The Field of Ice
Page 20
MARCH TO THE NORTH
Next day at early dawn, Hatteras gave the signal for departure. Thewell-fed and well-rested dogs were harnessed to the sledge. They hadbeen having a good time of it all the winter, and might be expectedto do good service during the summer.
It was six in the morning when the expedition started. Afterfollowing the windings of the bay and going past Cape Washington,they struck into the direct route for the north, and by seveno'clock had lost sight of the lighthouse and Fort Providence.
During the first two days they made twenty miles in twelve hours,devoting the remainder of the time to rest and meals. The tent wasquite sufficient protection during sleep.
The temperature began to rise. In many places the snow meltedentirely away, and great patches of water appeared; here and therecomplete ponds, which a little stretch of imagination might easilyconvert into lakes. The travellers were often up to their knees, butthey only laughed over it; and, indeed, the Doctor was rather gladof such unexpected baths.
"But for all that," he said, "the water has no business to wetus here. It is an element which has no right to this country, exceptin a solid or vaporous state. Ice or vapour is all very well, butwater--never!"
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Hunting was not forgotten during the march, for fresh meat was anecessity. Altamont and Bell kept their guns loaded, and shotptarmigans, guillemots, geese, and a few young hares; but, bydegrees, birds and animals had been changing from trustfulness tofear, and had become so shy and difficult to approach, that veryoften, but for Duk, the hunters would have wasted their powder.
Hatteras advised them not to go more than a mile away, as there wasnot a day, nor even an hour, to lose, for three months of fineweather was the utmost they
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could count upon. Besides, the sledge was often coming to difficultplaces, when each man was needed to lend a helping hand.
On the third day they came to a lake, several acres in extent, andstill entirely frozen over. The sun's rays had little access toit, owing to its situation, and the ice was so strong that it musthave dated from some remote winter. It was strong enough to bearboth the travellers and their sledge, and was covered with dry snow.
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From this point the country became gradually lower, from which theDoctor concluded that it did not extend to the Pole, but that mostprobably this New America was an island.
Up to this time the expedition had been attended with no fatigue.The travellers had only suffered from the intense glare of the sunon the snow, which threatened them with snow-blindness. At anothertime of the year they might have avoided this by walking during thenight, but at present there was no night at all. Happily the snowwas beginning to melt, and the brilliancy would diminish as theprocess of dissolution advanced.
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On the 28th of June the thermometer rose to 45 deg., and the rain fellin torrents. Hatteras and his companions, however, marched stoicallyon, and even hailed the downpour with delight, knowing that it wouldhasten the disappearance of the snow.
As they went along, the Doctor often picked up stones, both roundones and flat pebbles, as if worn away by the tide. He thought fromthis they must be near the Polar Basin, and yet far as the eye couldreach was one interminable plain.
There was not a trace of houses, or huts, or cairns visible. It wasevident that the Greenlanders had not pushed their way so far north,and yet the famished tribes would have found their account incoming, for the country abounded in game. Bears were frequentlyseen, and numerous herds of musk-oxen and deer.
Bell killed a fox and Altamont a musk-ox.--P.192]
On the 29th, Bell killed a fox and Altamont a musk-ox. Thesesupplies of fresh food were very acceptable, and even the Doctorsurveyed, with considerable satisfaction, the haunches of meat theymanaged to procure from time to time.
"Don't let us stint ourselves," he used to say on theseoccasions; "food is no unimportant matter in expeditions likeours."
"Especially," said Johnson, "when a meal depends on a luckyshot."
"You're right, Johnson; a man does not think so much aboutdinner when he knows the soup-pot is simmering by thekitchen-fire."
On the 30th, they came to a district which seemed
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to have been upturned by some volcanic convulsion, so covered was itwith cones and sharp lofty peaks.
A strong breeze from the south-east was blowing, which soonincreased to a hurricane, sweeping over the rocks covered with snowand the huge masses, of ice, which took the forms of icebergs andhummocks, though on dry land.
The tempest was followed by damp, warm weather, which caused aregular thaw.
On all sides nothing could be heard but the noise of cracking iceand falling avalanches.
The travellers had to be very careful in avoiding hills, and even inspeaking aloud, for the slightest agitation in the air might havecaused a catastrophe. Indeed, the suddenness is the peculiar featurein Arctic
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avalanches, distinguishing them from those of Switzerland andNorway. Often the dislodgment of a block of ice is instantaneous,and not even a cannon-ball or thunderbolt could be more rapid in itsdescent. The loosening, the fall, and the crash happen almostsimultaneously.
Happily, however, no accident befel any of the party, and three daysafterwards they came to smooth, level ground again.
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But here a new phenomenon met their gaze--a phenomenon which waslong a subject of patient inquiry among the learned of bothhemispheres. They came to a long chain of low hills which seemed toextend for miles, and were all covered on the eastern side withbright red snow.
It is easy to imagine the surprise and half-terrified exclamationsof the little company at the sight of this long red curtain; but theDoctor hastened to reassure them, or rather to instruct them, as tothe nature of this peculiar snow. He told them that this same redsubstance had been found in Switzerland, in the heart of the Alps,and that the colour proceeded solely from the presence of certaincorpuscles, about the nature of which for a long time chemists couldnot agree. They could not decide whether these corpuscles were ofanimal or vegetable origin, but at last it was settled that theybelonged to the family of fungi, being a sort of microscopicchampignon of the species Uredo.
Turning the snow over with his iron-tipped staff, the Doctor foundthat the colouring matter measured nine feet deep. He pointed thisout to his companions, that they might have some idea of theenormous number of these tiny mushrooms in a layer extending so manymiles.
This phenomenon was none the less strange for being explained, forred is a colour seldom seen in nature over any considerable area.The reflection of the sun's rays upon it produced the mostpeculiar effect, lighting up men, and animals, and rocks with afiery glow, as if proceeding from some flame within. When the snowmelted it looked like blood, as the red particles do not decompose.It seemed to the travellers as if rivulets of blood were runningamong their feet.
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The Doctor filled several bottles with this precious substance toexamine at leisure, as he had only had a glimpse of the CrimsonCliffs in Baffin's Bay.
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This Field of Blood, as he called it, took three hours to get over,and then the country resumed its usual aspect.
At Bell's suggestion torches werecontrived.--P.199]
CHAPTER XX.