The far North : explorations in the Arctic regions / by Elisha Kent Kane.

  • Elisha Kent Kane
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The far North : explorations in the Arctic regions / by Elisha Kent Kane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE FAITH.' 4] The three paramount considerations of lightness, strength, and diminished friction, were well combined in it. This beautiful, and, as we afterwards found, efficient and endur- able sledge was named the Little Willie. The Esquimaux dogs were reserved for the great tug of the actual journeys of search. They were now in the semi-savage condition which inarks their close approach to the wolf; and, according to Mr Petersen, under whose care they were placed, were totally useless for journeys over such ice as was now before us. A hard experience had not then opened my eyes to the inestimable value of these dogs: I had yet to learn their power and speed, their patient, enduring fortitude, their sagacity in tracking these icy morasses, among which they had been burn and ored. The men appointed to establish the depot were furnished svith a sledge. Its model—which had been previously tested by the adventurous journeys of M'Clintock in Lan- caster Sound—was to lessen the height and somewhat increase the breadth of the runner; both of which, I think, were improvements, giving increased strength. I named her the Faith. Her length was thirteen feet, and breadth four. She could readily carry fourteen hundred pounds of mixed stores. This noble old sledge, which is now endeared to me by every pleasant association, bore the brunt of the heaviest parties, and came back, after the descent of the coast, comparatively sound. The men were attached in her in such a way as to make the line of draught or traction as near as possible in the axis of the weight. Each man had his own shoulder-belt, or rue-raddy, as we used to call it, and his own track-line, which, for want of horse-hair, was made of Manilla rope; it traversed freely by a ring on u
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