CHAPTER XIV.
MIDWINTER.—THE NIGHT OF MONTHS.—BRILLIANCY OF THE MOONLIGHT.—MILD TEMPERATURES.—REMARKABLE WEATHER.—A SHOWER.—DEPTH OF SNOW.—SNOW CRYSTALS.—AN EPIDEMIC AMONG THE DOGS.—SYMPTOMS OF THE DISORDER.—GREAT MORTALITY.—ONLY ONE TEAM LEFT.—NEW PLANS.—SCHEMES FOR REACHING THE ESQUIMAUX IN WHALE SOUND.
MIDWINTER.—THE NIGHT OF MONTHS.—BRILLIANCY OF THE MOONLIGHT.—MILD TEMPERATURES.—REMARKABLE WEATHER.—A SHOWER.—DEPTH OF SNOW.—SNOW CRYSTALS.—AN EPIDEMIC AMONG THE DOGS.—SYMPTOMS OF THE DISORDER.—GREAT MORTALITY.—ONLY ONE TEAM LEFT.—NEW PLANS.—SCHEMES FOR REACHING THE ESQUIMAUX IN WHALE SOUND.
The reader who has followed my diary since we entered Port Foulke will have noticed how gradually the daylight vanished, and with what slow and measured step the darkness came upon us. As November approached its close, the last glimmer of twilight disappeared. The stars shone at all hours with equal brilliancy. From a summer which had no night we had passed into a winter which had no day, through an autumn twilight. In this strange ordering of Nature there is something awe-inspiring and unreal.
We all knew from our school-boy days that, at the poles of the earth there is but one day and one night in the year; but, when brought face to face with the reality, it is hard to realize. And it is harder still to get used to. If the constant sunshine of the summer disturbed our life-long habits, the continual darkness of the winter did more. In the one case the imagination was excited by the ever-present light, inspiring action; in the other, a night of months threw a cloud over the intellect and dwarfed the energies.
To this prolonged darkness the moon gives some relief. From its rising to its setting it shines continually, circling around the horizon, never setting untilit has run its ten days' course of brightness. And it shines with a brilliancy which one will hardly observe elsewhere. The uniform whiteness of the landscape and the general clearness of the atmosphere add to the illumination of its rays, and one may see to read by its light with ease, and the natives often use it as they do the sun, to guide their nomadic life and to lead them to their hunting-grounds.
MIDWINTER.
The days and weeks of midwinter passed slowly away. Our experience up to this period was in many respects remarkable. Although sheltered by high lands, we were nevertheless exposed to severe and almost constant northeast winds; and although shut up in polar darkness, and hemmed in by polar ice, an open sea had thus far been within sight of us all the time, and the angry waves were often a threatening terror. Many times we had thought ourselves in danger of being cast adrift with the ice, and carried out to sea in a helpless condition.
The temperature had been strangely mild, a circumstance at least in part accounted for by the open water, and to this same cause was no doubt due the great disturbance of the air, and the frequency of the gales. I have mentioned in the last chapter a very remarkable rise in the thermometer which occurred early in November; but a still greater elevation of temperature followed a few weeks later, reaching as high as 32°, and sinking back to 15° below zero almost as suddenly as it had risen. In consequence of this extraordinary and unaccountable event, the thaw was renewed, and our former discomfort arising from the dampness on the deck and in our quarters was experienced in an aggravated degree. During two days (November 28th and 29th) we could use no other firethan what was necessary for the preparation of our meals, and for melting our necessary supply of water. To add to our astonishment, a heavy fall of snow was followed by a shower of rain, a circumstance which I had not previously witnessed in this latitude except in the months of July and August, and then scarcely more rain fell than on the present occasion. The depth of snow precipitated during this period was likewise remarkable,—the aggregate being 32 inches. In one single day 19 inches were deposited, greater by 5 inches than the entire accumulations of the winter of 1853-54 at Van Rensselaer Harbor. The total amount of snow which had fallen up to the first of December was 48 inches. Being so far north of the line of maximum snows, I was the more surprised, as my former experience appeared to have shown that the region of Smith's Sound was almost wholly free from nubilous deposits.
SNOW CRYSTALS.
I was much interested at this warm period in observing how singularly perfect and beautiful were the snow crystals; and it is a somewhat singular circumstance that the perfect crystals are only exhibited when the snow falls in a temperature comparatively mild. I have not observed them when the thermometer ranged below zero. The snow is then quite dry and hard, and does not exhibit those soft, thin, transparent flakes of the warmer air. With the aid of a magnifying glass, I was enabled to obtain very accurate sketches of a large number of them. Their form was always hexagonal, but the rays were very various in their development, although they all possessed the same radical foundation. The most perfect and full suggested a diminutive fern leaf.
As we neared the climax of the winter the satisfactoryprogress of events became disturbed by a series of misfortunes which largely influenced the destinies of the expedition, and which, by disarranging all of my plans, caused me grave embarrassments.
AN EPIDEMIC AMONG THE DOGS.
In a former chapter I have mentioned that a disease had been, for several years, prevailing among the dogs of Southern Greenland, and that a large proportion of these useful animals had fallen victims to it. The cause of this disease had not been determined, but I was led to believe, from what information I could obtain, that it was purely of local origin, and that, therefore, when I had removed my teams from the seat of its influence I would be freed from its dangers. Under this impression I had consumed much time at the Danish-Esquimau settlements, in picking up here and there a dog, until I had obtained thirty-six animals. Up to the first of December they remained in perfect health; and, being fed upon an abundant allowance of fresh meat, I had great confidence that I should be able to carry them through to the spring, and, when the period of my sledge explorations should arrive, that I would have four strong and serviceable teams. My fears were for a time somewhat excited by the information received from Hans, that the Esquimaux of Whale Sound and vicinity, with whom he had been living, were heavy losers by the death of a great number of their dogs, and the description which he gave of this distemper corresponded with that of Southern Greenland; but November being passed without any symptoms of the malady having made its appearance in my splendid pack, I felt hopeful that they would escape the visitation. The loss which Dr. Kane had suffered by the death of his teams was fresh in my recollection; but for this there appearedto be a sufficient cause. Being almost wholly without fresh food of any kind, he was compelled to subsist his teams upon salt meats, which, giving scurvy to his men, could hardly be expected to act otherwise than injuriously upon the dogs, which had always before been used to a fresh diet of seal meat.
My hopeful anticipations were, however, not realized. One day early in December Jensen reported to me that one of the finest animals had been attacked with the disease, and recommended that it should be shot, to prevent the disease spreading; and this was accordingly done. A few hours afterwards another one was seized in the same manner. The symptoms were at first those of great restlessness. The animal ran several times around the ship, first one way and then the other, with a vague uncertainty in its gait, and with an alternate raising and lowering of the head and tail, every movement indicative of great nervous excitement. After a while it started off toward the mouth of the harbor, barking all the while and seeming to be in mortal dread of some imaginary object from which it was endeavoring to fly. In a little while it came back, still more excited than before. These symptoms rapidly increased in violence, the eyes became bloodshot, froth ran from the mouth, and the dog became possessed of an apparently uncontrollable desire to snap at every thing which came in its way.
The disease ran its course in a few hours. Weakness and prostration followed the excitement, and the poor animal staggered around the vessel, apparently unable to see its way, and finally fell over in a fit. After struggling for a little while in the snow, consciousness returned, and it got again upon its feet.Another fit followed soon afterward; and then they came one after another in rapid succession, until finally its misery was relieved by death, which occurred in less than twenty-four hours from the incipience of the attack. Meanwhile I had watched it closely, hoping to discover some clew to the cause, and to establish a cure. But I could obtain no light whatever. Dissection revealed nothing. There was no apparent inflammation either of the brain, the nerve centres, the spinal cord, or the nerves themselves; and I was wholly at a loss to understand the strange phenomenon. That it was not hydrophobia was shown by the fact that the animal rather desired than shunned water. Many of the symptoms attending that disease were, however, manifested; but it did not, like hydrophobia, appear to be communicated by the bite; for those dogs which happened to be bitten were not more speedily attacked than the others.
GREAT MORTALITY OF DOGS.
This case had scarcely reached its fatal termination before another was reported, and it was relieved of its misery by a bullet. Seven died during four days, and I saw with consternation my fine teams melting away and my hopes endangered; and while this was in progress I could only look on and wonder and experiment, but could never stop the contagion nor arrest the evil.
Among the first dogs attacked was a superb beast that I have before named. He was the best draught animal of my best team, the second leader,—Karsuk. I have never seen such expression of ferocity and mad strength exhibited by any living creature, as he manifested two hours after the first symptoms were observed. Thinking that confinement might do good, and desiring to see if the disease would not wear itselfout, I had him caught and put into a large box on the deck; but this seemed rather to aggravate than to soothe the violence of the symptoms. He tore the boards with indescribable fierceness, and, getting his teeth into a crack, ripped off splinter after splinter until he had made a hole almost large enough for his head, when I ordered him to be shot. At this moment his eyes were like balls of fire; he had broken off one of his tusks, and his mouth was spouting blood. Soon afterward another fine animal, which seemed to be perfectly well a few moments before, suddenly sprang up, dashed off with a wild yell, wheeled round the harbor, returned to the vessel, and there fell struggling in a fit. I had him tied, but he tore himself loose, and, fearful for the other dogs, he too was killed. Three others died the same day, and the deaths during the first two weeks of December were eighteen. This, with the losses before sustained, left me with only twelve animals. One week later these were reduced to nine.
ONLY ONE TEAM LEFT.
The serious nature of this disaster will perhaps not at first be apparent to the reader. It will be remembered, however, that my plans of exploration for the coming spring were mainly based upon dogs as a means of transportation across the ice; and now that my teams were so much reduced (and it seemed, indeed, likely that they would all die) it became very evident that, unless I should be able to supply the loss, all of my plans would be rendered abortive.
My anxiety was fully shared by Mr. Sonntag. Having failed in all of our efforts to arrest the fatal tendency of the malady, we could only occupy ourselves with devising ways and means for remedying, in some degree, the evil, or to arrange new plans in conformity with our changed circumstances.
PLANS FOR OBTAINING DOGS.
The first expedient which suggested itself was to open communication with the Esquimaux of Whale Sound, and, in the event of this being accomplished, it was fair to suppose that some animals might be obtained from them. If we could succeed in bringing the tribe to the vessel, we might readily accomplish our wish; for, during the period that their dogs would be in our service, we could, if necessity required it, furnish them all with food, either from our stores or from the hunt.
Hans was consulted concerning the Esquimaux, and from him we learned that there was a family living on Northumberland Island, several families on the south side of Whale Sound, and possibly one or more on the north side. Northumberland Island was about a hundred miles distant as we would be obliged to travel in order to reach it, and the south side of the Sound about one hundred and fifty. That we should communicate with these people at the earliest practicable moment was a matter of the first importance. If a sufficient number of the dogs should remain alive when the moon came in December, it was arranged that Sonntag should make the journey at that period, taking a single sledge, and Hans for a driver. If the dogs should all die, then I intended to go down on foot as soon as possible, and do my best to bring all of the Esquimaux to Port Foulke and Etah, use their dogs while we needed them, and feed and clothe the people in the interval. Meanwhile, however, we could only wait through the mid-December darkness, and hope that the month would end more auspiciously than it had begun.