A Diary and Journal from the Second Grinnell Expedition

[header] 1 [margin] Tuesday June 6

We are now a parcel of sick men keeping ship until our comrades return from the last sledge party of the expedition. Except Mr. Ohlsen and George Whipple we have not a sound man among us. Thus wearily in our Castle of Indolences we watch the changing days anxiously noting bird and insect and vegetable life - as it tells us of the coming summer.

One fly, of species unknown, buzzed around William Godfrey’s head; and Mr. Petersen brought in a cocoon from [which?] the grub had eaten its way into liberty - Hans nearly daily gives us a seal and for a passing luxury we have Ptarmigan and hare. The little snow birds crowd to Butler Ild. whence these songs pene= trate the cracks of our rude housing - a snipe too - a tringa was mercilessly shot on the first day of his arrival. The andromeda shows green upon its rusty winter dried stems the willows are sappy and puffing, their catkins of last year dropping off - and the stone crops are really green and juicy in their [tendrils?] - all this under the snow - so we know that summer is coming although the tide hole again freezes along side and the ice floe is seemingly as fast as ever.

[margin] Wednes. [margin] June 7.

George Stephenson, my partner in the journey to the north seems to recover strength even more slowly than myself. The scurvy has affected his heart and chest. The type of the disease is singularly consistent.

Mr. Wilson can again boast of a practicable foot - The ball of the toe is perfectly strong and well preserved the stump round and ample - Brooks bids fair to follow in the same road - Considering the very meager room allowed me this is a pleasant result. Petersen mopes still. He has no creative morale.

[Header:] 9

This is a welcome [engrafting?] upon our seal meat.

Hans thinks that the open water seen last between Godsend Id. and Esquimaux Point has worked up nearer Bedevil= led Reach. The ice is quite unsafe off Sylvia Head, and seal lie by their Attuk between our brig and the shore.

Made arrangements for the disposition of our coal - reserving twenty kegs for our use should we make open water - and the remainder barely enough to last us for the present month. Separated for use. We have a store of wood but so much for Brooks and his coal. In oil we are again stocked. Our seal yield is an average of five gallons each. I sup= pose we have a barrel (32 gall) already tried out. Ten seal make a barrel as is the case at Uppernavik at this season. In the winter they use from ten to fourteen. The blubber occupies the same volume as is the oil subsequently boiled from it. A fact somewhat puzzling to those who remember the abundant cellular tissue which sustains the fat cells. It is explained by the increased expansion of the oil with change of climate & season.

[Margin:] Wednes June 14

By great exertion Hans was practised during the entire day with the sledge. In spite of the sneering prognostics of that poor devil Godfrey he learnt rapidly the main essential. The whip was already acquired by Hans in the childish games of [Fiskirnas?]. At 1. P.M. he started. Petersen and Hayes pilotted him to the land ice and thus I accomplished a substitute for my rennegade.

[Header:] 10

If Hans succeeds in his efforts he may catch Morton before he leaves the glacier and thus make the Exploration which will perfect our voyage. Should this be done many a larger expedition equipped with every resource of art and science has done less and none could do more.

The reindeer was brought home by Dr. Hayes and Mr. Ohlsen. Petersen was well enough to make a seal screen in the hope of being able to use it during Hans' absence.

William Godfrey continues on the sick list. Malingering!! Hayes [?] [swasion?] with his physic and failed. Bill is a bad fellow. Sonntag again able to attend to magnetics.

[Margin:] Friday June 16

Two long tailed duck ([?]) visited us evidently seeking their breeding grounds. They are beautiful either at rest or on the wing. We now have the snow bird, the snipe, the Burgomaster gull and the long-tailed duck enlivening our solitude. But the snow birds only are in numbers crowding our rocky island and making our sunny night time musical with home remembered songs. Of all the rest we have but a solitary pair who seem to have left their fellows and sought this far northern mating ground in order to love unmolested. I long for specimens but they shall not be fired at.

The Ptarmagan show a singular backwardness in assuming the summer fea= thering. The male is still entirely white

[Header] 12

summer and the land ice I have found to be here as perennial as the glacier.

[Margin] Monday June 19

After a walk of 13 hours Mesrs. H and O sighted from an altitude of 230 feet as far south as the Esquimaux States but without finding the open water. Mr. Mc Seary was mstaken in his "report" of the sea having reached above the [huts?]. I pre= sume that the water is open at Fog Inlet and wonder that the S. W. Swells have not more advanced it. The floe is reported as rotten and covered with water pools. This last is a good indication.

Our cabin was scrubbed and ventilated - the thick cementations of winter ice broken from the lockers and things prepared for our return. We are leading now a camp life living from hand to mouth on our guns. Hans being away we have shot a seal & our stock of meat is nearly exhausted. The deer after an allowane of 1/2 lb per man per diem gave out yesterday. Although nearly broken by scurvy I must try my hand and take to the rifle again.

[Margin] Tuesday June 20

This morning to my great surprise Petersen brought me quite a handful of the scurvy grass (Cochlearia [space left blank by EKK]) in my fall list of the stinted flora of this spot it had quite escaped my notice. I felt grateful to him for his kindness and without the affectation of offering it to any one else eat it at once. Each plant stood about one inch high - the miniature expanding strength out a little radius of hardly one inch more. Yet dwarfted as it was the fructifying process was nearly perfected

200

were undecided as to their course, one tired man left them he is now my third officer [*+ Riley*] but the rest either urged on by the sanguine conviction of the others or by a false shame pushed on. They found the water free between [Hackluyt?] and our own Capes, and after entering the same ice which baffled my own attempt a month earlier, urged their way until return was impossible by the 21st of Sept only twenty five days after their withdrawal from the Expedition they were arrested by the ice.

The horrors of the coming winter then stared them in the face. They could not now retrace their steps and all attempts at a land journey to our brig were fruitless. Godfrey and John, my two desperados broke out into absolute defiance of restraint eating and acting as they pleased. They could not even allowance the provisions, and starvation was before them. Under these circumstances this wretched little party formed two divisions or messes, the good and the bad or rather the better and the worse. A hut was built and one of the boats burnt for fuel. They were nearly two hundred miles to the South of our own position and had of course a longer sun and milder weather. Here they lived, living from hand to mouth, and waiting for the iron [winter?] to bridge their return to the commander they had abandoned.

Several efforts were made but want of unity among themselves and trouble in dealing with the natives brought failure and it was not until Dec. 1 that Mr. Petersen & Bonsall effected