68 SIDE-LIGHTS ON THE PEARY EXPEDITION 



were so thick you'd fall over them, and one day we struck a herd of 

 a few millions, and annexed sixty. Not bad for one rifle and one 

 shotgun with twenty shells. We cached them in an igloo till the 

 next day, when we would come after them with the dogs and sledges. 



"Now about this time of the year cold was no name for it, for 

 on the bed platform of my igloo in the mountain one night it was 

 minus 17 degrees Fahrenheit, with two two-burner, four-inch wick 

 stoves going, and you can guess what it was like outside nearly 

 minus 50 degrees. Well, the next day we went after them, I mean 

 the hares, with the sledges and dogs, but on the way back, though 

 we had only six miles to go, a terrific wind with a blinding drift 

 came up, so we could not see ten yards. The Eskimos and I after 

 fighting for a couple of hours to find our igloo gave up and sought 

 shelter behind our sledges. They had forgotten our snow knives 

 and could not build an igloo, and for twenty-four hours we were 

 hung up there. I didn't care do as they did, lie down and let the 

 snow cover me up and go to sleep, for fear I'd freeze, so I had an 

 unpleasant time until the wind died down enough for us to find our 

 way back to our igloo, not half a mile away, which we did some 

 twenty-four hours afterward. The way we then proceeded to pile 

 in the grub would have made you sit up and take notice. We each 

 ate a ten-pound hare, tea, pemmican, and biscuit. Luckily we came 

 through uninjured, though I froze the ends of four or more fingers. 

 We killed eighty-three hares this trip, average weight nine to ten 

 pounds. In the February moon two Eskimos and I went hunting 

 to Clement Markham Inlet for an eight-day trip, but saw nothing. 



"I left the boat for the northern trip February iQth. There 

 was enough twilight to see to travel eight hours a day by, though 

 the sun did not come back till March 6th, the last time I saw it in 

 the fall being October 8th. I left Cape Columbia in command of the 

 advanced supporting party on February 28th, with the thermometer 

 at minus 50 degrees. At that temperature whisky froze stiff, alcohol 

 so cold you can drop a match in it and it will not light, your nose 



