The Cruise of the Snowbird: A Story of Arctic Adventure
Page 24
The beautiful snowbird, withplumage more white than the lily's petal, with eyes and legs of crimson,and bill of jet; the wild pilot bird, and a hundred curious gulls, andlittle sparrow-like birds that fluttered from berg to berg in thebreeze, as if it were very much against their will they were there atall; and flocks of curious blackbirds with white mottled breasts, thatlaughed in the air as they flew around us, with a sound like the voicesof little children just let loose from school. We saw the lonelynarwhal, the unicorn of the sea, with his one long ivory horn appearingand disappearing in the black waters as he pursued his prey. Seals inthousands popped their heads above the water to stare at us with theirbeautiful eyes; sea cows basked on the snowy bergs; whales played theirgigantic fountains on every side of us; and the great Greenland bear,king of these regions of ice, stalked majestically around on many afloe, waiting a chance to pounce on some unwary seal.
"`Northwards still, and now we sailed into an open sea, where noicebergs were anywhere visible--nothing but water, water, wherever welooked, except on the northern horizon, where was one small snowy cone,no bigger it would seem than a sugar-loaf. Taller and taller andbroader and broader it grew, as we sailed towards it, till it formeditself into a lofty table-land, and we found ourselves under theice-bound cliffs of the Isle of Alba.
"`Imagine if you can a large and mountainous island covered with thesnows of ages, with one gigantic cone, the shaft of an extinct volcano,towering upwards until lost in the heavens; imagine all around an oceanof inky blackness, a sky above of cloudless blue, with a sun like arayless disc of molten silver; imagine neither sight nor sound of life,saving the mournful cry of the wheeling sea-bird, or the sullen plungeof the narwhal and whale; and imagine if you can the feeling of beingall alone in such a place, where foot of mortal man had never beenplanted before.
"`But for all this, little recked the brave crew of the _Danish Queen_,for we found the ivory we had braved every danger to seek.
"`Caves full of it!
"`Mines of it!
"`For days and weeks our boats did nothing but ply between ship andshore, laden to the gunwale with our pearly treasure. We had but roomfor one more ton. It was ready packed on shore, and I was left towatch. Alas and alas! that same night it came on to blow great gunsfrom off the ocean. I could not see our brig for the foam and spraythat dashed over the cliffs. But, ah me! I soon heard a mournful andpiercing shriek, rising high over wail of wind and wash of wave, and Iknew then she had gone down and all on board had perished. Shudderingwith cold and horror, I sheltered myself in the inner recesses of acave, careless even of falling a victim to a bear. I wandered in, and Iwandered on and on, till I could no longer hear the surging of thestorm-lashed waves, and the light behind me was swallowed up inobscurity. And now I could distinctly perceive a glimmering light and arising mist far away ahead, while at the same time the air around mewaxed sensibly warmer; still a spirit of curiosity seemed to impel meforward, until I found myself standing in front of a vast waterfall,which disappeared in the bowels of the earth beneath my feet, whilefloating in the vapoury mist above me were beings the most lovely I hadever imagined, in gauzy garments of pink and green.
"`With their strange eyes bent pityingly on me, those water-spiritsfloated nearer and nearer. Then I felt lifted off my feet and bornegently but swiftly upwards through the luminous haze, upwards and intoday once more; and what a blissful day!
"`In this lovely land, where I dwelt so long, there was no alloy ofsorrow, and the strange, bright beings that inhabited it were as happyand joyous as the birds that sang on every bough, or the flowers thatwooed the wind and the sunshine.
"`Five years passed away like one long and happy dream; then one day myspirit-friends came towards me with downcast looks and tear-bedimmedeyes. They came to tell me that, as with joy they had found me, so insorrow they must now part with me--that no mortal must stay longer intheir land than my allotted time. Then they clad me in skins andconveyed me up the mountain-side, even to the top of the highest cone.Looking down from this height, I could behold all the sea of ice spreadout like a map before me, with sealers at work on the southern floes.
"`"Yonder are your countrymen," said the beautiful spirits; then sadlythey bade me farewell.
"`It must have been days afterwards when I was picked up by the_Clotho's_ men, who had gone to look for fresh-water ice.'
"The old man," continued Magnus Green, "used to sigh as he finished hisstory, and we--for I, gentlemen, was one of his child-listeners--justwhispering adieu, would steal away homewards through the winter's night,seeing as we went spirits in every curling snowdrift, and hearing voicesin every blast."
"And what do you now think," asked McBain, after a pause, "of this oldman's strange story?"
"Of the spirit portion of it," said Magnus, "I cannot give an opinion,but that a sea of open water _does_ lie to the far north, my experienceas sealer and whaler has long since convinced me. The Isle of Alba isknown to many Norwegian narwhal and walrus-hunters, and I know themammoth caves of ivory to be not only probable, but a fact."
"And you think," continued McBain, "you could guide us and pilot us tothese strange regions?"
"Yes, yes?" cried Magnus, producing from his bosom an old and muchstained parchment chart, and tapping it with his skinny hand as hespoke, "it is all here, even if my memory failed me. Yes, yes; I canguide you, if the hearts of your crew do not fail them before thedangers to be encountered."
"I could answer for the hearts of my crew," said McBain, smiling; "theyare hearts of oak, my Magnus! You will know that before you are longwith us. As to the mammoth caves Magnus, if we ever attempt to reachthem, I promise you that you shall be our pilot."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
WAS IT AN OLD MAN'S DREAM?--SUNDAY ON MID-OCEAN--LAND HO!--A STRANGEADVENTURE--LOST IN THE GREAT FOREST.
Captain McBain and our heroes stayed up for hours that night after oldman Magnus left, talking and musing upon the strange story they had justbeen listening to.
"Think you," said Ralph, "there is much in it, or is it merely an oldman's dream?"
"An old man's dream!" said McBain. "No, I do not; old men do not dreamsuch dreams as those, but, like Magnus himself, I put little faith inthe spirit part of the story."
"The question then to be answered," said Allan, "is, where did JanJansen stay during the four or five years of his sojourn in the polarseas?"
"Well," said McBain, "I have thought that over too, and I think itadmits of a feasible enough answer, without having recourse to thespirit theory. There is a mystery altogether about the regions of thePole that has never been revealed."
"In fact," said Rory, "nobody has ever been there to reveal it."
"That is just it," contained McBain; "our knowledge of the country isterribly meagre, and merely what we have gleaned from sealers orwhalers--men, by the way, who are generally too busy, looking after theinterests of their owners, to bother their heads about exploration--orfrom the tales of travellers who have attempted--merely attempted, mindyou--to penetrate as far north as they could."
"True," said Ralph.
"England," continued McBain, "has not all the credit to herself, bravethough her sailors be, of telling us all we know about the Pole and thecountry--lands and seas--around it. Why, I myself have heard tales fromNorwegian walrus-hunters, the most daring fellows that ever sailed theseas, that prove to my facile satisfaction that there is an open oceannear the North Pole, that there are islands in it--the Isle of Alba ifyou like--and that these islands are inhabited. You may tell me it istoo cold for human beings to live there; you may ask me where they camefrom. To your first assertion I would reply that the inhabitants maydepend to a great extent for heat on the volcanic nature of the islandsthemselves, just as they depend in winter for light on the gloriousaurora, or the radiant light of stars and moon. When you ask me wherethey came from, I have but to remind you that Spitsbergen and theislands around it were, before their glacial period, covered withvegetation of the most luxurian
t kind, that mighty trees grew on theirhills and in their dales, and that giants of the lower animal kingdomroamed through the forests, the wilder beasts preying on the flocks andherds that came down at mid-day to quench their thirst in the streamsand in the lakes; Man himself must have lived there too, and if he stillexists in the regions of the Pole, he is but the descendant of a formerrace.
"With some of these tribes Jan Jansen no doubt lived: they were good tohim, perhaps so good that he got lazy and wouldn't work, and so theywere glad to get rid of him."
"And what about the mammoth caves--do you believe in them too?" saidAllan.
"Ah! ha!" cried Ralph, laughing; "our brother Allan has an eye to themain