Wild Adventures round the Pole
Page 37
and look about them, you know," heexplained, "and then we may get some sport, and Silas may bag a seal ortwo."
Our heroes were overjoyed when the working party was called away. Atlast there was a prospect of doing something, and seeing an animal ofsome kind, for not only the bears, but the very birds had deserted them.Sometimes, indeed, a solitary snowbird would come flying around theships. It would hover for awhile in the air, giving vent to many apeevish, mournful chirp, then fly away again.
"No, no, no!" it seemed to say, "there is nothing good to eat downthere--no raw flesh, no blood--and so I'm off again to the distantsealing ground, where the yellow bear prowls, and the snow is red withblood."
A few hours' work with torpedoes, picks, and ice-saws, was enough toform an opening big enough for the purpose required. The broken pieceswere either "landed high and dry," or sunk beneath the pack, and so thework was completed.
"It'll entail a deal of trouble, gentlemen," said Dr McFlail, "to keepthat hole clear with the temperature which we are at present enjoying--or rather enduring."
"There is that in the sea, doctor," said Silas, with a knowing nod,"which will save us the trouble."
He wasn't wrong. Not an hour elapsed ere a few black heads, with greatwondering eyes, appeared above the surface and peered around them, andblinked at the sun, and seemed to enjoy mightily a sniff of the freshair and a blink of the daylight.
"This is nice, now," they said, "and ever so much better than being downthere in the dark--quite an oasis in the desert."
Bang! bang!
Two of them slowly sank to rise no more.
"This won't do," said Allan; "it is only murder to shoot poor seals thatwe cannot land and make some good out off. What is to be done?"
"Be quiet with ye!" said Rory. "Sure yonder is Seth himself, comingstraight from the ship, in his suit of skins, and if he isn't up to somemanoeuvre then my name isn't Roderick, that is all."
Seth _was_ up to something; he had a coil of rope with him, and thenattiest little harpoon that ever was handled.
"Fire away, gentlemen!" he said, lying down on the sunny side of a smallhummock pretty close to the water's edge, "only don't hit the oldtrapper; he'd rather die in his bed if it be all the same to you."
Undeterred by the fate that had befallen their companions, it was notlong before other seals popped up to breathe. Our heroes were ready forthem, and two again were killed, one being missed. Seth was ready forthem, too. He sprang to his feet, and ere the smoke had melted in thethin air, one of the seals was neatly harpooned and dragged to the edge.Here it was gaffed, and lifted or pulled bodily on to the ice by helpof Ralph's powerful arm. The harpoon was released, and before the otherseal had time to sink it was served in precisely the same manner.
The sport was exceedingly novel, and combined, as Rory said, "all thepleasures of shooting and fishing in one glorious whole."
No work on natural history, so far as my reading goes, remarks upon theexceedingly great speed exhibited by the Greenland seal in his flight--it is in reality a flight--through and beneath the water. I have oftenbeen astonished at the rapidity of their movements; so swiftly do theydart along that the eye can barely follow them for the moment or twothey are visible. This power of swimming enables them to pursue theirfinny prey for many miles under an ice-pack; it doubtless also enablesthem to escape the fangs of their natural enemy, the great Greenlandshark (_Scymnus borealis_), and on the present occasion it accounted fortheir appearance at the great breathing-hole made for them by thetorpedoes and ice-saws of the _Arrandoon_. The water under the packwould be everywhere else as black and dark as midnight, but through thisopening the sunshine would stream in straight and powerful rays, and notseals alone, but fishes and monsters of the deep of many kinds, wouldnaturally come towards the light, as the salmon does to the glimmer fromthe torch of the Highland poacher.
The sport obtained at the opening was not of a very exciting characteron the first day, but next morn, to their joy, they found that a bearhad been around, and had left the marks of his broad soles in the snow.Many more seals, too, came up to breathe, and more harpoons had to berequisitioned. Silas was once more in his glory at the prospect ofadding a few more skins, and a few more tons of oil, to the cargo he hadalready shipped.
Towards afternoon the fun grew fast and furious, and when Peter came inperson to announce dinner, he could hardly get his officers to pay anyheed to the summons. Even Cockie down in the saloon heard the noise,and must needs inquire, as he stretched his neck and fastened one beadof an eye on his little black master.
"What's all the to-do about? What's all the to-do about?"
"I don't know," was the reply of Freezing Powders. "I don't know nomore nor you do, Cockie. I tinks dey has gone to blow derselves all topieces again."
Dinner was partaken of in a merrier mood that day than it had been forweeks. Silas was there, of course; in fact, he had become an honorarymember of the _Arrandoon_ mess.
"You see, Captain Grig," McBain had observed, "we must have you as muchwith as now as we can, for we soon go different roads, don't we?"
"Ah! yes," replied Silas, with a bit of a sigh; "you go north; God sendyou safe back; and I go back to my little wife and large family."
"Happy reunion, won't it be?" said Allan.
The eyes of Silas sparkled, but his heart was too full of happy thoughtsto say more than simply,--
"Yes."
"Won't the green ginger fly?" said Rory.
"I say, boys," Ralph put in, "this sort of thing positively gives a mana kind of an appetite."
Rory looked at him with such a mischievous twinkle in his eyes thatRalph longed to pinch him.
"Just as if ever you lost yours," said Rory.
At this moment the sound of a rifle was heard, apparently close to theship.
"It's the trapper," cried Rory; "it's friend Seth. Sure enough I knowthe charming music of his long gun. Now, Ray, I'll wager my fiddle hehas bagged a bear."
Rory was right for once, and here is how it fell out. Several bears hadthat day scented the battle from afar, or were attracted by the noise ofthe malleys and gulls that were now wheeling around the ships inthousands. They stood aloof while shooting was going on, sitting ontheir haunches licking their chops, greedy, hungry, expectant; but assoon as the sportsmen went off to dine,--
"Now is our time," said one, "to get a bit of fresh meat."
"Come on, then," cried another; "there are a hundred seals lying on theice. Hurrah?"
So down they came to the feast. They had not had such a treat for awhole day, and that is a long time for a bear to fast, and they madegood use of their time, you may be sure, and so earnest were they, thatthey did not perceive a long, hairy creature that came creepingstealthily towards them. When at last one of them did observe thisstrange animal "with the tail of his eye," he said to himself,--
"Oh! it is only a tiny bit of a young seal, hunting for a lost mother,perhaps. Well, I'll have it presently by way of dessert."
And almost immediately after, the sound that had startled our friends at_their_ dessert rang out in the clear, frosty air, and Bruin's headdropped never more to rise. His brother bears suddenly discovered theyhad eaten enough; anyhow, they remembered that it was always best torise up from the table feeling that you could eat a little more, so theyshambled away across the pack as fast as four legs could carry them.
"Bravo, Seth, old boy," cried Rory and Allan, coming on the scene.
Ralph only waited to finish some pastry, then he too joined them.
"Why," said the latter, "it is the biggest bear we have seen yet."
In true trapper fashion, Seth was already on his knees beside theenormous carcass, engaged with knife and fist and elbow, "working therascal out of his jacket," as he called it, when Rory, who was not farfrom the edge of the water, started, or rather sprang back in horror.
"Oh! Allan, Allan! Ray, Ray! look!" he cried.
Well might he cry "look," for a more terrible or
revolting apparitionnever raises head over the black waters of the Greenland ocean than thezugaena, or hammer-headed shark. The skull is in shape precisely whatthe name indicates, that of a gigantic hammer, with a great eye at eachend, and the mouth beneath. This shark is not unfrequently met with inthe northern seas, and he is just as fierce as he is fearful to behold.
Allan and Ralph both saw the brute, and neither could repress a shudder.It appeared but for a few moments, then dived below again.
Silas and McBain, coming up at the time, were told of the occurrence.
"I know the vile beasts well," said Silas, "and they do say that