Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/310

 followed the great man to his new abode, and crawled into a corner of his den as coolly as if he was a deserving fellow, and not the most arrant little knave and beggar that ever sponged on worth and industry.

Kalutunah brought a solution of the Peter mystery. As soon as the daylight began to come back, one of the Iteplik hunters, named Nesark, determined to travel up to Peteravik, and there try his fortunes in the seal hunt. Arriving at the hut (these Esquimau huts are common property) at that place, he was surprised to discover, lying on the floor, a much emaciated corpse. It was that of an Esquimau dressed in white man's clothing, and the description left no doubt that it was the body of Peter. Nesark gave it Esquimau burial. And thus, after the lapse of three months, this strange story was brought to a close; but I was still as far as ever from an explanation of the hapless boy's strange conduct.

I had now become the possessor of seventeen dogs, and awaited only one principal event to set out on a preliminary journey northward. The sea had not yet closed about Sunrise Point, and I could not get out of the bay on that side. To travel over the land was, owing to its great roughness, impracticable for a sledge, even if without cargo; and to round the Point at that season of the year, through the broken ice and rough sea, in an open boat, was, for obvious reasons, not to be thought of.

My plan had always been to set out with my principal party, when the temperature had begun to moderate toward the summer, which was likely to be about the first of April; but I had looked forward to doing some serviceable work with my dogs prior to that time. March is the coldest month of the Arctic