The Romance of Polar Exploration Part 3

Through the wind and the cold they worked, neither pausing for rest nor refreshment. All around them the ice was heaving and grinding, and over them the cold northerly gale was blowing and driving great clouds of snow; but they worked on, knowing only too well that in every barrel of food they rolled into security was contained a week of life for them.

The driving snow made it more and more difficult to see, until the air was almost dark. With fearful force the wind howled across the icy expanse, and those on the pack crouched for some shelter behind the stores they had piled up by the hummock, waiting till the gale should have exhausted its fury.

The faint sound of a cry came to them from the direction of the ship and they peered out through the gloom. Then a cry of despair broke from their lips--they forgot the force of the wind and the cold of the driving snow as they sprang from behind their shelter. The ice had parted again, and, down the long lane of open water which had been formed, the hull of the ship loomed as it swung away into the darkness.

Anxiously the castaways watched for the coming together again of the divided packs, in the hope that the _Polaris_ would again be caught and held. Those who remained on board were equally anxious, for they knew the vessel must be leaking terribly, and to be left much longer in the open water meant that she would founder and they be drowned. A man ran to the rudder and tried to bring her round to the ice which glimmered through the snow-storm, but the rudder was damaged too much for steering and the ship drifted on. Soon it was obscured from those on the pack, and the truth of their position dawned on them. Whether the ship had foundered or not they did not know, but this was clear: they were adrift on an ice-pack which might at any moment split asunder and precipitate them into the freezing water, or, if it held together, carry them till they died of cold and starvation.

Either alternative was sufficiently gloomy to depress the spirits of the bravest; as the nineteen cowered behind their stack of provisions for shelter from the keen snow-filled wind, into the mind of each there came a grim determination to fight while there was an ounce of food in the casks or a vestige of ice to float them. In the morning, when the storm had abated and the air was clear, they emerged from their shelter and looked about for a sign of the vessel. Some of them clambered up on to the top of the highest hummocks so as to command a wider field of vision, but they saw no more than those who remained below. All around them was ice, piled in heaps, or stretching out in flat expanses; but always ice, as far as the eye could reach, and nowhere a vestige or a sign of the _Polaris_.

They gathered together round the heap of stores and looked at one another in silence, each one reading the other's thoughts and always finding them the same as his own. The ship had probably gone to the bottom, with all on board, as soon as she broke away from the ice. The packs had closed again over the spot where she had disappeared, so that there was no chance of any spars or timber floating to the surface and confirming their suspicions. Everything was under the ice, everything except the scanty supply of provisions that had been put overboard.

At length one man spoke. It was no use mincing matters, he told his comrades. They would do well to realise the position they were in, and, looking at it from the worst side, make the best of it and fight to the end. The vessel had gone, and all they had to keep them from starvation and death was the heap of stores and their own energy. There was no timber to build a raft, so that they could float if the ice broke up; there was no wood to waste on a fire. But as they had to keep afloat and warm if they were going to escape, he considered that first of all they should remove their stores to the thickest, heaviest ice they could find, and then set to work to build snow huts for shelter. Winter was coming on with its long spell of darkness, and there was no time to waste. It was every one's business to help one another and to do the best they could, working together and sharing whatever came, whether it was short rations or plenty.

The sentiments appealed to all the men, and they formed themselves into parties to carry out the scheme. Fortunately they had just pa.s.sed one winter in the Arctic regions and knew, therefore, what was in front of them, and also how to carry out the building of snow huts and the other necessary makeshifts. A ma.s.sive hummock, which apparently was too strong to be crushed, and solid enough to last through several summers without melting, was selected as the site of the encampment. The snow which had fallen during the gale was not quite hard enough for building huts at the moment, so while some of the party were overhauling the stores and arranging to move them to the hummock, the others were clearing away the snow from the site of the camp and banking it up all round as a break-wind.

By the time the stores were placed in the enclosure, canvas shelters were erected for a temporary covering, pending the time when the snow became hard enough to cut for building blocks. It is only when the snow has become compressed by its own weight and frozen nearly solid by the cold that it can be cut into slabs or blocks for a hut. When it has become hard enough, the blocks are cut and the building commences. First a circle is laid, with a small s.p.a.ce vacant where the doorway is to be.

On either side of this opening the blocks are laid so as to form the plan of a porch, one side of which, in the present instance, was continued at right angles so as turn the entrance pa.s.sage towards the stack of provisions and thus shelter the doorway from the wind. As soon as the ground plan of the hut was laid, the surface of the blocks was moistened and other blocks laid upon them, and so on until the walls rose some five feet, the moisture making the blocks freeze hard to one another. The layers were now gradually lapped over the interior until a dome roof was formed. Both inside and outside were then moistened and smoothed, and the cold air, freezing the moisture, glazed the entire structure with a covering of ice.

All the clothing, bedding, and weapons were taken inside. A lamp was constructed out of an empty preserved meat tin; it was filled with fat, and, with a piece of twisted tow for a wick, it lit up the interior of the hut and afforded some warmth as well. Heavy canvas curtains were suspended across the opening out of the hut at the inner wall, at the bend in the pa.s.sage, and at the outer opening. Such of the packages of stores as were suitable were also brought into the hut, and upon them the blankets and furs were laid so as to make the sleeping places as comfortable as possible. The quarters were thus as good as the men could make them, but one anxiety still remained. The lamp would have to be kept going all the twenty-four hours, and especially during the long Arctic night; but the supply of fat was limited.

A hunting party was organised to search the pack for seals or walrus or any animal from which blubber could be obtained. Here again the experience of the previous winter and its hunting exploits served them.

A small opening in the pack was discovered a mile or so from the camp, and on the ice around the water three seals were resting, having evidently been caught in the ice when it closed. With great care the hunters crept over the ice towards the animals, whose sacrifice meant so much to the castaways. Only two had rifles, the others carrying harpoons they had made from the tent-poles, and which were anything but reliable weapons. Steady aim was taken by the two men who had the rifles at the two larger of the seals. Firing together, one seal fell dead; the one which was not aimed at plunged into the water, and the other, badly wounded, hobbled to the edge of the ice. In another moment he would have been over and probably have sunk to the bottom, had not one of the men flung away his harpoon, and, springing forward, managed to seize the hind flippers of the wounded creature. His comrades rushed to his a.s.sistance and dragged both him and the seal back from the opening on to the ice, where the latter was quickly despatched.

They were harnessing themselves to their victims in order to drag them over to the camp, when a loud snort from the opening caused them to start round just in time to see the third seal disappearing under the water. At once they understood the situation. The opening was the only one for miles, and the seal was compelled to come to the surface there to breathe, as he could not reach the top anywhere else for the ice. It was at once decided to wait for him, but as, if he were shot while in the water, he would inevitably sink to the bottom and be lost to them, they determined to lay a trap for him. The seals already killed were placed in natural att.i.tudes near the water, and the men hastily retired to sheltering hummocks, to wait the return. The men with the rifles were both to fire upon the seal as soon as he emerged on to the ice, for he was too valuable to be lost. They had not waited very long before he reappeared and, raising his head high out of the water, looked around.

Seeing nothing but the two seals on the ice, he swam leisurely round and round the opening before scrambling up on to the ice. As he reached it and moved towards his two companions, the men, who had been carefully aiming at him, fired and killed him.

With the three seals, the party returned to the camp in high spirits, their arrival being the signal for general rejoicing, for not only would the blubber of the seals keep the lamp supplied with oil, but their skins were very welcome additions to the stock of warm coverings, and the meat was an invaluable addition to the larder.

Really it was more, but of that they were not aware until two days later, when one of the men was awakened by the short barking roar of a bear. He quickly roused his companions and they made their way out of the hut with what weapons they possessed.

The flesh of the seals had been suspended on a line between two poles near the other provisions so as to protect it from any chance visit by wolves or bears. As the first man peered out from the hut opening, he saw, in the dim twilight, two bears standing underneath the line of meat, sniffing up at it and growling. They had, it was afterwards learned, picked up the trail where the dead seals had been dragged from the opening in the ice, and had followed it to the camp.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN ADDITION TO THE EXPLORERS' SUPPLY OF PROVISIONS.]

The man whispered back to his companions what he saw, and another man, armed with a rifle, crept to his side. Aiming together behind the shoulder of the larger of the bears, they fired simultaneously and brought their quarry down. Immediately the other bear turned towards the opening and, with snarling teeth, advanced. A third rifle was fired point-blank at its head, but the bullet failed to penetrate the ma.s.sive skull, though it made the beast change its direction. As it turned away the men realised what its escape would mean to them. There was a rush after it, the men loading and firing as quickly as they could load, so as to secure it before it disappeared in the dim grey twilight. It fell wounded, and was despatched by means of the impromptu spears.

This adventure not only made a notable break in the monotony of the life on the pack, but gave the men a subject for conversation during the long weary period of darkness, as well as increasing their store of fat, fresh meat, and warm covering. No further animals were seen or heard, although every one was constantly on the alert, and the opening where the seals were killed was visited daily until it froze over. Then the last vestige of twilight vanished and darkness settled down upon the ice.

For eighty-three days the sun was absent, and during that time the cold was intense. The lamp was the only means of artificial heat they possessed, and even of that they had to be careful, for the supply of fat was not inexhaustible, and no one knew when it could be replenished.

In the coldest weather the men huddled together under their blankets and furs, anxious and weary. They had no means of finding out in what direction they were moving, for the constant creaking of the floe led them to believe that they were drifting somewhere. Whether it was to the North or to the South they could not tell, and yet upon the direction in which they were moving their salvation depended.

Never, perhaps, was the return of the sun more welcomed than by the desolate castaways on the floe. But its appearance and the commencement of spring was not entirely an unmixed blessing. The rising temperature naturally caused the ice to break up, and as the floe upon which they were marooned gradually decreased in size, fresh anxiety was caused to them by the possible danger of their haven being broken up. As the days pa.s.sed, they saw their food supply growing smaller and smaller, until starvation stared them in the face, and hope was almost dead. April came, and with it all the privation and suffering consequent upon insufficient food and wearying, helpless, and almost hopeless, inactivity. The last day of the month arrived and found them with the last morsel of food consumed. A man clambered to the summit of the hummock in the hopes of seeing a seal somewhere on the ice. His comrades thought that he had lost his senses when he shouted wildly and, clambering down, ran towards them, dancing and shouting.

Over the top of the hummock he had caught sight of a ship, and the excitement caused by his news was soon eclipsed as the castaways saw the signals they made answered from the vessel. Boats put off for them and took them on board the ship, which was the _Tigress_, a sealer from Labrador.

They found that in the 196 days they had spent on the floe they had drifted over 1500 miles from the lat.i.tude in which the _Polaris_ was beset on October 12. For the time they believed they were the only survivors of the expedition, but in this they were wrong. The remainder of the party also escaped, though without undergoing quite the same hardships as themselves.

When the _Polaris_ broke away from the ice, she did not sink, but drifted rapidly before the gale through the open channel. Captain Budington, who had a.s.sumed command when Captain Hall died, and the twelve men who remained on board, managed to keep the disabled vessel afloat, but they could do no more until she again became involved in the ice. By that time all hopes of returning to the place where the other men were on the ice was abandoned, and, as the water was fairly open, the efforts of the crew were mainly directed to warping the ship towards the coast. By good fortune she managed to escape from the crushing packs, and, with tireless effort and great care, she was at length brought within sight of land. Then she was caught in the ice along the sh.o.r.e and so severely nipped that her ruin was complete. She, however, did not sink, and her crew were able to reach the land.

Selecting a site for an encampment, they removed thither enough timber from the broken-up vessel to construct a house, to which they also removed enough stores to last them. When these necessaries were secured, they brought more timber ash.o.r.e, and, during the long winter night, they employed themselves in constructing a couple of boats. It was a laborious task, and but slow progress was made until daylight returned.

Then they were able to carry on the work faster; but it was the middle of May before they had them finished and seaworthy.

As soon as the ice began to break up, they launched the boats, which were fully provisioned from the wreck, and on June 3 they sailed away to the South. Three weeks later they sighted a whaler, the _Ravenscraig_, who took them aboard, and within a few months of their comrades, whom they thought had all perished, landing in America from the _Tigress_, the boat party also landed, having saved, in addition to themselves, all the records of the surveys and observations made by the expedition.

These were of great geographical value, making known much of the neighbourhood of the straits between Greenland and Grant's Land. The expedition, although attaining to a high lat.i.tude, did not succeed in reaching the Pole, but their adventures made a fascinating chapter in the history of Polar research.

CHAPTER V

THE _ALERT_ AND _DISCOVERY_

Sir George Nares appointed to the _Alert_ and _Discovery_--Overtaking a Season--Red Snow--The Greenland Mosquito--Peculiarities of Eskimo Dogs--And Dog Whips--Dangers of Kayaks--Advantages of Steam for Polar Regions--An Unpleasant Experience--A Huge Walrus--Arctic Scenery--A Big "Bag"--The Ships part Company--The _Alert_ reaches the Polar Sea--Winter Quarters--The North Pole attempted--Adventures and Sufferings of the Party--Lieutenant Parr's Heroism--Deliverance--The Greenland Attempt--Scurvy and Snow--Repulse Bay--In Pitiable Plight--Lieutenant Rawson to the Rescue.

"Her Majesty's Government, having determined that an expedition of Arctic exploration and discovery should be undertaken, My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have been pleased to select you for the command of the said expedition, the scope and primary object of which should be to attain the highest northern lat.i.tude and, if possible, to reach the North Pole."

Such was the opening sentence of the official instructions sent to Sir George Nares to take command of the _Alert_ and _Discovery_, two steam vessels, which const.i.tuted the first expedition the British Government had sent to the Arctic regions since the search parties for Sir John Franklin. It was confidently expected that the introduction of the screw steamer into Arctic navigation would result in startling achievements, and those expectations were fully justified.

The two ships, with H.M.S. _Valorous_ in consort with provisions, &c., on board, left Portsmouth on May 29, 1875. They were home again by November 2, 1876, and during the intervening eighteen months they had reached the most northerly point attained by man up to that period, and only since exceeded, on the sea, by the _Fram_.

No greater contrast can be given of the enormous strides which had been made in navigation during the thirty years which had elapsed since Franklin sailed away on his last and fatal voyage, than the fact that whereas after six weeks' journeying Franklin had barely reached the region of drift ice, in six weeks from the date of leaving Portsmouth the _Alert_ and _Discovery_ were almost in the region of perpetual ice.

And all owing to the application of steam to ocean travelling.

The route laid down for the expedition was along the western coast of Greenland and as far through Robeson Channel, which divides Grinnel Land from Greenland, as it was possible to get. Dis...o...b..y, half-way up the Greenland coast, was the spot where the _Alert_ and _Discovery_ were to part company with the _Valorous_. They entered the Bay on July 4, having had, on the voyage to the North, the peculiar experience of chasing and overtaking a season. When they left Portsmouth at the end of May, summer was well in; but when they arrived at Dis...o...b..y they found that the mild weather which forms the spring had not yet set in sufficiently to melt all the winter's snows. So that they had travelled quicker than the summer, having started after it had begun in England, and arrived in Greenland before it was due.

The early spring flowers were just commencing to bloom on the slopes around Disko, wherever the snow had melted, while higher up on the hills, where the winter's snow still lay, the explorers had an opportunity of looking upon that curious phenomenon, red snow. A minute animalcule (_Protococcus nivalis_) generates in the frozen covering of the earth, and increases so rapidly and in such vast numbers that it gives to its cold white habitat the hue of its own microscopic body.

Another minute creature also breeds in enormous numbers in these bleak regions, the mosquito, which one usually a.s.sociates with dense tropical jungles and fever-breeding swamps. All along the Greenland coast, wherever there is a pool of fresh water which thaws from the ice-grip, the larvae of the mosquito appear in swarms in the spring, and, very shortly after, the full-fledged insect emerges in the utmost vigour of irritating stinging life. As the time is short between the period when the ice melts and when the water freezes again, the Greenland mosquito has to be active to work out his life mission before he is frozen off, and the skin of all visitors to his locality gives ample evidence how well he utilises his opportunities.

In addition to taking on board the surplus stores from the _Valorous_, the two Arctic ships also took on board teams of dogs for sledging purposes. Fifty-five in all were shipped, their quarters being situated on the main deck, where they were necessarily cramped for room, and, what was worse from their point of view, were unable to get at one another's throats owing to their being chained to bolts. Consequently they kept up a constant chorus of snarls and yaps, varied now and again with a howl as one or another received a remonstrating kick from a sailor.

This interminable uproar was explained by the Eskimo dog driver, who was also taken on board, as being due to the fact that most of the dogs were strangers to one another, and no one was as yet the properly const.i.tuted king.

When Captain McClintock purchased a team of dogs from the Eskimo of King William's Land, he had a good deal to learn about their peculiarities; but the people on the _Alert_ and the _Discovery_, having a great many more dogs than he was able to obtain, had also a great deal more to learn about them. Sir George Nares, in his account of the expedition, gives some particulars which were furnished by his Eskimo dog driver, and these show that the sledge dog is quite as wise as one might expect from Captain McClintock's experiences.

In every team of dogs, one is the king. He holds that position by prowess only, and has to fight and thrash every other dog in the team before he can a.s.sume the leadership. When he has once a.s.sumed it, he has to keep it by the same means; for revolutions may at any moment occur, through some younger dog aspiring to the ruling position. But while a dog has the position of authority, he exercises his rights with decision, and the remainder of the team cl.u.s.ter round him and support him in emergencies, or lie at his feet in times of leisure. The only one who is allowed to snarl at him without at once being bitten is the queen. She is among her s.e.x what the king is among his; for though she depends more upon him for her prominent position than to her own fighting qualities, she maintains it, when once obtained, by a free use of her jaws upon encroachers.

Consequently, when a number of teams were brought together on the decks of the vessels, all strangers to one another, there was a tremendous amount of fighting in prospect before peace could be granted. Firstly, the kings of the various teams were anxious to tussle for the supremacy; and with the prospect of some of them getting badly mauled, there were several inferiors in each team ready to do battle with their injured monarch, and, when he was disposed of, with one another, for the leadership. But their new masters, instead of letting them all loose to settle their various degrees of authority in their own hereditary fashion, tied them up where they could see and hear one another without exchanging a bite. The kings, naturally warlike and ferocious, could only snap at their inferiors as they bayed in their rage, and the inferiors could only bay in their pain, and so between them the ship's company were kept awake by night and annoyed by day.

When at length opportunity occurred for liberating the dogs and giving them some exercise over the ice, great care had to be taken so as to prevent a wholesale melee. Each team, as they were freed from their deck chains, were led on to the ice and made fast to a sledge, two men being in charge of each sledge for the purpose of learning how to drive. And a highly exciting time they had of it, for not only did every dog want to start in its own direction as soon as they were harnessed, but every team wanted to attack every other team directly they appeared.

Nor were the troubles of the drivers limited to the dogs. The whip which is used for sledge teams consists of a very short handle and a very long lash. In the hands of an expert it is a most effective weapon, being capable of producing a resounding crack or a stinging blow wherever the wielder desires. But in the hands of a novice it is, like the Australian stock-whip, p.r.o.ne to do everything that the wielder does not wish. The amateur driver of a team, growing impatient as his dogs set off at full speed in various directions, and, besides tangling the harness, upset the sledge and themselves and very nearly himself as well, lashed out viciously at the worst offender; but the lash, instead of bringing the creature to his senses, curled back and hit the striker across the face, or twined round the legs of his companion, with disastrous results.

Meanwhile the Eskimo driver was going from one group to another, trying to explain the mysteries of the art, much to the amus.e.m.e.nt of the onlookers and the indignation of the inexperienced amateurs.

During the wait at Disko, another form of Arctic travelling was practised by the officers of the expedition. This was the use of the Eskimo kayak.

The kayak is a long narrow canoe, entirely covered in with a waterproof covering. The voyager sits in the middle in a small round hole, the covering lapping over the edges and being fastened round the waist. The kayak is thus made as buoyant as a life-belt, whether floating on an even keel or upside down. By reason of their build, they are peculiarly "cranky" craft, turning over at the least provocation, and so require extremely careful handling, unless one is an adept at swimming and diving. The experience of one of the officers made this clear. He had securely strapped himself in, when, by a false stroke of the paddle, he overturned the kayak. He could not get it back again and was unable to loosen the cover; there was only one way of escape, and that possible alone to a man familiar with being under water. Loosening his clothes, he wriggled out of them and came to the surface just in time to avoid drowning.

Having taken on board all the stores that the _Valorous_ carried, as well as a full supply of coal, the _Alert_ and the _Discovery_ started in company for the North. The advantages of steam navigation were made even more apparent as they proceeded, for the ships were able to steam through ice-enc.u.mbered water which would have been quite impa.s.sable for sailing vessels. Depending so much upon the wind, a sailing vessel is only able to make headway amongst heavy drifting floes by means of long hawsers, run out and made fast to a ma.s.s of ice and then slowly hauled in at the capstan. Steamers, on the other hand, experience no difficulty in forcing their way past and between the lesser floes, and Sir George Nares, who had had a great deal of experience of sailing vessels in the ice regions, was frequently astounded at the ease with which the two steamers rammed their way, clearing from out of their course lumps of ice which would have been difficult obstacles to a sailing ship.