Greenland by the Polar Sea/Chapter 14
THE life of Thorild Wulff was so motley and adventurous that he himself was not always quite clear as to the sequence of the incidents in which he had such an astonishing knack of finding himself playing a part wherever he happened to be in the world. Often during our journey I asked him to give me a complete survey of his life's work and experience, but he always shook his head and said smilingly that he was only able to relate by sections the story of the forty years of his life if he had to live them over again in memory. A connected survey he would only be able to give me when he got home and had time to look up his diaries and notes.
No man possessed to the same degree that great restlessness which created action; but, unfortunately for himself and for us, he lacked the ability of finding that peace of mind which expresses itself in steady work with books and reports. Few men possessed such all-embracing knowledge and such excellent training in readiness for the use of a supreme brain; never have I met a man who so literally and personally had taken possession of the earth, and therefore we his friends, who knew the amount of matter which perished with him, mourn the fact that he has left no great production behind him. But he himself probably found that he did not need it, and a glance at the different data of his life fully substantiates the view that he had no need to erect a verbal memorial for himself.
Thorild Wulff was born in Gothenburg on the 1st of April, 1877, matriculated in 1894, and studied botany in Lund. In 1899 he made his first great journey as a member of a Swedo-Russian Expedition for the measurement of degrees, during which he collected material for the treatise which in 1909 procured for him his Doctor's degree: "Botanische Beobachtungen aus Spitzbergen." After this Thorild Wulff's life became so full of events that I dare not entirely trust to my memory of his own statements. Dr. Birger Selim, of Stockholm, has kindly put his excellent necrology from "Ymer" at my disposal, and from this the following matter is extracted:
For a number of years Wulff spent his life travelling in the East and in the tropics. Before he left Europe, however, he had, travelling in Germany, France, and England, keenly studied every branch of life and knowledge.
In 1902-3 we find him on a botanical exploration in India. On this journey he devoted himself not merely to botany, he also got a thorough knowledge of Indian architecture, and a small brochure he wrote on this subject has often been alluded to as a striking proof of the quick receptiveness of his brain.
Later on he settled down in Stockholm, and from 1906 to 1909 he was attached to the Central Institution for Experimental Agriculture. During this period, which represents an intermezzo in Wulff's roaming life, he had a good opportunity to study scientific problems, and, as the editor of the periodical Trädgården, he showed considerable ability in making his scientific knowledge generally accessible through well-written and instructive popular articles.
In 1909 he left the Institute of Experimental Agriculture to become lecturer in botany at Stockholm's Högskola.
In 1911 he journeyed to Iceland. This was the second time Wulff had visited the island of the Sagas, and between his two visits he had repeatedly travelled in Lapland. On these shorter journeys he rested and made his plans for the longer ones. Whilst he loved to appear suddenly like a comet in the big towns, for awhile "blowing a storm over the duck-pond," this man of fête and work constantly required air under his wings; he was ever ready for migration as soon as the autumnal mood fell on his mind.
In July, 1912, he was set a task which entirely engrossed him. A very large capital was put privately at his disposal to enable him to travel to China, in order to procure collections for the Röhsska Kunstslöjdmuseum in Gothenburg. But previous to this he set out on a journey of study throughout Europe, in order to make himself conversant with the collections of Chinese art in the important museums. In the autumn he travelled to Siberia, visited the battle-grounds of Mukden, and in September settled down in Peking, wherefrom he made excursions into Mongolia and China.
On the same journey he received from the Ethnographical Section of the Riksmuseum in Stockholm a considerable sum of money, with the proposal that he should also collect for this museum anything of interest. In the yearly report of the Ethnographical Museum for 1916 Wulff's collection is estimated to number 956 articles. This collection gives a complete picture of life in China, not merely before the revolution, but also from the oldest time.
Wulff's sojourn in China was rich in adventures; he himself most frequently mentioned a relief expedition in which he took part in June, 1913, to save a friend, the Scottish telegraphist Mr. Grant, who had been kidnapped and carried away by Mongolian robbers. The expedition reached the camp of the robbers, but simultaneously as they were informed that their friend had been murdered long ago, they themselves were captured and were to be executed. After two days of waiting the chief of the tribe was accidentally informed that a son of Director Henningsen from Store Nordiske was amongst the condemned. As soon as the chief heard this, the sentence of death was annulled, as he had once received great hospitality at one of the stations of Det Store Nordiske Telegrafselskab. The white men were then led away under guard, whilst as a compensation the Chinese followers were beheaded.
In 1914 Wulff went from China to Japan, where he did not content himself merely with gaining a thorough knowledge of the life and customs of the modern Japanese, but also went to the island Yesso to study the Aino people, now becoming extinct. He succeeded here in collecting rich material, in the form of museum objects, pictures, and written notes; unfortunately the latter were never developed into a book. Wulff is surely the last explorer to see and study the Aino people at a time when results were yet to be obtained; he himself used to emphasize that the collector who followed him would have to leave without achieving anything.
Subsequently he journeyed via Sumatra to Java, where he was also making collections, especially on the two little islands Bali and Lombock, where he found himself at the outbreak of the World War, and from which he commenced his return journey in the beginning of October on board the Swedish steamer Nipon.
In the spring of 1916 he put his name down as a member of the second Thule Expedition to North Greenland, and on this expedition he made the greatest sacrifice to science which a man can make.
The letter Wulff sent me through Koch was a detailed Last Will—concerning partly his botanical results, partly his house and property in Stockholm.
It begins thus:
"The constant hunger and toil of the summer and the almost absolute lack of food of the last two days have caused such a decrease in my physical strength that even by summoning all my will-power I am unable to follow Koch and the Eskimos further. As their salvation depends upon the possibility of reaching better hunting-ground as speedily as possible, it will merely be a weight on the party if I drag on further. With perfect peace of mind I therefore say Goodbye, thanking you all for good comradeship on the expedition, and hoping that you will be able to save yourselves and our results."
Deeply moved, I read these resigned words of farewell, which in their simplicity had over them the great final solemnity. Truly they expressed a man's open and calm glance at death. To the last he had been engaged in getting the most possible out of his work. A holy fire had kept fresh and receptive to impressions the tottering and exhausted wanderer's sense of observation. With fingers stiff with cold he had noted down up to the very last day everything of botanical interest, and when he himself could write no more he dictated before Koch's departure a short résumé of the vegetation in the district which witnessed his last hopeless fight for life.
It is written as an addition to his diary notes and is as follows:
"All the plant localities here mentioned lie on N. Lat. 79° between Cape Agassiz and 15 to 20 kilometres to the west of it. Vegetation has been unusually rich and vigorous, quite a different and luxurious type to the one of the north coast of Greenland. Several of the varieties have surely their northern border here. I have not seen sign of them farther north. A careful examination of the vegetation between Cape Agassiz and Etah from July to the first part of August is sure to give very good botanical results. In my exhausted condition I can do nothing further."
There is no call for commentary. In the manner in which Wulff departed from life he himself wrote his simple and brief epitaph, which, together with his excellent botanical work, will preserve his name as long as an interest in the solution of scientific problems exists. In deep sorrow we will lower the flag for this Swedish explorer who found his death on the white field of honour, working until he fell.
The following report which Harrigan gave after his arrival at Etah, and which I wrote down immediately from his dictation, is given as a supplement to Koch's report:
"On the day when Wulff gave up and sought a place where he could lie down to die, we were all exhausted and weary. We were very thin and suffered from anæmia. This was plainly visible from our veins, which almost disappeared, and made itself felt by sensations of giddiness; further, we had difficulty in keeping warm, especially our hands and feet.
"If we had been on the inland-ice or open ice, where we should have had a sledge, we would have tried to pull Wulff along, as we did occasionally during the last days on the inland-ice. But on this snow-bare land of cloughs it would be a matter either of carrying him—and none of us had the strength for this—or remaining with him; but as we should have to go a long distance before there was any game, this also proved impossible; it would be to seek death for ourselves without being able to help our dying comrade.
"And Wulff would eat nothing, at any rate no hare meat; of our last bag he tasted merely a mouthful of hare liver, although he might have eaten meat to repletion. We could do nothing for him.
"I believe he was ill, for during the last few nights he moaned often during his sleep.
"We had no alternative but to leave him behind, as he himself demanded. If we found reindeer in a place from which we could return whilst he was yet alive, we might still be able to save him. But this was the only possibility.
"We plucked grass and heather and made as soft and sheltered a bed for him as we could, and here he lay down when it was ready.
"As we arose to continue our journey he nodded a smiling farewell. And this smile from the poor man who had lain down to die was my last impression of Wulff. I believe that he would very quickly sleep into death."
Inukitsoq, or Harrigan as we called him, had surely been the one who, by his hunting, up to the very last did the most to keep Wulff alive. It is of interest to see the characteristics of this man which Wulff himself gives on a leaf of his diary, which has no connection with the general notes from day to day:
"Harrigan, a quiet, silent man, conscious of his own strength, endurance, and ability to carry on in all weathers, but without boasting. A lithe, beautiful, muscular body which works with all the light elegant harmony of the sportsman and the savage. A decidedly humorous mind which helps him through all difficult and annoying situations. A good father for his team of dogs, and a perfect artist with regard to driving and the finding of a way through the worst of pressure-ice, a pathfinder in the wilderness with the spontaneous compass-like sense of locality of the savage, and an exceedingly fine seal-hunter on the ice with his stalking-sail. In a word: a fine and well-trained example of his tribe, and this means a good deal among the Polar Eskimos, who are all, without exception, hardened, quick-witted hunters without a flaw."
When a catastrophe like Dr. Wulff's death occurs, it is natural that the responsible man puts to himself the question whether he could have planned otherwise. But even now, so long after, I cannot see but that what we did was the only right thing. Koch has in his reports explained his dispositions during the walk towards the relief sledges, a report which grips one by its sober brevity. It is therefore only natural that I should add a few words to that which has already been said about Ajako's and my journey for relief. I have told in what condition we reached land, and how necessary it was that we should get in touch with people as soon as possible. I chose for myself and Ajako the most risky and difficult task—with the shortest possible rest to walk the longest distance. And whilst the others merely advanced as slowly as their condition required, constantly seeking the districts which provided the best hunting, it was our task to force our way ahead irrespective of the question of the game.
I had pointed out to Wulff and Koch that a slow journey with short marches would furnish them with the necessary game. This came true with the exception of that one day when Wulff gave up.
A single comparison will serve as an illustration of the different travelling conditions offered to the two parties: Ajako and I walked from Cape Agassiz to the great ice-mountain lake, where the relief sledges were to be met, in a little more than two nights and days, and on all this stretch we had only one hare. The others took about twelve days to reach the same point, and killed twenty-four hares, six ducklings, and two reindeer.
On the whole of the expedition Dr. Wulff had shown himself to be a quick and enduring walker. On the inland-ice he managed excellently in spite of the very short rations of pemmican and meat. Not until we had to live entirely on dog-flesh did he collapse. Notwithstanding this, I am convinced that he would have managed after all had not the exhaustion and weakness consequent on the passage across the many glacier rivers used up his last energy. When anæmia and pains in the heart set in he collapsed. Not until then did he lie down to meet the death which he had no longer the strength to evade.
It is my conviction that Wulff's death was easy, for he was in that state of physical exhaustion when the change from life to death is not very great, and in which death comes as a sleep which one feels that one needs more than anything else and which almost unnoticeably carries one out of life. He had his hardest days together with us during the period which he describes in his diary, and which will here be reproduced.
Our physical energy was so low after the last few months of under-nourishment, that we were not far from that state in which, after all, everything appears quite indifferent to one. The will also claims some material nourishment, even though for a period one may force one's constitution to perform miracles, simply because one will and must. As long as one is capable of this, one is quite indifferent to what he eats so long as he feels that he is capable of getting up again after the short rests.
One must shut one's brain to arguments of any kind and try to force one's thoughts to refrain from playing with intolerable food phantasies; one must look ahead in such a way that one does not even accept the hopelessness of the moment. Wulff not only gave in to his food phantasies, he even discussed in his diary his state of exhaustion, and regarded the last walks towards people as worse than death. Thought of this kind can merely lead to the breaking of the will and a weak surrender.
One then genuinely feels that there is only one desirable thing, and that is to be permitted to give up the fight and die in peace. Every time one gets up to go on, all the agonies are intensified, and one feels that relief could only cone if one were allowed to lie down and without a thought for the surroundings seek peace in a long, long sleep. Life amongst other people appears so distant, so unobtainable, that for the moment it seems a matter of indifference; death has lost its sting, and one accepts it as a welcome necessity. Hunger is felt no longer; it belongs to the time when one was well and had strength to resist it; one merely feels a weakness so overwhelming that peace cannot come until at length one lies down for the last long sleep.
Dr. Wulff was in this state when, after an incomplete rest, he had to take up anew the fight for life with all the physical suffering which paralyzed his will, and through his last diary notes we obtain a gripping picture of the fight which he fought until at last death proved the stronger.
EXTRACTS FROM DR. WULFF'S LAST DIARY"August 24th.—We start from Camp 18 at 9.15 a.m. Land five kilometres distant near the goal. Big Cryokonite holes. Descent rather steep. The last dog is being killed. Several glacier torrents are crossed. Dead tired, half unconscious. Reach the gneiss cliffs 7.30 p.m. after exactly three weeks' march, four hundred kilometres across the inland-ice. Tracks of hare and reindeer.
"Camp 19.—The Edge of the Inland-Ice. 8 P.M.
"Calm. Fog. Drizzle. We lie down to sleep on mountain shelves. Cold, tent cannot be pitched. The three Eskimos immediately go hunting, indefatigable. All through the night veritable cannon-shot from the edge of the ice which runs down into a small lake. L. leucopterus. Veget. on the mountain terrace autumnal. 5° during the night, hoar-frost. Salix arctica quite light yellow, and in fruct. Luz. confusa, Sax. oppositifol., Cernua nivalis, tricuspidata, the latter vigorous, still in bloom, blood-red, Papaver, Draba.
"August 25th.—Ajako returns 6 a.m. with five hares. Boiled hare and delicious liver, heart, meat and strong soup, but I am incredibly sick of the meat diet and all the boiled meat ever since a year ago. Thinking merely of peas, salt pork, pancake, jam, bread, fruit, brandy, coffee, chocolate. Nevertheless I cat as much as I can to regain the wish to live and conquer my weakness. New ice formed last night on the lake. Feel continually reduced in strength. Cassiope, Stell. longipes. Aspid. fragrans.
"Harrigan got another two hares, all three young with grey heads—one was eaten raw, two were boiled. Potentilla nivea, rubricaulis, emarginata, Dryas, broad-leaved, smooth, octopetala-like, typical integrifolia and var. canescens. Very commonly Myrtillus uliginosa, scattered extensive mats, Salix arctica, with broadly oval and narrow lance-shaped leaves, highly variable, Pedicularis hirsuta.
"Knud and Ajako started out on foot this evening at 6 o'clock for Etah (approx. 200 km.), the straight road across land to send us relief sledges and provisions.
"Myrtillus uliginosa, Pyrola uniflora, Wahlbergella (large, not triflor.).
"Drink warm water for supper.
"August 26th.—Koch during the night went for a few hours' walk inland. Stalked a hare in vain. I am sleepless, tortured by a persistent carbuncle on the ham. Clear cold night. Eat in the morning the last remnants of the last dog. Harrigan and Bosun return 2 p.m. after nearly two days' unsuccessful hunt. Got a hare which they ate row. No reindeer. We must break up at once and go towards Marshall Bay.
"Thrown away theodolite, two cameras, bandages, clothes, everything which we can yet do without. Remains now the most serious flight for life. To think of collecting plants now is impossible. If we can manage to get off with our lives it is great. We four men have absolutely nothing edible and obviously bad prospects of hunting. All weak but in good spirits. This helplessness, when strength leaves one, is hideous. I am only a skeleton now and shiver with cold. 5.30 p.m. we make clear to continue westward. Everything is left behind. I have only my reindeer-skin coat and a pair of extra kamiks. Plants and films and notebooks remain by the edge of the inland-ice, under a stone above the terrace where we slept the last two days. We do not even carry tent or Primus, merely guns, as we are dead-tired. This will be a march towards death if a miracle does not happen. Gun and cartridges are brought.
"Harrigan shot a small hare 7 cm. long. Lesquerella, Hesperis, Cerast. alp., Kobresia, C. nard., Erioph. polyst.
"Poa cenisia. Trisetum, Hierochloa, Luzula nivalis, Sax. opposit. Flower. Alsine verna, Silene acaulis.
"Knud went 25 8 in the evening, can surely reach Etah in 6 or 7 days, and then the relief sledges could reach us by the edge of the inland-ice about the 4th of Sept. and we be in Etah 78 Sept., saved from this struggle with death of starvation which has lasted since the middle of May. Hideous memories which for ever put a gloomy colour on life. When deadly indifference to life appears and weakness gets the upper hand even food phantasies disappear, and the thoughts occupy themselves with those at home and with the strange sum total of life.
"Rather good sleep in spite of boil. Start noon. Grey cold fog. Along the edge of the inland-ice. Got before 3 p.n. 3 hares, cooked. Continue towards west 7 p.m. Block-terrain, sluggardly landscape. Think mostly of a visit to some health resort for my poor worn-out gaunt body and suffering soul.
Drag along for 2 hours in cold fog, heavy, stony, cliff-terrain until 9 p.m. Got in the evening another grey-headed young hare. Minus 1.4°. Camp for the night on the moss between stone-blacks near a small border-lake by the inland-ice which we follow. Were I only at a Sanatorium. This is worse than death.
"Day's march approx. 6 km., to-day 5 km.
"August 27th.—As we brought nothing but 2 guns, 3 rugs, my coat, 5 boxes of matches and a pan, our rig-out for 2-3 weeks' autumn campaign is very simple and 'Eskimo.' To sleep 11 p.m. on the mossy slope. Fog sets in, minus 0.5° and a little snow. The Eskimos—those energetic savages—again after hare—return.
"4 p.m.—Entrails eaten as usual raw, the blood goes into the soup, then a fresh cooking of hare. Glorious, four hares in one day for four men—that means life for us. The soup is drunk by turns from the pan as we have left our cups. My strength which was almost exhausted returns and I hope to conquer the dizzy feeling of head and heart, but last four days I have been nearer death than life. Can again permit myself a small plug of tobacco, which previously was poison for my empty stomach. Hope the diarrhœa after the dog-diet will stop. The hare tastes beautifully, like chicken. We make fire of Cassiope or better still with old dry branches of Salix arctica, finger-thick. Veget. finished for the year, everything yellow and brown, ready for winter's rest. Fruit of Cassiope, Sax. opposit., tricusp., Dryas, Potentilla, Drabæ, Wahlbergella, etc.—Wahlberg. affinis and triflorum.
"A loon, geese, terns, buntings in flocks. Midnight gloom, gneiss knolls, tracks of reindeer.
"August 28th.—Bosun a hare during night. Cold. Fog. Falling snow. Diarrhœa. Misery. Start 1 p.m. through snow. Colpodium, Cystopteris (com.), Lycopod. Selago, Rhododendron, red-polls in flocks, terns, falcons, plenty of animal life and rich plankton in several little lakes. Sax. cernua, foot high with top leaf. Myrtillus ulig. blood-red, very common, always without fruit. J. biglumis, Epilob. latifol. ster., Hesperis com. in fruit, Oxyria, Draba nivalis, hirta, Cardam. bellidifol. Bosun a young hare 4.30 a.m. Driving snow, fog. Shared the entrails at once and ate them raw, warmth in body. Yes, the whole hare was divided in 4 pieces which were eaten raw. Strenuous march until 12.30 a.m. without finding game.
"August 29th.—I am half-dead, but found Woodsia ilv.
"Lay down at 7 p.m. for I will not hamper the movements of my comrades on which hangs their salvation."
Thus died Wulff, sacrificing himself for the results from which he had expected so much. Often during the latter part of the journey he had maintained that the collections which we had brought with us under all adversities had gradually become so dearly-bought that now they must be considered even before our own welfare. Therefore, at the critical moment, he made his dispositions with stoic calm and took his departure from the people nearest to his heart. His letter to his young daughter was a last caress of a father, marked by death, to the one who in life he had set above everything. Words at once proud and tender, which ought not to be reproduced here. But his filial greeting from the threshold of death to his old parents, who would in vain await his return, we reproduce with their permission as the most beautiful memorial that can be erected over a dying man:
"With stiff frozen fingers, merely a final greeting before I, exhausted with the adversities of the journey, lie down to rest. I await death with a perfectly calm mind and in my heart is peace. Up to the last I have honestly striven to honour our name and hope that the result of my work may be saved. Thank you for all the good you have bestowed upon me, as a gift for the wanderings of my life, ever since my earliest childhood."