SONNTAG'S DEATH REPORTED. 229 



quired eagerly if they brought news of Mr. Ronntag 

 "Yes." I had no need to inquire further. Jensen's 

 face told too plainly the terrible truth, — Sonntag was 

 dead! 



I sent Jensen back to see that the wants of our 

 savage visitors were carefully provided for, and to 

 question them farther. They proved to be two of my 

 old acquaintances, — Ootinah, to whom I was under 

 obligations for important services in 1854, and a 

 sprightly fellow, who, having had his leg crushed by 

 a falling stone, had since hobbled about on a wooden 

 one supplied to him, in 1850, by the surgeon of the 

 N(yrih Star, and which I had once repaired for him. 

 They both came on one sledge, drawn by five dogs, 

 and had traveled all the way through from a village, 

 on the south side of Whale Sound, called Iteplik, with- 

 out a halt. They had faced a wind part of the way, 

 and were covered from head to foot with snow and 

 frost. Their wants were soon bountifully supplied, 

 and they were not slow in communicating the infor- 

 mation which most interested me. From them I 

 learned that Hans was on his w^ay to the vessel with 

 his wife's father and mother. Some of his dogs had 

 died, and he w^as traveling in slow and easy stages. 

 There being no longer any occasion for my southern 

 journey, the preparations therefor were discontinued. 



Hans arrived two days afterward, and, much to 

 our surprise, he was accompanied only by his wife's 

 brother, a lad whom I had seen some inonths before 

 at Cape York ; but the cause of this was soon ex- 

 plained. His wife's father and mother, as Ootinah 

 Informed me, had journeyed wdth him, but they, as 

 well as the dogs, had broken down, and were left be- 

 hind, near the glacier, and Hans had come on for 



