Left on Labrador Part 25

For several days the needle of our compa.s.s had been giving us some trouble by its strong inclination to _dip_. Three times, since starting, we had been obliged to move the sliding weight out a little on the bar. The farther north we got, the stronger was the tendency of the north pole, or end of the needle, to point downward, and the south pole to rise up correspondingly. By running the sliding weight out a little toward the south pole, its leverage was increased, and the parallel position restored. This was what Capt. Mazard was doing when we went on deck that morning.

"How do you account for this _dipping_ of the needle?" he asked Raed.

"By the present theory of magnetism, the earth itself is considered to be a magnet with two poles," replied Raed. "These poles attract and repel the corresponding poles of a magnetic needle, just as another large needle would. The nearer we get up to the north magnetic pole of the earth, the more the pole of our needle is pulled down toward it.

We're not such a great distance from it now. What's our lat.i.tude this morning?"

"63 27'."

"Capt. Ross, in the expedition of 1829, made out the earth's north magnetic pole to be in 70 north lat.i.tude, farther west, in the upper part of Hudson Bay. At that place he reports that a magnetic needle, suspended so that it turned easily, pointed directly downward."

"We've got a needle hung in a graduated scale downstairs," remarked Kit.

We had nearly forgotten it, however.

"Bring it up," said Raed.

Wade went after it.

It was set on the deck, and, after vibrating a few seconds, came to rest at a _dip_ of about 83.

"If we were up at the point Capt. Ross reached, it would point directly down, or at 90, I suppose," said Kit.

"That's what he reported," said Raed. "There's no reason to doubt it."

"But where is the south pole?" Wade asked.

"That has never been exactly reached," said Raed. "It is supposed to be in 75, south lat.i.tude, south of New Holland, in the Southern Ocean. A point has been reached where the _dip_ is 88-2/3, however."

"Of course this magnetic pole that Ross found in 70 is not the _bona fide_ north pole of the earth," Wade observed.

"Oh, no!" said the captain. "The _genuine_ north pole is not so easily reached."

"It's curious what this magnetic attraction is," said Kit reflectively.

"It is now considered to be the same thing as electricity, is it not?"

I asked.

"Yes," replied Kit; "but whether they are a _fluid_ or a _force_ is not so clear. Tyndall and Faraday think they are a sort of _force_."

"It is found that this _dip_ of the needle, or, in other words, the position of the magnetic poles, varies with the amount of heat which the earth receives from the sun," remarked Raed. "We know that heat can be changed into electricity, and, consequently, into magnetism.

So, at those seasons of the year when the earth receives least sun-heat, there is least electric and magnetic force."

"That only confirms me in my belief that the luminiferous ether through which light and heat come from the sun is really the electric and magnetic element itself," remarked Kit; "that strange fluid which runs through the earth as water does through a sponge, making currents, the direction of which are indicated by these magnetic poles. The same silent fluid which makes this needle point down to the deck makes the telegraphic instrument click, makes the northern lights, and makes the lightning."

"I agree with you exactly," said Raed.

It's no use talking with these two fellows: they've made a regular hobby of this thing, and ride it every chance they get.

Prince Henry's Foreland, on the south side of the straits, was in sight at noon, distant, we presumed,--from our estimate of the width of the pa.s.sage at this place,--about eleven leagues. It is a high, bold promontory of the south main of Labrador. At this distance it rises prominently from the sea. The gla.s.s shows it to be bare, and dest.i.tute of vegetation. By two o'clock, P.M., we had pa.s.sed the scattered islets, and bore up toward the north main again to avoid the floating ice. At five we were running close under a single high island of perhaps an acre in extent, and rising full a hundred feet above the sea, when old Trull, who was in the bows, called sharply to the man at the wheel to put the helm a-starboard.

"What's that for?" shouted the captain, who was standing near the binnacle.

"Come and take a look at this, sur," replied the old man.

Kit and I were just coming up the companion-stairs, and ran forward with the captain. A long, leather-colored _fish_, as we thought at first, was floating just under the starboard bow.

"Thought it was a low ledge," said the old man. "I see 'twan't a moment after. I take that to be a sea-sarpent, sur."

As the object was certainly twenty feet long, and not more than a foot and a half in diameter, Trull's supposition had the benefit of outside resemblance. The captain seized one of the pike-poles, and made a jab at it; but the schooner, under full headway, had pa.s.sed it too far.

"Get a musket!" shouted Kit.

We all made a rush down stairs for the gun-rack. Only three were loaded. Catching up one of these, I ran up.

"Off astern there!" cried Weymouth.

We were already fifty yards away; but, getting a glimpse of it, I fired. There was no movement.

"Missed him!" exclaimed Wade. "I'll bore him!"

He fired. Still there was no apparent motion.

"Miss number two," said I.

Kit then took a careful aim, and banged away. The creature didn't stir.

"Number three," laughed Wade.

"That fish must either bear a charmed life, or else it's ball-proof!"

Kit exclaimed.

Meanwhile "The Curlew" was being brought round. The captain was getting interested. Raed brought up one of our long cod-lines with the grapnel on it,--the same contrivance with which old Trull had drawn in the boat some days before; and, on getting back within twenty yards, he threw it off. It struck into the water beyond, and, on being drawn in, played over the back of the leathern object till one of the hooks caught fast. Still there was no movement.

"There can't be any life in it," said Wade.

Raed pulled in slowly, the captain a.s.sisting him, till they had drawn it up under the bows. It certainly looked as much like a sea-serpent as any thing yet. A strong line, with another grapple, was then let down, and hooked into it with a jerk. Donovan and Hobbs tugged away at it; one foot--two feet--three feet.

"Humph!" exclaimed the captain. "One of those Husky _kayaks_!"

Four feet--five feet--six feet. Something rose with it, dripping underneath.

"Good Heavens!" exclaimed Raed, turning away.

"There's an Esquimaux in it, hanging head down!" cried Kit.

The sailors crowded round. It was a ghastly sight. The legs of the corpse were still fast inside the little hoop around the hole in the deck in which the man had sat. His arms hung down limp and dripping.

His long black hair streamed with water. He might have been floating there head down for a week.