Greenland by the Polar Sea/Chapter 15

THE first three weeks we spent in Etah were entirely occupied in regaining our strength as quickly as possible. It was quite uncanny to see, as soon as we got our clothes off, how hunger had ravaged our bodies; we were so thin that ribs and chest especially showed sharply through the skin. But although we had been as bad as we could possibly be if our lives were to be saved, it was surprising how soon we recovered. It was as if our entire organism had been purified and renewed, for after less than a month had elapsed we were in better form than we had ever been before. We were then able to set to again, and much we had to do and many dispositions we had to make. We now knew that no ship would arrive to fetch us, and that we must calmly look forward to another wintering. This period of waiting, with its primitive conditions of life, could scarcely offer us opportunities for important work. We must go southward as soon as might be, for it was clear that a prolonged stay in Etah would not be possible.

The Eskimos' autumn hunt had entirely failed, and it would be unjustifiable of us to use more than was strictly necessary of the American provisions our hosts possessed; in the course of the winter they themselves would need them. Already by the end of September every day meant a fight for meat. There were a fair number of hares in the neighbourhood, and they were eagerly hunted, but although the bags were good they did not last out well, for no less than twenty-eight people were living in the house of the expedition. Twice a day we gathered for a big common meal towards which every hunter contributed; but although the will to give was there, it was ​obvious that it would be preferable for us to move on to new feeding-grounds.

But the expedition had still two tasks unaccomplished. We were very unwilling to leave the district without having done our utmost to bury Wulff; and the collections of the expedition were yet lying by the point of descent near Cape Agassiz, and these would have to be fetched as soon as possible; otherwise we ran the risk of bears or foxes destroying the depots. For an immediate start none of us had the clothes, and, apart from a few supplementary articles, nothing was to be had at Etah. Our outfit had to be procured from one of the larger camps near Inglefield Bay, where we knew there was always an abundance of those furs which we so badly missed here. So we made the following arrangements:

Koch should remain, until further notice, in Etah, with some families who did not wish to go southward yet. All the others were to leave Etah and attempt autumn hunting on the new ice to the south, whereby the question of provisions would be easier for those who remained. They had yet considerable stores of cereals, flour, peas, vegetables, and pork. It was fresh meat we were short of as long as there were many of us.

Together with all the southward-bound sledges, I was to cross the glacier to Neqe, wherefrom, as soon as the conditions of the ice permitted, I was to force the journey to Thule. It was high time that, from my station, I should prepare as well as possible for another wintering. Immediately after my arrival Peter Freuchen was to journey up to Koch, and with the latter undertake the journey to Inglefield Land. Ajako and Bosun, who were to accompany them on this journey, must for the present go to Igdluluarssuit, where I would find clothes, dogs, and other outfit for both of them. Only in this way did we think it possible to carry through the task which yet remained.

An attempt which had already been made to bury Dr. Wulff and to fetch our things near the inland-ice had miscarried, and that although the task was left in the hands of Ajako, he being the one who was soonest restored to health after our arrival at ​Etah. The point was to utilize the period before the Polar darkness descended, wherefore I had borrowed a team of dogs for Ajako, who, with two Etah sledges, started on the 19th of September the same way across the inland-ice as that by which we had come. Unfortunately, the ill-famed autumn storms began immediately after his departure, and on the 27th of September we all had the disappointment of seeing him return without having been able to reach his goal. He said that up on the glacier they had been weather-bound for a whole week, during violent drifts of snow, and as the dog food was exhausted and their own provision almost eaten up, they had been forced to turn back. On this journey Ajako and his companions had been provisioned chiefly with walrus, which he himself had shot during the stay at Etah. It was not possible to procure more dog food for a quick fresh start and a prolonged absence, and this was the reason why we found ourselves forced to fetch meat from neighbourhoods with ampler supplies on the other side of the inland-ice.

Koch was given the task to go north and carry out the work already mentioned, as soon as the necessary outfit was ready. By Igdluluarssuit and Ulugssat I succeeded in the course of a week, by borrowing and buying, in finding outfits for Ajako and Bosun, both with regard to dogs and clothes; they then left immediately to fetch, via Etah, the collections by Humboldt's Glacier, which could now be reached by the ocean-ice. But Koch's clothes were not yet ready, and as it took a longer time than originally estimated to get into communication with Freuchen, I told Koch to let Ajako and the others drive up for the collections whilst he himself was to await Freuchen's arrival. In the company of the latter he was then, when his own outfit was ready, to drive up to the clough to the north-east of Cape Scott to bury Dr. Wulff.

In various ways, however, the sledges were delayed, and when at last they reached Etah, with Freuchen still absent and Koch's outfit unfinished, Koch was of the opinion that the daylight was already now so weak that it was high time to start. Resolute as always, he decided to accompany Ajako, and ​because of his worn-out clothes he endured an unusually hard voyage in the cold autumn. The district round Cape Scott was reached one of the last days in October, but unfortunately it soon proved impossible to find the place where two months ago we had parted from Wulff. At that time the land had been quite snow-bare, but now there was much snow; cloughs and stones were drifted over, so that the place was unrecognizable, it being difficult to get a proper survey of the land because of the faint daylight. Further search had to be given up, and the expedition limited their activities to the fetching of the collections near Cape Agassiz. All these arrived in Thule in good condition in the middle of November. My own journey from Etah to Thule, which was hampered in many ways because of the season, I will describe by the following notes from my diary:

On the first of October I set out with the Etah sledges across the fjord-ice to the glacier. We break up in a terrible storm; it always blows at Etah when there is a clear sky and fine weather in other places. The storm and the drifting snow pursue us right up to the inland-ice, where we pitch our tent at three o'clock in the morning after fourteen hours' driving.

A very cold night.

As I have no sleeping-bag, I wake up with chattering teeth after two hours' sleep, and propose to set off. We start at seven o'clock in the morning after a few warming basins of tea.

Fine, calm weather, heavy going, a good deal of snow on the glacier, but we decide to stick it—and we do stick it in spite of laggard dogs—and arrive at the camp of Neqe, without having had any more sleep, at four o'clock in the morning of the 3rd. Great reception by women only. The men had gone out hunting reindeer in Inglefield Land on the day previous to our arrival.

There was now new ice seaward as far as we could see, with open water alongshore some way into the fjord.

We remained at Neqe for a day, and were heartily enter​tained all day through in all the houses with feasts of delicious Mattak.

On the morning of the 5th we must once more cross the inland-ice by the mountain Naujârtalik, and we arrived across a local glacier at Igdluluarssuit in the evening. Here lived Sipsu, who had accompanied us on the outward journey to Hall's Grave, and our reception was no less hearty when we met old travelling companions. Clothes were made for ourselves, musk-ox skin was prepared for sleeping-bags, and at length clothes for Koch were ordered.

A few days later I attempted to continue to the head of Inglefield Gulf, intending from there to cross the inland-ice towards Thule, but unfortunately I had to turn back because the new ice would not carry me. By the camp itself there was excellent autumn hunting on shiny ice, and our companions from Etah quickly got their share of this, but it was important for me to push forward so that Koch and Freuchen could go north again before the days became too short, and by the 14th I had started southward again with Harrigan.

Our route lay behind Qana via Iterdlagssuaq across three big lakes and a small glacier which led down to Kangerdluarsuk. Strangely enough, far inland we here passed a river which ran from the inland-ice out towards the middle sea, the water of which was quite salt and undrinkable.

Further in we passed between two glaciers, which meet each other approximately by the point of descent to Kangerdluarsuk. The cross-pressure of the glaciers has ploughed up the stones of the ground so that from above it looks as if a mighty stone-paved high road is running between the two glaciers. Some way further down, where these have worked closer towards each other, the pressed-up moraine, which consists only of big stones, assumed the character of a ridge, broad at the base but sharp towards the top, looking most phantastic.

Outside the mouth of the little Kangerdluarsuk, however, we met again with the open water which had stopped us the last time, so I made a new decision, as under no circumstances would I again return. I would attempt to go up across the ​glacier again, driving behind Quinisut, and by this way reach right into the head of Inglefield Gulf, which should now be covered with ice.

We spent a day in seeking a point of ascent to the glacier, and at length we succeeded in finding a place where we decided to make the attempt, although it did not look very inviting. Steep glacier-edge in which we had to hew steps; slippery blue ice where we must keep our balance, in constant danger of sliding down again. For 1 kilometre we had to carry our goods on our backs across a steep mountain and through soft snow. At length, after four hours of toil, we were so high up that we reached the snow and soon we could begin to drive. In the evening, as darkness fell, we drove down across a snow-bare mountain-land littered with big, loose stones which often rolled down, racing with ourselves when the sledge or the dogs happened to loosen them. Along a river we reached the coast, and on the following day we intended to try the ice. At dawn, after a good night's sleep in warm musk-ox skins, we attempted the fjord-ice. Alas, neither would this carry us!

Wait we would not, so we had to get up across the ice, first along the glacier up to the funny mountain crags of Qátarssuit, so named because at a distance they look like two buckets turned upside down. But now we found it impossible to descend the glacier. After a few hours' search in a snowstorm, which fell on us with such violent gusts that often we were blown off our feet, we found at last a river-course which went right into the glacier like a big artistically bored hole. From this opening one looked into a black bottomless gap; but we reckoned out that the river, when at some time it bored through the inland-ice, must have burst for itself an outlet by the moraine. With a strap round our waists we therefore let ourselves slide on to this toboggan run and rush into the darkness, an adventurous race which ended in us suddenly finding ourselves hovering in the air above the moraine as if spewed out from the gap of the monster. We then increased the length of the line and slowly let ourselves down to the fjord. In the same way all the dogs and sledges were gradually transported, ​until the last man, doubling the line through a hole knocked in the glacier, finished the many aerial journeys of the day.

On two big lakes, across good land with fine snow, we came down to the shore from which the descent on to the ice took place. That was the most adventurous drive I have ever experienced. The run was so steep that only with the greatest danger could one descend after having first lowered the sledge some way down. The mountain which we passed in this way was some 600 metres high.

At length we were down on the ice, and when darkness set in we were warmly embraced by Pastor Gustav Olsen at the mission station of Kangerdlugssuaq.

On the 17th of October we arrived at the mission station and rested for a few days to draw breath after the journeys of the last strenuous days. From morning to night all the inhabitants of the camp vied with each other in feasting us, and the menus included not only the beloved Mattak, but also delicacies like reindeer meat and salmon.

During our visit there was a memorial service for our deceased comrades, when Pastor Olsen spoke with such pathos that all the inhabitants of the camp who were present at the service were moved to tears.

On the 21st of October we departed, and, accompanied by two brothers from the mission station, we drove right across the snow-bare stony land via the great salmon lake to Olrik Bay, and thence once more across the inland-ice to Thule, where we arrived on the 22nd of October.

It was as if all houses suddenly sneezed at once; from every entrance a crush of people poured out, stormed towards us and surrounded us. Only Harrigan's young wife did not come out; she was so overcome by joy at our sudden arrival that she broke out weeping, unable to rise from her bench.

I hastened down to Freuchen, whose house lies about a quarter of an hour's walk from the camp of the Greenlanders. ​He was lying in bed reading a year-old copy of Lolland-Falster Folketidende. He was taken entirely by surprise; I entered the room before he had time to collect himself, as if shot up through the floor, fresh from my journey with the cold reeking from my clothes.

The eyes with which my old friend looked at me I shall remember as long as I live. I was back again in Thule!