ACROSS THE SNOW DESERT.—FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. ]
I have been afraid to go to sleep since Mr. Peary’s return, for fear I might wake up and find it all a dream; besides, we had so much to tell each other that there was no time or inclination for sleep. Mr. Peary recounted to me the events of his journey; how after he sent Mr. Gibson and Dr. Cook back to Redcliffe from the Humboldt Glacier, May 24th, he and Astrup marched on day after day, with their magnificent team of Eskimo dogs, which Astrup learned to handle as well as a native driver.
They encountered storms which kept them buried in the snow for days at a time, but their worst enemies were the snow-arched crevasses which they met just before reaching the latitude of Sherard Osborne Fjord. These arches were so treacherous that more than once they were on them before they were aware of it, and old Lion came very near ending his journey by breaking through one of them and being precipitated the full length of his trace into the yawning chasm. Fortunately the trace was strong enough to hold his weight, and he was pulled up none the worse for his tumble. The loss of a single animal would have been a calamity to the party.
On July 1st Mr. Peary saw the loom of land ahead, and thinking it only one of the west-coast mountains, changed his course to northeast, and then to east, hoping to be able to round it; but after a few days’ further travel he saw the land still ahead, and then found that it was the northern boundary of Greenland. He now decided to leave his sledges and supplies at the edge of a moraine, and, with a few days’ rations, start overland toward the coast. They had not gone far when they came across unmistakable signs of musk-oxen, and then upon the animals themselves, grazing in a little valley. A few shots from Mr. Peary’s rifle brought down two of them. Then a little baby musk-ox came peering around a great boulder to learn the cause of all the noise and commotion. This was captured alive, but the poor little thing did not survive its mother very long. Mr. Peary camped in this lovely valley, and there feasted his dogs on fresh meat.
These noble brutes, accustomed all their lives to raw, bloody meat, had been living on dry pemmican for the past two months, working day after day as they had never worked continuously before. No wonder they strained at their traces, plunging and tugging to get loose and help themselves. As quickly as one of the musk-oxen was skinned the body was tossed within their reach, and they pounced upon it with a greediness which plainly showed how much they longed for the juicy meat. The explorers themselves also enjoyed the fresh meat for a change, but they were glad to get back to pemmican again after a few days.