Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/334

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at his reel shirt which dangled beneath an old coat. It was all very fine and very wonderful. "Don't I look pretty?" was the poser which he put to everybody.

But this pleasing state of mind into which he had been thrown by this new style of costume was doomed to be short-lived. The novelty wore off in a few days. It ceased to amuse him; and he discovered, no doubt, that in gratifying his vanity he was vexing the flesh. One day he appeared on board in his old suit of furs. "What has become of the cap and red shirt and coat?" "Oh! I tumbled into the water, and my wife is drying them!" The truth leaked out afterward that he had gone home, changed the white man's finery for the cold-resisting fox-skins, and had chucked the whole suit among the rocks.

Kalutunah's team fell to Mr. Knorr from sheer necessity, since there was no one else in the ship except Hans who could handle the whip. Knorr, with commendable foresight, had commenced his exercises early in the winter, plainly foreseeing that his chances of accompanying me throughout my northern journey were not likely to be diminished by knowing how to drive dogs. The labor properly devolved upon one of the sailors; but the field was open to all alike; and the young gentleman, finding that official dignity stood in the way of his ambition, with a spirit which I was not slow to appreciate, did not long hesitate in his choice.

I have elsewhere mentioned that the labor of driving dogs is not an easy one. Indeed, of all the members of my party, Mr. Knorr was the only one who succeeded well. Even in Southern Greenland, among the Danes long resident there, it is rare to find a skillful driver. Neither of the sailors, Carl nor Christian,