84 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 77. 



the ice-chisel can no longer be worked. I 

 have often seen the water come up the well 

 with such impetuosity that it would overflow 

 the ice where the ice-digger was standing, then 

 sink a couple of feet in the well, and keep pul- 

 sating for five or ten minutes before coming to 

 an equilibrium, generally about two to three 

 inches from the upper ice-level. Besides the 

 purpose of fresh water for cooking and drink- 

 ing at a camp, the native sledgeman, if the ice 

 be ripped from his sledge-runner by stones or 

 ice while on a journey, will stop and dig 

 through six or seven feet of ice to re-ice this 

 part of his sledge — so important is it, if his 

 vehicle be heavily loaded, or only dragged by 

 a few dogs. 



The average ice- wells are about six or seven 

 feet deep. The thickest we had to dig on our 

 King William Land sledge-journey was eight 

 feet four inches ; and I very seriously doubt 

 if it ever gets more than a foot or a foot and a 

 half deeper than this on fresh water, in a/iy 

 part of the arctic, where all the ice is melted 

 in the summer. This distance, the natives told 

 me, was the deepest the}' had ever seen. Of 

 course their judgment can only be approxima- 

 tion, but nevertheless moderately reliable. A 

 six-foot ice-well will be dug usually in about 

 forty to forty-five minutes, although the more 

 active maj' do it in half that time. If the ice 

 has been much permeated by cracks, hy dig- 

 ging on one of these, and especially where two 

 of them cross, one may greatly lessen the time. 

 Another use to which these two instruments are 

 put, extraneous to their usual purpose, is to 

 stick them upright in the snow at a camping- 

 igloo, and on their tops the dog-harnesses, 

 which, if made of seal-skin or any kind of skin, 

 are liable to be devoured b}^ their wearers when 

 unusually hungry ; and this position, eight or 

 ten feet in the air, is a very safe place for 

 them for the night. A native sledgeman, 

 driving through rough, hum- 

 mocky ice, often uses the ice- 

 chisel to clear his wa} T , and 

 will make the angular ice in 

 front of him disappear in a 

 manner most astonishing. 

 When one ice-well has been 

 unsuccessful (that is, when the 

 ice extends to the bottom), 

 they may melt ice if they have 

 plenty of oil : for by that time 

 the igloo ma} T be completed, and the lamp burn- 

 ing, although generally they can and do dig 

 two hy that time ; and I have known cases 

 where they were extremely anxious to econo- 

 mize oil, and six or seven wells were dug be- 



fore they gave it up or were successful. It is 

 very astonishing how soon they can tell wheth- 

 er the well is going to be a failure ; the merest 

 pinch of earth, way down in its depth of five 

 or six feet, instantly arresting their eye, when 

 the same would hardly be distinguishable on 

 the surface, to the ordinaiw eye. That very 

 instant they stop digging ; for many of them 

 are as careful of the edges of their ice- chisels 

 as a man is of his razor. 



The implements used in the construction of 

 the igloo, the snow-knife and snow-shovel, have 

 already been described in the article on the 

 igloo. 



The cooking-implements consist of the stone 

 kettle (oo-quee'-sik) and stone lamp (kood'- 

 lik), so often described 

 by arctic travellers ; and 

 for that reason I will 

 only dwell upon them 

 briefly. They are de- 

 scribed by Surgeon Fish- 

 FlG - 8 - er, of Parry's first expe- 



dition, as made of lapis 

 allaris, or pot-stone. Dr. Hayes not inaptly 

 compares the lamp, in shape, to a clam-shell ; 

 and, if the shell only had a slightly straighter 

 edge, the comparison would be very good. 

 Fig. 8 represents an outline view of one stand- 

 ing on the usual three sticks stuck in the 

 snow- platform in front of the snow-bed, a b 

 indicating the edge along which the flame is 

 lighted. These lamps usually hold from half 

 a pint to two or three quarts of oil, so vari- 

 able are the}' in size ; and this oil, when the 

 lamp is properly adjusted by the rear stick, 

 just touches the edge a 6, along which there 

 is placed a species of compact moss, that has 

 been thoroughly dried, and rolled in the two 

 open palms (as a sailor would prepare his pipe 

 of tobacco) with a small quantity of fat, and 

 lighted. This moss must be kept dense, or the 



Fig. 9. 



lamp, with its six to thirt}' inches of flame 

 along this edge, will smoke be} T ond endurance ; 

 and this is done with a small stick of hard 

 wood a little larger than a pencil. This ' trim- 

 ming ' of the lamps is quite an accomplishment, 



