CHARLES FRANCIS HALL AND THE INNUITS. 



405 



TUE FKOZEN S\II( 



within less than two miles. Every little while they came upon places where 

 the wanderer had lain down to rest. At five o'clock, nine hours after setting 

 out, they Avere overtaken by Captain Buddington, with two sailors and two In- 

 nuits, accompanied by a dog-team. They all pressed on with renewed vigor, 

 and in a few minutes came upon poor Brown, frozen dead. They could not con- 

 vey the corpse to the ship, fully ten miles away, and so buried him in the snow 

 upon the spot Avhere he was found. 



It was the middle of July before the ship was released from her icy prison. 

 The whalers went to work, and Hall made several important expeditions by 

 land and water, living nearly all the while with the Inuuits. Towards the 

 middle of October the captain began to prepare for returning home. But he 

 was a few days too late. The ship was beset in the ice-pack, with no hope of 

 escape. There was nothing left but to make up their minds to spend another 

 winter in the ice. 



We must pass wholly over the incidents and adventures of this second win- 

 ter. It is the old tale of suffering and privation. On the 12th of January the 

 thermometer fell to 72 degrees below the freezing point. One of the men who 

 had left to visit an Innuit encampment came back, saying that he thought he 

 had frozen his toe. Upon pulling off his boots both feet were found to be 

 frozen stiff, and as hard as ice. Tlie usual attempts to save the members were 

 made in vain; mortification began, and, to save the man's life, the captain was 

 obliged to amputate portions of both his feet. 



This year, 1862, the ice held on unusually late ; but on the 8th of August it 



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