The Giant of the North: Pokings Round the Pole Part 23

"If," repeated Alf, "in that `if' lies the whole question. No doubt Enterprise has fought heroically for centuries to overleap this supposed ring of ice, and science has stood expectant on the edge, looking eagerly for the day when human perseverance shall reveal the secrets of the Far North. It is true, also, that _we_ at last appear to have penetrated into the great unknown, but who shall say that the so-called ice-ring has been fully examined? Our explorations have been hitherto confined to one or two parts of it. We may yet find an ever-open entrance to this open Polar sea, and our ships may yet be seen sailing regularly to and fro over the North Pole."

"Just so," said Benjy, "a North Pole steam line once a month to j.a.pan and back--first cla.s.s accommodation for second cla.s.s fares. Walrus and white bear parties dropped on the way at the Pole Star Hotel, an easy trip from the Pole itself, which may be made in Eskimo cabs in summer and reindeer sleighs in winter. Return tickets available for six months--touching at China, India, Nova Zembla, Kamtschatka, and Iceland.

Splendid view of Hecla and the great Mer de Glace of Greenland--fogs permitting.--Don't eat so much, b.u.t.terface, else bu'stin' will surely be your doom."

"Your picture is perhaps a little overdrawn, Ben," rejoined Alf with a smile.

"So would the ancients have said," retorted Benjy, "if you had prophesied that in the nineteenth century our steamers would pa.s.s through the Straits of Hercules, up the Mediterranean, and over the land to India; or that our cousins' steam cars would go rattling across the great prairies of America, through the vast forests, over and under the Rocky Mountains from the States to California, in seven days; or that the telephone or electric light should ever come into being."

"Well, you see, b.u.t.terface," said Alf, "there is a great deal to be said in favour of Arctic exploration, even at the present day, and despite all the rebuffs that we have received. Sir Edward Sabine, one of the greatest Arctic authorities, says of the route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, that it is the greatest geographical achievement which can be attempted, and that it will be the crowning enterprise of those Arctic researches in which England has. .h.i.therto had the pre-eminence. Why, b.u.t.terface," continued Alf, warming with his subject, while the enthusiastic negro listened as it were with every feature of his expressive face, and even the volatile Benjy became attentive, "why, there is no telling what might be the advantages that would arise from systematic exploration of these unknown regions, which cover a s.p.a.ce of not less than two million, five hundred thousand square miles. It would advance the science of hydrography, and help to solve some of the difficult problems connected with Equatorial and Polar currents. It would enable us, it is said, by a series of pendulum observations at or near the Pole, to render essential service to the science of geology, to form a mathematical theory of the physical condition of the earth, and to ascertain its exact conformation. It would probably throw light on the wonderful phenomena of magnetism and atmospheric electricity and the mysterious Aurora Borealis--to say nothing of the flora of these regions and the animal life on the land and in the sea."

"Why, Alf," exclaimed Benjy in surprise, "I had no idea you were so deeply learned on these subjects."

"Deeply learned!" echoed Alf with a laugh, "why, I have only a smattering of them. Just knowledge enough to enable me in some small degree to appreciate the vast amount of knowledge which I have yet to acquire. Why do you look perplexed, b.u.t.terface?"

"'Cause, ma.s.sa, you's too deep for me altogidder. My brain no big 'nough to hold it all."

"And your skull's too thick to let it through to the little blob of brain that you do possess," said Benjy with a kindly-contemptuous look at his sable friend. "Oh! flatnose, you're a terrible thick-head."

"You's right dere, ma.s.sa," replied the negro, with a gratified smile at what he deemed a compliment. "You should ha' seed me dat time when I was leetle boy down in Ole Virginny, whar dey riz me, when my gran'moder she foun' me stickin' my fist in de mola.s.ses-jar an' lickin' it off.

She swarmed at me an' fetch me one kick, she did, an' sent me slap troo a pannel ob de loft door, an' tumbled me down de back stair, whar I felled over de edge an' landed on de top ob a tar barrel w'ich my head run into. I got on my legs, I did, wiv difficulty, an' runned away never a bit de worse--not even a headache--only it was tree months afore I got dat tar rightly out o' my wool. Yes, my head's t'ick _'nough_."

While b.u.t.terface was speaking, Leo and the Captain were seen approaching, and the three rose to meet them. There was a grave solemnity in the Captain's look which alarmed them.

"Nothing wrong I hope, uncle?" said Alf.

"Wrong! no, lad, there's nothing wrong. On the contrary, everything is right. Why, where do you think we have got to?"

"A hundred and fifty miles from the Pole," said Alf.

"Less, less," said Leo, with an excited look.

"We are not more," said the Captain slowly, as he took off his hat and wiped his brow, "not more than a hundred and forty miles from it."

"Then we could be there in three days or sooner, with a good breeze,"

cried Benjy, whose enthusiasm was aroused.

"Ay, Ben, if there was nothing in the way; but it's quite clear from what Chingatok says, that we are drawing near to his native land, which cannot be more than fifty miles distant, if so much. You remember he has told us his home is one of a group of islands, some of which are large and some small; some mountainous and others flat and swampy, affording food and shelter to myriads of wild-fowl; so, you see, after we get there our progress northward through such a country, without roads or vehicles, won't be at the rate of ten miles an hour by any means."

"Besides," added Leo, "it would not be polite to Chingatok's countrymen if we were to leave them immediately after arriving. Perhaps they would not let us go, so I fear that we shan't gain the end of our journey yet a while, but that does not matter much, for we're sure to make it out at last."

"What makes the matter more uncertain," resumed the Captain, as they sauntered back to camp, "is the fact that this northern archipelago is peopled by different tribes of Eskimos, some of whom are of a warlike spirit and frequently give the others trouble. However, Chingatok says we shall have no difficulty in reaching this Nothing--as he will insist on styling the Pole, ever since I explained to him that it was not a real but an imaginary point."

"I wonder how Anders ever got him to understand what an imaginary point is," said Benjy.

"That has puzzled me too," returned the Captain, "but he did get it screwed into him somehow, and the result is--Nothing!"

"Out of nothing nothing comes," remarked Leo, as the giant suddenly appeared from behind a rock, "but a.s.suredly _nothing_ can beat Chingatok in size or magnificence, which is more than anything else can."

The Eskimo had been searching for the absentees to announce that dinner was ready, and that Toolooha was impatient to begin; they all therefore quickened their pace, and soon after came within scent of the savoury mess which had been prepared for them by the giant's squat but amiable mother.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

ARRIVAL IN POLOELAND.

Fortune, which had hitherto proved favourable to our brave explorers, did not desert them at the eleventh hour.

Soon after their arrival at Refuge Island a fair wind sprang up from the south, and when the _Charity_ had been carefully patched and repaired, the kites were sent up and the voyage was continued. That day and night they spent again upon the boundless sea, for the island was soon left out of sight behind them, though the wind was not very fresh.

Towards morning it fell calm altogether, obliging them to haul down the kites and take to the oars.

"It can't be far off now, Chingatok," said the Captain, who became rather impatient as the end drew near.

"Not far," was the brief reply.

"Land ho!" shouted Benjy, about half-an-hour after that.

But Benjy was forced to admit that anxiety had caused him to take an iceberg on the horizon for land.

"Well, anyhow you must admit," said Benjy, on approaching the berg, "that it's big enough for a fellow to mistake it for a mountain. I wonder what it's doing here without any brothers or sisters to keep it company."

"Under-currents brought it here, lad," said the Captain. "You see, such a monster as that must go very deep down, and the warm under-current has not yet melted away enough of his base to permit the surface-current to carry him south like the smaller members of his family. He is still travelling north, but that won't last long. He'll soon become small enough to put about and go the other way. I never saw a bigger fellow than that, Benjy. Hayes, the American, mentions one which he measured, about 315 feet high, and nearly a mile long. It had been grounded for two years. He calculated that there must have been seven times as much of it below water as there was above, so that it was stranded in nearly half-a-mile depth of water. This berg cannot be far short of that one in size."

"Hm! probably then his little brothers and sisters are being now crushed to bits in Baffin's Bay," said Benjy.

"Not unlikely, Ben, if they've not already been melted in the Atlantic, which will be this one's fate at last--sooner or later."

From a pool on this berg they obtained a supply of pure fresh water.

When our explorers did at last sight the land it came upon them unexpectedly, in the form of an island so low that they were quite close before observing it. The number of gulls hovering above it might have suggested its presence, but as these birds frequently hover in large flocks over shoals of small fish, little attention was paid to them.

"Is this your native land, Chingatok?" asked the Captain, quickly.

"No, it is over there," said the Eskimo, pointing to the distant horizon; "this is the first of the islands."

As they gazed they perceived a mountain-shaped cloud so faint and far away that it had almost escaped observation. Advancing slowly, this cloud was seen to take definite form and colour.

"I _knew_ it was!" said Benjy, "but was afraid of making another mistake."

Had the boy or his father looked attentively at the giant just then, they would have seen that his colour deepened, his eyes glittered, and his great chest heaved a little more than was its wont, as he looked over his shoulder while labouring at the oars. Perhaps we should have said played with the oars, for they were mere toys in his grasp.

Chingatok's little mother also was evidently affected by the sight of home. But the Captain and his son saw it not--they were too much occupied with their own thoughts and feelings. To the Englishmen the sight of land roused only one great all-engrossing thought--the North Pole! which, despite the absurdity of the idea, _would_ present itself in the form of an upright post of terrific magnitude--a worthy axle-tree, as it were, for the world to revolve upon. To the big Eskimo land presented itself in the form of a palatial stone edifice measuring fifteen feet by twelve, with a dear pretty little wife choking herself in the smoke of a cooking-lamp, and a darling little boy choking himself with a ma.s.s of walrus blubber. Thus the same object, when presented to different minds, suggested ideas that were:

"Diverse as calm from thunder, Wide as the poles asunder."

It was midnight when the boats drew near to land. The island in which stood the giant's humble home seemed to Captain Vane not more than eight or ten miles in extent, and rose to a moderate height--apparently about five or six hundred feet. It was picturesque in form and composed of rugged rocks, the marks on which, and the innumerable boulders everywhere, showed that at some remote period of the world's history, it had been subjected to the influence of glacial action. No glacier was visible now, however--only, on the rocky summit lay a patch or two of the last winter's snow-drift, which was too deep for the summer sun to melt away. From this storehouse of water gushed numerous tiny rivulets which brawled cheerily rather than noisily among the rocks, watering the rich green mosses and gra.s.ses which abounded in patches everywhere, and giving life to countless wild-flowers and berries which decked and enriched the land.

Just off the island--which by a strange coincidence the inhabitants had named Poloe--there were hundreds of other islets of every shape and size, but nearly all of them low, and many flat and swampy--the breeding-grounds of myriads of waterfowl. There were lakelets in many of these isles, in the midst of which were still more diminutive islets, whose moss-covered rocks and fringing sedges were reflected in the crystal water. Under a cliff on the main island stood the Eskimo village, a collection of stone huts, bathed in the slanting light of the midnight sun.