a Danish Governor there and a few other Danes. His name is Governor Otto and he was awfully nice to us, then and later on when we came back.Upernivik is a nice little place built on an island. Where we landed there was only a little wharf and some store houses and supplies. From this harbor a little path or trail led over a steep hill to the real town, which was down on the other side on a slope to the south, with a grand view of Sanderson’s Hope, quite a big mountain a few miles away and overlooking an open fjord which was no use as a harbor. The village has a dozen wooden houses, including several that are very nice indeed, chiefly the Governor’s house and one[51]for the doctor who lives there, which also is used for a hospital. And about the wooden houses are the sod huts of the natives, most of whom seem to stick to their own style of living. There is a fine new church on the hill just over the village.We had lunch with Governor Otto and his daughter Ruth, a girl about twelve years old, at his house, and afterward in the harbor we took some movies of an Eskimo turning over in his kayak. He didn’t seem to have a hard time at all. He just kind of fell over on one side, sitting right in his kayak or skin boat, and then came up on the other side with just a twist of his paddle. Doing this he wore a watertight suit of sealskin and a hood over his head, drawn tight about the neck. And around his waist, where he sat in the hole or cockpit of the kayak, there was a skin fastened tight about him so that no water could get in.Robert Peary thought he would try it so[52]he changed into a sealskin shirt, got into the Eskimo’s kayak—it was hard for him to squeeze in he was so much larger than the Eskimo—and turned half way over. The kayak was upside down and then his head stuck up on the other side and went down again, sputtering. He just couldn’t manage to get up again, and hung head down in the water, the boat upside down right over him. I really thought he was drowning.Robert Peary Tries a Kayak.Robert Peary Tries a Kayak.Then he came up a second time and yelled for help. Of course we were close to him and right away Carl got there in a rowboat and he pretty nearly fell in himself helping to get Robert straightened up. And you should have seen the Eskimos laugh! They thought it was a great joke. But Robert seemed to feel he had swallowed about all the ice water of Baffin Bay that he wanted and he was so cold he went back to the ship and changed his clothes. But I’ll bet that next summer at home in Maine he learns the trick.[53]We had sent some natives out to catch sharks for specimens and Doc, Ralph and myself went after them in the launch. They had caught four big ones and had lost another overboard. These Greenland basking shark, as they are called, are very slow and sluggish. They don’t fight at all. They move very slowly and don’t seem to be savage or a bit like the sharks I have seen caught in Florida.The next morning Governor Otto took us over to see his dogs, which during the summer he keeps on a bare rocky island about a mile away, where they are entirely to themselves. About every three days during the summer they are fed, mostly ducks which are taken out in a big basket. Most of them seem to have been kept a pretty long time and become pretty “ripe.” But the dogs certainly like them.Art Young Tries an Eider Duck Egg from the Eskimo Cache on the Duck Islands.Art Young Tries an Eider Duck Egg from the Eskimo Cache on the Duck Islands.We went over to the island in our launch with the Governor and a couple of Eskimos carrying the food. When they saw us coming[54]the dogs, about a dozen in number, crowded down to the shore and followed along as we went by, yelping and barking crazily. They knew it was dinner time.We landed and decided to give them the birds up a bit from the water, where it was more level and Kellerman could get movies better. As the Eskimos carried up a big basket of the birds, one of them had to keep the dogs off the man with the basket. He used an oar and beat them. And at that they jumped up and tried to get at the basket of meat on the man’s shoulder whenever they got the slightest chance. I don’t doubt they would have knocked him down if he had been alone.Then the birds were thrown out to the dogs, a few at a time. In a second they were torn to pieces and gobbled up. A dog will rip one up in a flash and choke down everything but the feathers. There were many fights. And all the time there was a great racket,[55]with the dogs howling and barking and yapping at each other.It was very interesting to see the King Dog. Each team up in this country has a head dog, the King, who is boss. He is usually the heaviest and best looking dog, and certainly is the best fighter. I believe he just fights his way up to the leadership. Certainly when he “says” anything to one of the others, they do what they are told pretty quickly. Or else they get a licking.The King has a queen, and it is fun to see the way he looks out for her. When the Queen got a duck or part of one, the King just sort of looked on and saw to it that no other dog interfered. If one of them got excited and started to move in on the Queen and her dinner, the King gave a growl—and that ended it. Or if another dog had a bit of duck, and the King came along, the other fellow just dropped what he had, perhaps running off or sort of turning over on his back[56]and grovelling on the ground. There certainly was discipline on that island.When it was all over there was just a few feathers scattered around on the rocks and the dogs were mostly with bloody mouths and heads where they had torn up the meat. Anyway, they all seemed to have had a good meal and for the first time settled down quietly, to wait for the next dinner time three days later. In the winter they have their work, and lots of it, and of course they are awfully important in the life of the northern people. There are no horses and of course no automobiles or anything like that. So everything is drawn on sleds, and the sleds are moved by dogs.The King Dog of Governor Otto’s Team, with His Queen.The King Dog of Governor Otto’s Team, with His Queen.The dog skins are especially fine. The fur is heavy and soft and glossy. Dad bought some dog skins to have a coat made.That afternoon we left Upernivik to go north across Melville Bay. Everyone was on hand to see us off and the Governor fired[57]the little cannon up on the hill where they had the Danish flag hoisted. They gave us a salute of three guns and we answered with three shots from a rifle.The Duck Islands are a few little rocky islands a dozen miles or so off the mainland of Greenland just at the south side of Melville Bay. About two o’clock the next afternoon we reached them, anchoring in a sort of harbor between the two largest islands. The bigger one is I suppose about two miles long and half a mile or so wide, very hilly and all rocks. About the shores, where there is a little level land, the rocks are covered with moss and there are stretches of bog and mud.We went around a good deal on both islands and saw a great many eider ducks which nest here in large quantities. In the old days when the whalers came into Baffin Bay this was a headquarters and then they used to gather duck eggs by the boat load.Feeding the Dogs at Upernivik.Feeding the Dogs at Upernivik.[58]We saw many ducks nesting. The nest is just a little fluffy round mass of the soft feathers, right on the ground. They pull the feathers out of their breasts, so that when you get the female ones they look as if someone had plucked a handful of down from their undersides. This is what is called eider down, and is used in very fine mattresses and pillows. It is very warm and is also quite valuable. The Eskimos collect the eider down from the nests and from the birds, and it, with skins of foxes and seal, and a few other articles like walrus ivory and narwhal tusks, is one of the chief ways they have of trading with the outer world.The male and female eider ducks are very different. The female is all brown, while the male is brown only a little on his breast and belly, and with a lot of white on his back and neck, and feathers that are dark grey or nearly black. The female moves very slowly and is very tame and easy to get close to and to kill.[59]We got a good many for eating, and they are kept hung in the rigging to be used as Billy the cook wants them. The male is much wilder and flies faster and is pretty hard to shoot. There were very few male at Duck Island. While the females are nesting the males seem to go off by themselves. Later we saw a good many up in the fjords back of Upernivik. Both are very big and heavy birds, and awfully good eating.Back in 1850 and on for thirty years or so there was much whaling in these waters. Many of the ships came from Scotland. On the hill or small mountain at Duck Island there is a whaler’s cairn, and also a walled-in place where they had their lookout. In that cairn, by the way, in 1888 Peary left a record. We could find nothing. Probably the Eskimos had cleaned out everything long ago.In one piece of lowland near the water, where there was a little dirt, we found the[60]graves of some whalers. They were covered over with stones and only one head board with a name, was left. It said: “In memory of William Stewart, A.B.,S. S. Triuneof Dundee, June 11, 1886. Aged 24.”Art took me shooting with my sixteen-gauge shotgun, but I didn’t do so well. I haven’t tried shooting on the wing much and I’m pretty bad at it. Shooting with the twenty-two rifle seems easier. Art himself is a grand shot, with either rifle or shotgun.We found many eggs, and Dad and some of the others, on the other island, found great caches of eggs, hundreds of them evidently gathered by Eskimos who had visited the islands earlier in the season and left them there to get them later. They were put away in a sort of hole with rocks piled up around and over them so that they were perfectly protected, and with the chinks of the rock packed up with moss. They also found the skull of a polar bear.[61]We found three eggs with little ducks just hatching out. These we brought back to the boat. I put one under a mother duck which I had found alive in an Eskimo trap and the other two behind the galley stove where it was nice and hot. Two of them lived quite a while and then they were killed, painlessly, and put away for specimens. We got some nests for the Museum and I got one for my own collection.[62]
We left Proven about midnight, and as we started out from the little harbor past some bare rocky islands Dad and some others went ashore to try some shooting. When we came in we had seen a great many birds and ducks flying around there.
They stayed ashore from one o’clock until five, while I was asleep. Later Dad told me it was very beautiful, the water all grey and calm like silver, with a sky sort of lead color with gay tints of orange and yellow and lemon where the sun was low. They brought back tern, eider ducks and some gulls, some to eat, others to be skinned for specimens.
The next day it was very foggy so we went[50]slowly, dodging icebergs which we could see only when we got very close to them. At about nine the following morning we reached Upernivik, which is the last town that amounts to anything in North Greenland and is I think the furthest north town in the world. There is a Danish Governor there and a few other Danes. His name is Governor Otto and he was awfully nice to us, then and later on when we came back.
Upernivik is a nice little place built on an island. Where we landed there was only a little wharf and some store houses and supplies. From this harbor a little path or trail led over a steep hill to the real town, which was down on the other side on a slope to the south, with a grand view of Sanderson’s Hope, quite a big mountain a few miles away and overlooking an open fjord which was no use as a harbor. The village has a dozen wooden houses, including several that are very nice indeed, chiefly the Governor’s house and one[51]for the doctor who lives there, which also is used for a hospital. And about the wooden houses are the sod huts of the natives, most of whom seem to stick to their own style of living. There is a fine new church on the hill just over the village.
We had lunch with Governor Otto and his daughter Ruth, a girl about twelve years old, at his house, and afterward in the harbor we took some movies of an Eskimo turning over in his kayak. He didn’t seem to have a hard time at all. He just kind of fell over on one side, sitting right in his kayak or skin boat, and then came up on the other side with just a twist of his paddle. Doing this he wore a watertight suit of sealskin and a hood over his head, drawn tight about the neck. And around his waist, where he sat in the hole or cockpit of the kayak, there was a skin fastened tight about him so that no water could get in.
Robert Peary thought he would try it so[52]he changed into a sealskin shirt, got into the Eskimo’s kayak—it was hard for him to squeeze in he was so much larger than the Eskimo—and turned half way over. The kayak was upside down and then his head stuck up on the other side and went down again, sputtering. He just couldn’t manage to get up again, and hung head down in the water, the boat upside down right over him. I really thought he was drowning.
Robert Peary Tries a Kayak.Robert Peary Tries a Kayak.
Robert Peary Tries a Kayak.
Then he came up a second time and yelled for help. Of course we were close to him and right away Carl got there in a rowboat and he pretty nearly fell in himself helping to get Robert straightened up. And you should have seen the Eskimos laugh! They thought it was a great joke. But Robert seemed to feel he had swallowed about all the ice water of Baffin Bay that he wanted and he was so cold he went back to the ship and changed his clothes. But I’ll bet that next summer at home in Maine he learns the trick.[53]
We had sent some natives out to catch sharks for specimens and Doc, Ralph and myself went after them in the launch. They had caught four big ones and had lost another overboard. These Greenland basking shark, as they are called, are very slow and sluggish. They don’t fight at all. They move very slowly and don’t seem to be savage or a bit like the sharks I have seen caught in Florida.
The next morning Governor Otto took us over to see his dogs, which during the summer he keeps on a bare rocky island about a mile away, where they are entirely to themselves. About every three days during the summer they are fed, mostly ducks which are taken out in a big basket. Most of them seem to have been kept a pretty long time and become pretty “ripe.” But the dogs certainly like them.
Art Young Tries an Eider Duck Egg from the Eskimo Cache on the Duck Islands.Art Young Tries an Eider Duck Egg from the Eskimo Cache on the Duck Islands.
Art Young Tries an Eider Duck Egg from the Eskimo Cache on the Duck Islands.
We went over to the island in our launch with the Governor and a couple of Eskimos carrying the food. When they saw us coming[54]the dogs, about a dozen in number, crowded down to the shore and followed along as we went by, yelping and barking crazily. They knew it was dinner time.
We landed and decided to give them the birds up a bit from the water, where it was more level and Kellerman could get movies better. As the Eskimos carried up a big basket of the birds, one of them had to keep the dogs off the man with the basket. He used an oar and beat them. And at that they jumped up and tried to get at the basket of meat on the man’s shoulder whenever they got the slightest chance. I don’t doubt they would have knocked him down if he had been alone.
Then the birds were thrown out to the dogs, a few at a time. In a second they were torn to pieces and gobbled up. A dog will rip one up in a flash and choke down everything but the feathers. There were many fights. And all the time there was a great racket,[55]with the dogs howling and barking and yapping at each other.
It was very interesting to see the King Dog. Each team up in this country has a head dog, the King, who is boss. He is usually the heaviest and best looking dog, and certainly is the best fighter. I believe he just fights his way up to the leadership. Certainly when he “says” anything to one of the others, they do what they are told pretty quickly. Or else they get a licking.
The King has a queen, and it is fun to see the way he looks out for her. When the Queen got a duck or part of one, the King just sort of looked on and saw to it that no other dog interfered. If one of them got excited and started to move in on the Queen and her dinner, the King gave a growl—and that ended it. Or if another dog had a bit of duck, and the King came along, the other fellow just dropped what he had, perhaps running off or sort of turning over on his back[56]and grovelling on the ground. There certainly was discipline on that island.
When it was all over there was just a few feathers scattered around on the rocks and the dogs were mostly with bloody mouths and heads where they had torn up the meat. Anyway, they all seemed to have had a good meal and for the first time settled down quietly, to wait for the next dinner time three days later. In the winter they have their work, and lots of it, and of course they are awfully important in the life of the northern people. There are no horses and of course no automobiles or anything like that. So everything is drawn on sleds, and the sleds are moved by dogs.
The King Dog of Governor Otto’s Team, with His Queen.The King Dog of Governor Otto’s Team, with His Queen.
The King Dog of Governor Otto’s Team, with His Queen.
The dog skins are especially fine. The fur is heavy and soft and glossy. Dad bought some dog skins to have a coat made.
That afternoon we left Upernivik to go north across Melville Bay. Everyone was on hand to see us off and the Governor fired[57]the little cannon up on the hill where they had the Danish flag hoisted. They gave us a salute of three guns and we answered with three shots from a rifle.
The Duck Islands are a few little rocky islands a dozen miles or so off the mainland of Greenland just at the south side of Melville Bay. About two o’clock the next afternoon we reached them, anchoring in a sort of harbor between the two largest islands. The bigger one is I suppose about two miles long and half a mile or so wide, very hilly and all rocks. About the shores, where there is a little level land, the rocks are covered with moss and there are stretches of bog and mud.
We went around a good deal on both islands and saw a great many eider ducks which nest here in large quantities. In the old days when the whalers came into Baffin Bay this was a headquarters and then they used to gather duck eggs by the boat load.
Feeding the Dogs at Upernivik.Feeding the Dogs at Upernivik.
Feeding the Dogs at Upernivik.
[58]
We saw many ducks nesting. The nest is just a little fluffy round mass of the soft feathers, right on the ground. They pull the feathers out of their breasts, so that when you get the female ones they look as if someone had plucked a handful of down from their undersides. This is what is called eider down, and is used in very fine mattresses and pillows. It is very warm and is also quite valuable. The Eskimos collect the eider down from the nests and from the birds, and it, with skins of foxes and seal, and a few other articles like walrus ivory and narwhal tusks, is one of the chief ways they have of trading with the outer world.
The male and female eider ducks are very different. The female is all brown, while the male is brown only a little on his breast and belly, and with a lot of white on his back and neck, and feathers that are dark grey or nearly black. The female moves very slowly and is very tame and easy to get close to and to kill.[59]We got a good many for eating, and they are kept hung in the rigging to be used as Billy the cook wants them. The male is much wilder and flies faster and is pretty hard to shoot. There were very few male at Duck Island. While the females are nesting the males seem to go off by themselves. Later we saw a good many up in the fjords back of Upernivik. Both are very big and heavy birds, and awfully good eating.
Back in 1850 and on for thirty years or so there was much whaling in these waters. Many of the ships came from Scotland. On the hill or small mountain at Duck Island there is a whaler’s cairn, and also a walled-in place where they had their lookout. In that cairn, by the way, in 1888 Peary left a record. We could find nothing. Probably the Eskimos had cleaned out everything long ago.
In one piece of lowland near the water, where there was a little dirt, we found the[60]graves of some whalers. They were covered over with stones and only one head board with a name, was left. It said: “In memory of William Stewart, A.B.,S. S. Triuneof Dundee, June 11, 1886. Aged 24.”
Art took me shooting with my sixteen-gauge shotgun, but I didn’t do so well. I haven’t tried shooting on the wing much and I’m pretty bad at it. Shooting with the twenty-two rifle seems easier. Art himself is a grand shot, with either rifle or shotgun.
We found many eggs, and Dad and some of the others, on the other island, found great caches of eggs, hundreds of them evidently gathered by Eskimos who had visited the islands earlier in the season and left them there to get them later. They were put away in a sort of hole with rocks piled up around and over them so that they were perfectly protected, and with the chinks of the rock packed up with moss. They also found the skull of a polar bear.[61]
We found three eggs with little ducks just hatching out. These we brought back to the boat. I put one under a mother duck which I had found alive in an Eskimo trap and the other two behind the galley stove where it was nice and hot. Two of them lived quite a while and then they were killed, painlessly, and put away for specimens. We got some nests for the Museum and I got one for my own collection.
[62]