LORD LONSDALE'S JOURNEY.

Kumara Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 3940, 29 June 1889, Page 2

LORD LONSDALE'S JOURNEY.

HIS ARCTIC EXPERIENCES.

The London New York Herald pubHshes an .interesting statement made to its San Francisco coorespondent by Lord Lonsdale, describing his adventures <ro his journey to the Arctic regions. His lordship, who arrived in San Francisco by the Alaska Commercial Company's steamer Bertha from Kodrac, Alaska, said he was somewhat disappointed in his trip. He expected to find plenty of game, but did not. "My journey," he said, "anybody o£ good stamina could have accomplished." He got a great deal further north than he expected, and reached Banksland, latitude 75°; and, although not finding much game, he sent 300 specimens of water-birds home to England.

two hours' sleep in three days. It was the middle of March (his lordship said) before I got to Winnipeg.' They told me that I could not get through, but that I might get as far as Green Lake, but I could have got a great deal further had it not been for starvation among the Indians. In. a radius of, say, 270 miles, I found 230 dead Indians. .This was between Isle Lacrosse and Atb/ibaska Lake. I left Winoipeg on the 20th March, and went by train to Troy. At Troy I h|red horses and sleds and travelled to Prince Albert, on the north Saskatchewan. The journey occupied three days, and the distance was 200 miles. I slept only two hours in the three days. We then procured fresh sleds, and started through the forest. From Prince Albert to Green Lake is 270 miles, and we covered that distance in a week. Prom this point I had to send back my servant with all my luggage, only keeping on change of clothes. I also sent all my Bporting dogs, and from that time I had to use native furs. forty degrees below zero. A squall came up, which made the snow bad for travelling. Sometimes the glass would be 40deg. below zero, and in 24 hours it would register 30deg. above. This made it terrible hard work, and kept us wet from morning till night. I kept the Indians travel, ling all the time, and when we could j not get along in the daytime I made them tackle it at night. They deserve great credit for their perseverance. Prom Green Lake I went to Isle Lacrosse, across Buffalo Lake. We then went across to Methatortage, and from tbpre 1 made my way to the Clear Water River, but found it difficult to make any headway, as there was no food for the dogs or men. I then made my way down to the forks of the Athabaska. The Clear Water rivers are marked on the maps as Port M'Murra, and we stayed there a month. I found it impossible to get the Indians to travel, as we had come across so many dead men, and they were afraid of their lives. I stayed to take observations of the habits of the birds, waterfowl; £<£ A NARROW ESCAPE.—SCARCITY OF EOOJK The ice did not begin to 'break until!the Ist of May, and I then took a boaV and we made 280 miles to Chippewayajvfi

on Lake Athabaeka. This distance wo made in" five days, and we had great difficulty, as I had only two Indians with me, and these did not know the way. The ice was running hard at the time and forming dams. Once we nearly all went under a dam, which had backed the water up. If we had, not one of us would ever have come out alive. In Ath aba ska we lost ourselves for two days in the fosr, owing to the Indians making a mistake. For two nights we were unable to sleep or cook any food, as we could get no driftwood. It rained and snowed alternately all the time. For the next eight hundred miles we had difficulties-like this; but, luckily, we were never more than four days at a time without food. We again came across a number of Indians who had died from starvation; but they were not so numerous as at first. IMPRISONED IN THE ICE. I reached the Great Slave Lake on the Ist of June, and the ice was theu becoming solid, but the Peace River having broken, up, there was water around the lake for a space of about a hundred yards wide. It must be remembered that the Great Slave Lake is 300 mites wide and 400 miles lon 4. I got a boat from the Hudson Bay Company, and the two Indians tried to get around the edge of the lake, but it was terrible work, and sometimes we would be twenty hours in the ice. One day I worked 36 hours without going to bed, while the Indians worked 20 bouts. During 30 hours we advanced only one mile and a half, and our next piece of hard work wns in crossing Sulphur Bay. When we started across it there were no signs of any ice, but before we had proceeded a quarter of an hour a strong gale sprang up from the.north, and we took refuge behind a rock. While there, two blocks of ice caught our boat and kept us fixed there for 28 days. I made a bridge across the opening and got to the land, but could not find any game, WONDERFUL WATERFALLS. While on the Hay River I saw the most beautiful waterfall in the world. It is horseshoe in shape, and has a sheer fall of 200 feet, and a step with another tall above it. It is about one and a half miles wide at the top, and one and three-quarters of a mile at the bottom. It is far more beautiful than Niagara, although there is not the same weight of water. Great block after block of ice, and iceberg after iceberg came whirling over and down into the abyss below. I went to the Peel River in a steamer, and there I got a boat and eight natives and started for the Arctic Ocean. The Indians were terribly afraid of the Esquimaux, who up there are called " Huskeys." These " Huskeys". seem to be a race of Esquimaux all by themselves. Instead of being small of stature and dark, as at Liverpool Bay, Cape Bathurat, they are big and tall. lord lonsdale's prowess. When we arrived in their part of the country my interpreter advised me not to go amongst them, as Sir John Robinson and all other travellers had made . long circuits to escape them. I was determined to go, so I went. They made a half circle, and, as I advanced, air held their long knives in their hands, and one fellow walked right up to me and tried to stick me; but I hit him in the nose with my fist, and he went down like a ninepin. He said afterwards that he wanted to see. if I was made the same inside as they were. I went into their chasm, or snowhouse, where all the public meetings are held, and sat down. The natives told my interpreter that they bad heard all white men were brave, and that they were going to try me.. The braves formed in a line before me, as I sat on a box, and each drawing his knife with a frightful war whoop, rushed at me with their knives ready to strike. They stopped right at my feet, and then the leader, advancing, put his ear over my heart to learn how it was beating, but I did not take the slightest notice of them. That night as I was going home a was watching for me. He had already killed three or four men, and had vowed to kill me. He was hiding behind a boat, and as I passed he jumped out at me with a knife. I straightened out my right arm, and he went down. He then skulked into the house. I offered bim some tobacco, but instead of taking it he rushed at me again with his knife uplifted. I struck him again, and knocked him into a corner dazed. The other natives then rushed in. When they saw their bad man lying in the corner quite stupid they could not understand it. They took his knife from him and gave it to me; but as I thought this was meant as an act of submission I gave it back to. him again. After this I had no more trodbje. They treated me with the greatest kindness, and when I left they begged roe to come back and sec them again. \

MEETING MISSIONARIES. After leaving we went around Banksland on the edge of Melville Island, and then back to Mackenzie. I determined to walk to Yeikon, across the mountain!?, a distance of 80 miles. Each of my men carried forty pounds of provisions, and I myself carried 50 pounds. I got a boat on the Porcupine River, and descended into Alaska. I hoped to catch the revenue cutter about the middle of October at St. Michael, but expected difficulties on the way, as the Indians had killed two miners on the way a short time before. I descended the Ajuko; but as the ice set when 1200 miles od my .journey, when near the Russian mission, I had to stop there. The missionaries said 1 could not get asf*r »s Katmai, which is just on the other side of Kodiac. They told me all kinds of stories to deter me, but I got dogs and sleds and started. INDIANS TRYING TO DESERT. After many difficulties I arrived at Katmai about thß 10th of February. All the maps I to he wrong, more especially those of Alaska. Schwatka's map is as incorrect as any of them. I started with nine sleds and sixty-nine dogs. At the foot of the mountains the Indians refused to cross, and tried to desert. In the night I took one by the neck and made him go before me. I took all their, rifles and snowshoes, and put them in my sled and sat on them. At three o'clock in the morning, when they got up to abtndon me, they were surprised to find me beFore them. I s:arted at 6 o'clock that morning in the dark, and had to cross the ranges, the highest point of which was 5200 ft. The cold was intense, and terrible storms would come up at times. When I got across I had only 29 dogs left; all the others had been frozen to death. There, were seven Indians missing and five sleds. After waiting two days I set out to look for the missing men, and found them in a terrible condition. All the dogs were dead, but I brought the Indians down safe and sound. They xveie only frozen about the hands and feet. I waited at Katmai until the 16th of March, when the Alaska Company sent for me. I believe the North Pole can be reached by small parties establishing relay stations, but not at all in the oldfashioned way. Some of Schwatka's notes were useful, but I think he described a good deal he never saw. INTERESTING ITEMS. Among the various articles of interest which Lord Lonsdale has brought with him are four fine-looking Esquimaux dogs, which were with him dining the greater part of his long and dangerous journey. Whalers have always said that there were no whales about Point Barrow, but Lord Lonsdale was told by the natives that whales were there. Not wishing to rely wholly on the natives' statements, Lord Lonsdale went in himself and saw hundreds of mammals. In his opinion there is a north-west passage, and at times the whales go through to the Atlantic. Near Peace River he found some salt mines. The salt is in large blocks, and pure enough for use. Mica exists also in large quantities, in blocks from

Bft. to 12f'. sqn«re. Near Peel's Riv-r Lord Lonsdale saw the burniog coal and burninjy gas wells mentioned by Franklin and Richardson. On the West Great Lake be found many mountain Moose M'Kenzie River Esquimaux he thought* were all equal to himself—6ft. high::.by measurement. Two not unusual men were 6ft. 4io. and 6ft. 3i». When they kilt h man they cut a gash on their own faces, so as to have the scar as a mark <-f honour. Near Banksland he saw so many wha'es that he be a place where come <o breed; al6o many reindeer and polar bears.