During the first week in January, 1879, we learned that he was
wintering at Marble Island, being now second in command on the whaler
'Abbie Bradford'. So Henry Klutschak and I made our way to Marble
Island, with the first sled that had crossed from the main-land, being
eight days on the road from Depot Island. We had reason to believe that
Captain Barry and the 'Eothen' would also be at our destination,
and that we could there replenish our stores. The trip was uneventful,
except that when four days out I ran out of food through sharing my
hard bread and pork with the natives, of whom there were twelve on my
sled. They had plenty of tepee walrus meat, which was good food for
them, but which I could not at that time eat. So for four days I had
not a mouthful to eat, though I walked and ran nearly the whole
distance travelled. I did not experience much inconvenience from
weakness until the last day, which was that on which we came across the
ice from Little Rabbit Island. When nearly half-way over, and moving
rapidly over the new ice, the sled on which I was seated broke through,
and all its occupants were precipitated into the water. The front part
of the sled still hung by the ice, which bent beneath its weight. When
I was struggling to get out the ice kept breaking off in huge cakes,
and my clothing getting heavier and heavier all the time, I began to
think that I would not be able to save myself; but at last I succeeded
in rolling out upon the hard ice, and turning around to see if my help
was needed in rescuing the women and children, found them already
safely landed on the floe. The thermometer ranging thirty-eight degrees
below zero, we were not long standing in the wind before our clothes
were frozen stiff, so that it was almost impossible to bend a limb.

We succeeded in getting the sled out again, and started once more for
Marble Island. I went ahead to pick out a route for the sled, and again