Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 139 June to November 1919 . Septemberwe had accumu-lated the driedmeat of forty bullsand about half aton of back fat. Before leavingAlaska we hadgiven instructionsthat the NorthStar, which I hadpurchased justbefore from herowner, Andreasen,should be sent to Norway Island as soon as the ice con-ditions allowed. I had said that inthe event of non-discovery of landnorth of Alaska, our party would prob-ably land near Norway Island and spendthe summer there, drying caribou meatfor dog and man food for the comingyear, and accumulating skins for wintercl
Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 139 June to November 1919 . Septemberwe had accumu-lated the driedmeat of forty bullsand about half aton of back fat. Before leavingAlaska we hadgiven instructionsthat the NorthStar, which I hadpurchased justbefore from herowner, Andreasen,should be sent to Norway Island as soon as the ice con-ditions allowed. I had said that inthe event of non-discovery of landnorth of Alaska, our party would prob-ably land near Norway Island and spendthe summer there, drying caribou meatfor dog and man food for the comingyear, and accumulating skins for winterclothing. Our intention was to board theNorth Star at Norway Island and to pro-ceed with her north, if possible, to PrincePatrick Island, to spend there the comingwinter. It was in anticipation of herarrival, as one possibility, that we wereaccumulating these large stores of other possibility was that she mightbe prevented by ice conditions from com-ing, in which event we should need themeat and some of the fat as food to take Vol. CXXXIX.—No. OLE ANDREASEN us through the dark period of winter,when hunting is difficult. The rest ofthe fat we needed for candle-light. In some northern islands it is neces-sary to depend on animal fat also forfuel, but in Banks Island there is asmall amount of driftwood, enough sothat fifteen or twenty miles of coast will provide fuel for asmall camp forone winter, ifeconomicallyused. There isalso here anothervariety of fuel, theAndromeda terra-gona, which wecall heather—an oily plant thatgrows in smallbunches a fewinches high. Whenonce the fire isstarted, heatherwill burn well,even if soakingwet, if a strongwind is availableto fan the traveling overBanks Island weseldom went tenmiles without find-ing a patch of it,and when we hadoccasion to re-main for a weekor two in oneplace we were generally able to campbeside a good heather patch. It takesten to fifteen minutes to gather enoughfuel for cooking a meal. It burns muchb
Size: 1312px × 1906px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidharpersnew13, bookyear1919
