Under the Sea to the North Pole

by Pierre Mael

  To assure himself of safety, Lacrosse began by taking soundings, and found twenty-five fathoms down a bottom of syenite and schistose rocks. It was evident that there was a gentle slope up to the land.

  When the travellers landed they took with them certain numbered pieces of wood for the rapid construction of a hut in which they could take shelter. Here, again, frequent drill in piecing together and taking apart the beams and scantling, walls and partitions, of the wooden house, resulted in a truly wonderful economy of time. The exceptional mildness of the temperature— reaching nine degrees centigrade between noon and three in the afternoon, and dropping only to five between midnight and three in the morning—favoured the work. In six hours, Fort Esperance, such was it named, was fit to receive the twelve persons who came ashore, that is to say, De Keralio, his daughter Isabelle, his nephew Hubert, the good Tina Le Floc’h, Isabelle’s nurse and servant, Dr. Servan, the naturalist Schnecker, and six Breton sailors, Guerbraz, Helouin, Kermaidic, Carions, Le Maout and Riez. It was to these twelve that the rest of the crew left the task of completing the two wings necessary for the ultimate reception of the thirty-three officers and men remaining on board the ship, and who would return from their run to Cape Farewell to shut themselves up with their companions for the long winter night.

  The dog Salvador followed Isabelle ashore. He could not live away from his young and valorous mistress. On the 1st of July in the morning, Captain Lacrosse, after a farewell banquet given on board the Polar Star, shook hands with those who had landed on the Green Land of the north, and gave the signal of departure, promising to return before the month of August.

  There was a moment of indescribable sadness when the steamer began to move under the first impulse of her screws. Whatever might be the ardour of the intrepid explorers, they were unable to face this first separation without apprehension. Those who remained were to have their first experience of sojourning on a desolate land; those who went were to find a land almost as desolate, and enter Into communication with a most rudimentary people.

  Rut they were sure to come back again. And so the oppression at this preliminary separation was soon overcome and those who were left behind set to work to make the most of the time that remained before the coming of winter.

  The first thing was to get the house into order. The house was quite a masterpiece of practical and hygienic arrangement. It measured as it stood, without the wings that were to flank it, forty feet along the chord of the semicircle in which it was built. The diameter of its wino-s would add six feet more at each extremity. It would thus be in a circular form, the second half overlapping the first, with an interior courtyard twenty feet across covered with a movable roof.

  This curious edifice, which was not unlike a panorama, contained a number of rooms, or, more correctly speaking, compartments. One of these rooms, the best furnished, was reserved for Isabelle and her nurse. Besides the two dining-rooms of unequal size, one for the officers, the other for the crew, the house contained the kitchen, three bath-rooms, a physical and chemical laboratory, an astronomical and meteorological laboratory, an infirmary, a dispensary, and altogether ten public rooms and eight private apartments.

  It had been designed by De Keralio, and the plans had taken a year to prepare and improve with the help of Doctor Servan.

  It was consequently with very natural pride that De Keralio did the honours to his companions who had now become his guests in this provisional habitation that in more favoured regions might have been a permanent one. And it was with considerable satisfaction that he explained its many advantages.

  “Consider that our house is built of sections carefully numbered, and therefore as easily taken to pieces and carried away as they have been put together here. We have a double wall of planks, and the inner wall is covered with the waterproof sheeting which keeps in the warm air. The walls are ten inches apart and form an air chamber. Their inner surfaces are covered with paper, and for greater security we are going to cover the partitions with woollen curtains.”

  And omitting no detail, he showed his wondering visitors the columns of copper and steel sustaining the light wooden framework and the gentle give and take of the timbers so as to allow for the most violent winds by the play of the angles at the bolts; the storeroom towering over all, the roof with the skylights to make the most of the light of day, and at the same time minimize the inevitable currents of air from doors and windows, the felted floor supported by the beams of iron covered with wood. A circular corridor, or rather a gallery, put all the rooms in communication and allowed of passing from one to the other without going outside.

  As they were going through the house which had been built and furnished in less than forty-eight hours, the chemist Schnecker, who had been examining everything with the greatest attention, suddenly exclaimed in surprise,—

  “Ah, my dear sir, there is something which might have been thought of.”

  “What is that?” asked De Keralio.

  “How about the fire-places? They are not only not designed to give enough heat, but where are you going to get the gas for them?”

  Before De Keralio could reply, Hubert struck in.

  “Sir,” said he with a laugh, “please to remember that if we wish to produce gas in the ordinary sense of the word, that is to say, bicarburetted hydrogen, the thing would not be impossible, for there ought not to be any want of coal seams in the neighbourhood. Nares and Greely found them ready to hand at Port Discovery on the coast of Grinnell Land. But you may say it would be easier for us to burn the coal itself, and you will see that this reply has been foreseen, and that the fire-places are designed to serve more purposes than one.”

  And so saying, Hubert took hold of a sort of handle at the side of one of the fire-places, and turned the receptacle completely over; the sheet of shining copper at the bottom disappeared and gave place to a regular grate for coke or coals.

  Schnecker opened his big eyes.

  “That is a good fire-place, certainly; but all the same, I am surprised that the gas-burning arrangement is there, if there is to be no use for it.”

  ”I did not say that,” said Hubert.

  “Then I do not understand. Where are your pipes and your gasometers, your condensers and your retorts? Where are you going to get the heat necessary for the distillation of the carburet?”

  “Bah!” replied the young man, “we will find it. And allow me to be surprised in my turn that a chemist like you should require to use such cumbrous apparatus, which would be quite useless for travellers as we are.”

  “Useless!” exclaimed the Alsacian. “Would you have me believe that you can get heat without employing the usual methods of modern industry?”

  D’Ermont put his hand on his questioner’s arm.

  “I do not try to make you believe it, but to show it you quite simply. There is gas and gas. I have only to get a source of heat ten times, twenty times, a hundred times superior to those of modern industry to realize the miracle you would deny.”

  The chemist shook his head.

  “ I do not deny it—I doubt it. That is another thing.”

  And as he said it, he frowned, and gave the lieutenant an evil look from the corner of his eye.

  Isabelle noticed this look, but made no sign of the impression it had on her, contenting herself with keeping a more careful watch on this suspicious companion. At the same time, she remembered that on the Polar Star, Hubert had knitted his brows at Schnecker’s name, and in some way communicated his dislike of the chemist to the faithful Salvator.

  “Scientific rivalry,” she said, “that is all it is between them.”

  And as Isabelle was the most trusting, the most generous of girls she did not allow her thoughts to dwell longer on the second incident than she had on the first.

  They were soon to recognize the advantages of the house scientifically constructed by De Keralio and Doctor c pi-van. Owing to the absence of trees, the concluding period of the polar summer was, in these l
atitudes, remarkably warm. The temperature reached sixteen degrees centigrade, and proved almost insupportable to the travellers, who feared it might rise higher. These days of inaction were devoted to hunting and fishing, and in both Isabelle took her share. It was the only recreation possible, and it was desirable to add to the stock of provisions. The duration of their stay in these desolate lands could not be foreseen, and it was as well to lay in a large quantity of fresh victuals. There was abundance of game, chiefly feathered .game. Guerbraz, the best shot of the party, killed, during one morning, two dozen eider ducks. They knocked over in scores, or took in the nets, ptarmigan or polar partridges, black-throated divers, dovekies, a kind of pigeon or rather gull, with oily but succulent flesh.

  During the morning of the fifth day after they had taken up their quarters at Fort Esperance, Guerbraz ran into the station out of breath, and answered in gasps to Hubert’s eager questions,—

  “Cattle! Two miles to the north.” Isabelle heard him.

  “Cattle!” she exclaimed. “Musk oxen! I am after them!”

  For some days now, the girl had been in her shootinp dress. It became her wonderfully, and one could not wish more elegance and grace in a woman in a semi-masculine costume. She wore warm woollen knickerbockers gathered at the knees into leather gaiters, over which fell a short petticoat like that worn by vivandieres. A vest with a broad belt clothed her from waist to neck, and on her charming head was a cap of sable, fitted with ear flaps and a neck piece. A carbine, a masterpiece of precision as of artistic ornamentation, hung from her right shoulder, while from her left hung her bag and cartridge-belt.

  Thus equipped, Isabelle hurried out after Hubert and Guerbraz.

  As they came out of the house, they met the chemist, Schnecker.

  “Where are you running to, like that?” asked the Alsacian.

  Hubert replied as laconically as Guerbraz,—

  “ Cattle! If you want to come, look sharp.”

  The scientist wanted no repetition of the advice. He also rushed into the house to get his gun.

  But already Hubert, Isabelle, and Guerbraz were scaling the lower hills, and, hiding behind the heaps of rocks, were approaching the musk oxen as quickly as possible. They were not very numerous, and consisted of a bull, two cows, and two calves. The five beasts were placidly pasturing on the scanty herbage, and showed no alarm at the threatened attack on them.

  Suddenly the two hunters and their companion arrived within range and three reports echoed simultaneously. Two of the cows and one of the calves were seen to fall; the bull was also shot, but rose and made off, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

  This did not suit Guerbraz, who had hit him in the haunch. Without thinking of the danger, the Breton rushed at full speed after the ox and contrived to cut off his retreat.

  Then the scene changed suddenly, and became extremely dramatic.

  Guerbraz, an old fisherman of Iceland and Newfoundland and an old Arctic voyager, was endowed with prodigious strength. Already he had taken from his belt a short-handled axe with which he intended to strike the animal on the neck a little lower than the formidable cap made by the large horns, when the bull, renouncing flight, made straight for his assailant, and returned towards him at his fastest.

  Guerbraz, carried away by his own eagerness, and, unable to stop on the sloping ground, could not get out of the way. The furious beast met him as he came down the slope. Luckily the shock was not a direct one, but was only a touch on the shoulder, which sent him rolling on the rocky ground.

  But the bull, after passing the sailor some thirty yards, pulled up and returned to stamp on him, or to butt him with his horns. Guerbraz, stunned by his fall, could not get out of the way.

  Suddenly there was another report and the ovibos fell dead at the sailor’s feet.

  Isabelle ran up, her gun smoking; Guerbraz seized her hand and kissed it piously.

  “You have saved my life, mademoiselle,” he exclaimed. “I must have my revenge. A life for a life.”

  Isabelle could hardly speak for want of breath. And besides, the incident was followed by another as a pendant.

  There was a fifth report, and Hubert, who was just reaching his companions, felt the wind of a bullet at less than a foot from his face. Turning quickly, he discovered Schnecker about sixty yards behind. He it was who had just fired.

  “You are a bad ,shot, sir!” exclaimed the lieutenant, in a tone in which anger and contemptuous irony were only too apparent.

  CHAPTER III

  THE ANTE-CHAMBER OF THE POLE.

  THE three chief witnesses of the drama were silent as to this last episode in a singularly exciting adventure. But Isabelle, who was much impressed by it, saw Hubert and Guerbraz exchange looks.

  The two men had known each other for many years. Guerbraz, although older than Hubert, had been at sea under him when he was a midshipman. It was evident that their companion’s clumsiness appeared suspicious. Schnecker had fired when there was no reason for it. The Breton’s danger had been ended by Isabelle’s carbine, and the two surviving beasts had time to disappear behind a low hill..

  The naturalist, however, advanced, cap in hand, bowing very low, and with his most obsequious smile.

  He sought to excuse himself.

  “It seems I might have been the cause of a misfortune! Pardon me, pray. I am very short-sighted. I will not use a gun again.”

  “Then you will do well, sir!” said the young man, who was not of a very patient nature. And turning his back on the chemist, he quickened his pace so as to return to the station in Isabelle’s company.

  Attracted by the reports of the guns, De Keralio was already on the way towards them, as were also Doctor Servan and the five other sailors.

  To these was given the task of skinning and cutting up the beasts, so as to leave no time for the flesh to contract the odour of musk which would have made them uneatable. This task was promptly accomplished, and four hundred kilos of fresh meat were taken into store.

  On their return to Fort Esperance, Hubert immediately went to his future father-in-law, with the doctor and Guerbraz, in order that they might talk over together the serious occurrence which had just taken place.

  The conference was an exciting one. De Keralio, who was very good-natured, could not believe in an act of malevolence. It appeared to him so unlikely.

  “I know,” he said, “that our companion is remarkably shortsighted.”

  “ Bah!” said Hubert, “when a man is as short-sighted that he does not venture to shoot; and I really do not understand how you can send a bullet within a foot of a man’s face, and take the man for an ox.”

  And he added, with that animation which always distinguished him,—

  “We shall have to keep our eyes open, or the worthy Schnecker will be taking us all for beasts.”

  His companions laughed. But the subject was too serious to be lost sight of so easily. De Keralio could not help exclaiming,—

  “But what motive could he have for committing such a crime? We have never done him any harm. None of us has shown the slightest suspicion of him.”

  “Pardon!” said Hubert, “there is one who has borne witness against him from the very first day. That is our brave Salvator.”

  “Certainly,” said the doctor, seriously, “there is some weight in that argument. I consider the instinct of animals, and particularly

  of dogs, infallible.”

  He stopped, and addressing De Keralio, he said,—

  “Whence came this bad shot of a chemist?”

  ”He came to me from Paris,” said De Keralio. “He came to me with the highest recommendations from well-known men, members of the institute or learned societies in the departments.”

  “In that case,” said the thoughtful doctor, “if there was any criminal intention it can only be explained by a violent jealousy, one of those strangely low and vile sentiments which can be found in the human soul. A large measure of intelligence is no guarantee of a good heart
or a fine character.”

  “We must watch him all the same,” said De Keralio.

  “I will take care of that,” said Guerbraz, quietly.

  And thereupon they separated with an appointment for the study of the coasts and an examination of the maps.

  To tell the truth these were most incomplete, and the expedition in its present quarters was really in face of the unknown. What they knew they only knew by supposition. The coast of Greenland is said to be very rugged above the 78th degree. The soundings taken at Spitzbergen have shown considerable depths, and it is evident that there is no land between the seventh degree of east longitude and the twentieth of west longitude.

  The hypothesis of a vast sea, and therefore the more liable to the influence of warm currents and high tides, is a plausible one. From the top of the sea cliffs the explorers could see that the ocean was entirely free, and that their eyes lighted on no unknown land or any of those irregularities which in Kennedy Channel and Robeson Channel transform the western fiords into beds of glaciers destined to form icebergs. There was, therefore, every reason to suppose that a sea voyage would be possible in the coming spring.

  The summer passed rapidly away, and the first signs of winter showed themselves more unmistakably. In the mornings and evenings there was formed on the surface of the water that sheet of thin friable ice which the Canadians call frazi. Besides, the night, the terrible polar night was approaching, and the midnight sun was sinking on the southern horizon. Towards the 15th of August, the glacial north wind had thickened the edging of the land to about three inches, and the never melting ledge of the shore had taken the characteristic blue tint of fresh stratifications.