Four Degrees Celsius by Kerry Karram Read Free Book Online Page A

Diary, Dease Point
    We got an awful shock to wake up during the early morning to hear rain beating on the roof of the mud shack. As the roof is flat, it soon started to bulge and drip water. The side of the shack Tom and I sleep on got the worst of it, and we had to get up. It made the day longer than usual. But worse still, it took snow and frost out of the shack walls, and we had to put on more rope braces … Our Eskimo friends broke camp and went to the west, apparently to the same place that Charlie and Jack left for a few days ago to bring fish.
    Things were not going well at the Domex camp. Morale was sinking and the men’s stomachs were reacting to the food they were compelled to eat, prompting Pearce to comment, “They say hunger will make one like anything, but I don’t believe it yet.” [3] The fish the Inuit had left them were turning mouldy, and their own supplies were dwindling rapidly, even though they had reduced their meals to two a day. One of the men brought in some ground squirrel, but Pearce couldn’t bring himself to cook it.
    Colonel Cyril MacAlpine stands next to “Joe” outside the tent that housed all their fuel — moss, twigs, lichen, and twisted willow. The tent served to keep it dry. Food is being air dried on a line between the two men, a method of preserving food in the absence of refrigeration. The process met with varying rates of success and was subject to “raids” from predators.
Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Canadian Air Lines Collection #2143.
    Along with the physical deterioration, it seemed that the psychological strain was beginning to show. Colonel MacAlpine decided that a statement should be drawn up in the event of their deaths. Major Baker wrote the document:
In view of the tragedies, which have formerly occurred in the Barrens at this season of the year, first, last and all the time my first principle is absolute safety of personnel.
    We had three alternatives: (a) to remain here until we could travel over the ice on the gulf: (b) to try and get to the post by boat: or (c) to move to a point nearer the post and try and signal same by flares.
    As to (a): the difficulties in staying were food and protection against the weather. These difficulties I felt could be overcome, particularly with the friendly assistance of the Eskimos. As to (b): This was absolutely impossible, as the only means of transport was an unseaworthy canoe. The Eskimos, who knew the situation, ridiculed the idea of going themselves and indicated swamping in the sea.
    As to (c): I did consider this alternative, using the Eskimo canoe, but they flatly refused to lend their boat and indicated the proposal foolhardy. At an earlier date in the season this alternative would have been feasible, but at this season of the year was too dangerous. The small lakes started to freeze the day after we landed and the ice formed in the sheltered bays of the sea coast and every few days we had blizzards, or ice-cold rains, until winter set in in earnest.
    Without a boat we could not cross the rivers. Furthermore the party was ill equipped with clothing for any attempt of the kind. For part of the party to attempt same would mean a division of our scanty supply of food. The Eskimos also pointed out the Cambridge Post had high hills around it and signals from this side of the sea could not be observed.
    Reluctantly, therefore, the only possible decision was, from the standpoint of safety of personnel, to do what we have done; namely, wait until we could travel over the ice.
    With the Inuit gone, the Domex people sank further into gloom. Aboriginal people were the lifeline that connected MacAlpine and his men not only to the land and survival in the Barrens, but kept alive their hopes for a safe trek across Dease Strait to Cambridge Bay. The Domex group of eight had some experience of Arctic conditions, but they were human and as susceptible to anxiety and despair as anyone else. The cold