Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/373

 complains again of his leg, and was unable to proceed further when we camped. He is groaning with the pain. Knorr sticks at the work with a tenacity and spirit most admirable. He has never once confessed fatigue; and yet, to-night, after the severe labors of the day in lifting the sledge, and the endless trouble and confusion with the dogs, when I asked him if he was tired and wanted to camp, his answer was a prompt, "No, sir." And yet, when we did camp and the work was done, I found him keeled over behind a hummock, where he had gone to conceal his prostration and faintness,—but there was no faintness of the spirit. McDonald never shows eagerness for the halt, but the labor is beginning to tell upon him. He has the true grit of the thorough-bred bull-dog, and holds to his work like a sleuth-hound to the scent.

Let me finish my grievances. The dogs again show symptoms of exhaustion,—my own fault, however, in some measure, for I have watched with miserly care every ounce of food; and, last night, I gave to each animal only one and a half pounds. Result—as I have stated; and, besides, to revenge themselves, they broke into Jensen's sledge, which, owing to the fatigue of everybody, was not unlashed, but covered instead with three feet of snow. The brutes scattered every thing around, tried to tear open our tin meat-cans with their wolfish fangs, and ate up our extra boots, the last scrap of skin-line that was left, some fur stockings, and made an end of Knorr's seal-skin covered meerschaum pipe, which he had imprudently hung upon the upstander. Hemp lines now make the sledge lashings and traces, and, as a consequence, the sledges are continually tumbling to pieces and the traces are constantly breaking. Another dog tore