The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras Part 80

The volcano seemed to have but a single crater, whence arose a column of fire, lighted by transverse rays; one would have said that part of the magnificence of the phenomenon was due to electricity. Above the flames floated an immense cloud of smoke, red below, black above. It rose with great majesty, and unrolled into huge layers.

The sky at a considerable height had an ashy hue; the darkness, which was so marked during the tempest, and of which the doctor could give no satisfactory explanation, evidently came from the ashes, which completely hid the sun. He remembered a similar fact that took place in 1812, at the Barbadoes, which at noon was plunged into total darkness by the ma.s.s of cinders thrown from the crater of Isle St.

Vincent.

This enormous volcano, jutting up in mid-ocean, was about six thousand feet high, very nearly the alt.i.tude of Hecla. A line from the summit to the base would form with the horizon an angle of about eleven degrees. It seemed to rise from the bosom of the waves as the launch approached it. There was no trace of vegetation. There was no sh.o.r.e; it ran down steep to the sea.

"Shall we be able to land?" said the doctor.

"The wind is carrying us there," answered Altamont.

"But I can't see any beach on which we could set foot."

"So it seems from here," answered Johnson; "but we shall find some place for our boat; that is all we need."

"Let us go on, then!" answered Clawbonny, sadly.

The doctor had no eyes for the strange continent which was rising before him. The land of the Pole was there, but not the man who had discovered it. Five hundred feet from the rocks the sea was boiling under the action of subterraneous fires. The island was from eight to ten miles in circ.u.mference, no more; and, according to their calculation, it was very near the Pole, if indeed the axis of the world did not pa.s.s exactly through it. As they drew near they noticed a little fiord large enough to shelter their boat; they sailed towards it, filled with the fear of finding the captain's body cast ash.o.r.e by the tempest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "They noticed a little fiord."]

Still, it seemed unlikely that any corpse should rest there; there was no beach, and the sea beat against the steep rocks; thick ashes, on which no human foot had ever stepped, covered the ground beyond the reach of the waves. At last the launch slipped between the breakers, and there she was perfectly sheltered against the surf. Then Duke's lamentable howling redoubled; the poor animal called for the captain with his sad wails among the rocks. His barking was vain; and the doctor caressed him, without being able to calm him, when the faithful dog, as if he wanted to replace his master, made a prodigious leap, and was the first to get ash.o.r.e amid the dust and ashes which flew about him.

"Duke! Duke!" said the doctor.

Duke did not hear him, but disappeared. The men then went ash.o.r.e, and made the launch fast. Altamont was preparing to climb up a large pile of rocks, when Duke's distant barking was heard; it expressed pain, not wrath.

"Listen!" said the doctor.

"Has he got on the track of some animal?" asked the boatswain.

"No," answered the doctor, quivering with emotion; "he's mourning, crying! Hatteras's body is there!"

At these words the four men started after Duke, in the midst of blinding cinders; they reached the end of the fiord, a little place ten feet broad, where the waves were gently breaking. There Duke was barking near a body wrapped up in the English flag.

"Hatteras, Hatteras!" cried the doctor, rushing to the body of his friend.

But at once he uttered an explanation which it is impossible to render. This bleeding and apparently lifeless body had just given signs of life.

"Alive, alive!" he cried.

"Yes," said a feeble voice, "living on the land of the Pole, where the tempest cast me up! Living on Queen Island!"

"Hurrah for England!" cried the five together.

"And for America!" added the doctor, holding out one hand to Hatteras and the other to Altamont. Duke, too, hurrahed in his own way, which was as good as any other.

At first these kind-hearted men were wholly given up to the pleasure of seeing their captain again; they felt the tears welling up into their eyes. The doctor examined Hatteras's condition. He was not seriously injured. The wind had carried him to the sh.o.r.e, where it was hard to land; the bold sailor, often beaten back, at last succeeded in clambering upon a rock above the reach of the waves. Then he lost consciousness, after wrapping himself up in his flag, and he only came to himself under Duke's caresses and barking. After receiving a few attentions, Hatteras was able to rise, and, leaning on the doctor's arm, to go to the launch.

"The Pole, the North Pole!" he repeated as he walked along.

"You are happy!" the doctor said to him.

"Yes, happy! And you, my friend, don't you feel happy at being here?

This land is the land of the Pole! This sea we have crossed is the sea of the Pole! This air we breathe is the air of the Pole! O, the North Pole, the North Pole!"

As he spoke, Hatteras was the victim of a violent excitement, a sort of fever, and the doctor in vain tried to calm him. His eyes were strangely bright, and his thoughts were boiling within him. Clawbonny ascribed this condition to the terrible perils he had gone through.

Hatteras evidently needed rest, and they set about seeking a place to camp. Altamont soon found a grotto in the rocks, which had fallen in such a way as to form a cavern. Johnson and Bell brought provisions there, and let loose the dogs. Towards eleven o'clock everything was prepared for a meal; the canvas of the tent served as a cloth; the breakfast, consisting of pemmican, salt meat, tea and coffee, was set and soon devoured. But first, Hatteras demanded that an observation should be made; he wanted to know its position exactly. The doctor and Altamont then took their instruments, and after taking an observation they found the precise position of the grotto to be lat.i.tude 89 59'

15". The longitude at this height was of no importance, for all the meridians run together within a few hundred feet higher. So in reality the island was situated at the North Pole, and the ninetieth degree of lat.i.tude was only forty-five seconds from there, exactly three quarters of a mile, that is to say, towards the top of the volcano.

When Hatteras knew this result, he asked that it should be stated in two doc.u.ments, one to be placed in a cairn on the sh.o.r.e. So at once the doctor took his pen and wrote the following doc.u.ment, one copy of which is now in the archives of the Royal Geographical Society in London:--

"July 11, 1861, in north lat.i.tude 89 59' 15", 'Queen Island' was discovered at the North Pole by Captain Hatteras, commanding the brig _Forward_ of Liverpool, who has set his name hereto, with his companions. Whoever shall find this doc.u.ment is entreated to forward it to the Admiralty.

(Signed) JOHN HATTERAS, Captain of the _Forward_.

DR. CLAWBONNY.

ALTAMONT, Captain of the _Porpoise_.

JOHNSON, Boatswain.

BELL, Carpenter."

"And now, my friends, to table!" said the doctor, gayly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Altamont soon found a grotto in the rocks."]

CHAPTER XXIV.

POLAR COSMOGRAPHY.

Of course, to eat at table, they were obliged to sit on the ground.

"But," said Clawbonny, "who wouldn't give all the tables and dining-rooms in the world, to dine in north lat.i.tude 89 59' 15"?"

The thoughts of each one were about their situation. They had no other idea than the North Pole. The dangers they had undergone to reach it, those to overcome before returning, were forgotten in their unprecedented success. What neither Europeans, Americans, nor Asiatics had been able to do, they had accomplished. Hence they were all ready to listen to the doctor when he told them all that his inexhaustible memory could recall about their position. It was with real enthusiasm that he first proposed their captain's health.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "They were all ready to listen to the doctor."]

"To John Hatteras!" he said.

"To John Hatteras!" repeated the others.

"To the North Pole!" answered the captain, with a warmth that was unusual in this man who was usually so self-restrained, but who now was in a state of great nervous excitement. They touched gla.s.ses, and the toasts were followed by earnest hand-shakings.

"It is," said the doctor, "the most important geographical fact of our day! Who would have thought that this discovery would precede that of the centre of Africa or Australia? Really, Hatteras, you are greater than Livingstone, Burton, and Barth! All honor to you!"

"You are right, Doctor," said Altamont; "it would seem, from the difficulty of the undertaking, that the Pole would be the last place discovered. Whenever the government was absolutely determined to know the middle of Africa, it would have succeeded at the cost of so many men and so much money; but here nothing is less certain than success, and there might be obstacles really insuperable."