long by sixteen feet beam; with a depth of hold in midships, as they now
found, of eight feet; she must therefore have been at the time of her
launch quite a noble specimen of naval architecture. She was of course
built of wood, and was beautifully moulded fore and aft; her stem and
stern-posts were carried to a height of five feet above her rail; and
the former was finished off with a rather roughly hewn but vigorously
modelled horse's head, whilst the latter terminated in an elaborately
carved piece of scroll-work. She was fully decked, with a sort of
monkey-poop aft, about two and a half feet high and twenty feet long,
beneath which was her principal cabin. Her bulwarks and rail were very
solidly constructed; the former being pierced with rowlock holes for
sixteen oars or sweeps of a side, in addition to holes abaft, one on
each side of, and near the stern-post, for the short broad-bladed
steering paddles. Both of these paddles, together with twenty-three
oars and two square sails, shaped somewhat like lugs and still attached
to their yards, were found stowed fore and aft amidships on the vessel's
deck. They were all in an excellent state of preservation, as were also
the lower portions of the masts; indeed it was only that portion of
these spars which had been long exposed to the air which showed signs of
rot, the upper extremities being most rotten, whilst the parts close to
the deck were perfectly sound.
Having fully satisfied their curiosity with regard to the exterior of
this interesting craft, they next essayed to penetrate below by forcing
open the after hatch. On removing the cover a small and almost
perpendicular ladder was revealed, down which Mildmay rapidly made his
way. On reaching the bottom he found himself in a small vestibule or
ante-room, the floor, sides, and ceiling of which were thickly cased
with smooth glassy ice, long icicles of varying thicknesses also
depending from the beams and deck planking overhead. He could trace the
existence of a door in the middle of the bulkhead facing him; but it was
hermetically sealed with the thick coating of ice before mentioned, and
the removal of this occupied over half an hour. Whilst he was thus
engaged the rest of the party at his suggestion returned to the _Flying
Fish_ for the small electric lamps used in their diving operations; and
when they returned he was just about ready to force open the door of the
after cabin. This was accomplished without much difficulty, and a faint
sickly odour at once became apparent, issuing from the interior of the
cabin.
Consumed by curiosity, the party pressed eagerly forward through the
doorway, and a most extraordinary sight at once revealed itself. The
cabin was a tolerably roomy apartment for the size of the vessel, having
for furniture a solid handsomely carved oaken table in the centre,
shaped to suit the narrowing dimensions of the vessel abaft, and side
benches or lockers all round the sides. The walls or inner planking of
the ship were thickly covered with seal, walrus, and white bear skins,
evidently hung there to prevent, as far as possible, the penetration of
the extreme cold through the ship's sides; and upon large nails, driven
through these and into the planks, were hung various trophies of
weapons, such as long two-handed swords, small shields or targets, maces
with heavy iron-spiked heads, short-handled battle-axes, spears,
unstrung bows, and quivers of arrows. But it was not these objects,
interesting as they were, which first riveted the attention of the
intruders; it was upon _the occupants of the cabin_ that their startled
glances fixed themselves. Yes, strange as it may seem, the four
nineteenth-century travellers found themselves face to face with some at
least of the hardy crew who had stood on the deck waving their last
good-bye to wives, children, or sweethearts--who shall say how many
years ago?--when that stout galley swept out of harbour with pennons
flying, oars flashing, and arms glancing, maybe, in the brilliant
sunshine, as she started on the enterprise of wild adventure from which
she was never to return. The inmates were four in number. Three of
them were reclining on the lockers, their heads pillowed upon, and their
bodies thickly covered with skins, whilst the fourth, doubtless the
master spirit of the expedition, sat as in life at the narrow or after
end of the table, his body supported in a massive quaintly carved oaken
chair.
The bodies, the floor, the table, and every article in the cabin were
thickly coated with frost-rime, which glittered with a diamond-like
lustre in the cold keen light of the electric lamps, and the first act
of the visitors was to carefully remove and clear away this frost
coating. To their intense satisfaction this task was accomplished by
gentle brushing without the slightest difficulty, and they were then
able to minutely inspect the bodies of these ancient sea kings. They
were in a state of surprisingly perfect preservation, and indeed had the
appearance of having only recently fallen asleep, the intense cold
having seized upon them with such fierce rapidity that their bodies had
completely congealed before even the primary stages of decay had had
time to manifest themselves. Indeed, judging from appearances, they had
succumbed, in the first instance, to starvation, and, overcome by
weakness, had been frozen to death. They were all of lofty stature and
muscular build, with fair hair and tawny beards and moustaches, the
latter worn extremely long. They were fully clad, all in garments of
the same general character, excepting that those of the seated figure
appeared to be of somewhat finer material than those of his companions.
These garments, the outer ones, that is to say, consisted of a thick
leathern tunic confined at the waist by a broad belt, and leather
drawers reaching from the waist to the ankles, thick leather socks or
stockings, and sandals laced to the feet and legs by leather thongs.
The tunic of the chief was elaborately embroidered on the breast in
silk, a winged black horse being the central and most conspicuous
design. The trophy hanging at the back of the sitter's chair consisted
of a small circular shield, with a formidable axe, double-handed sword,
and mace crossing each other, behind it, the whole being surmounted by a
handsome bronze headpiece, or helmet without a visor, having a large
pair of finely modelled wings starting from the sides and near the
crown. The helmets of the other three occupants were of similar shape,
but without ornament of any kind. Two drinking horns were upon the
table, one being plainly mounted in bronze, and the other elaborately
mounted in silver and supported upon three legs modelled after those of
the horse, the fourth leg being lifted in the attitude of pawing the
ground.
But perhaps the most interesting object of all was a sheet of parchment
which lay stretched upon the table before the sitter, and which he had
evidently been studying when the drowsiness of death seized him, and,
sinking back in his chair, he had closed his eyes for ever. This
parchment was, of course, stiff with the frost of centuries; but by
exercising the utmost care the finders succeeded in conveying it intact
to the _Flying Fish_, and in thawing it out, when it was found to be
covered with a rude but vigorously drawn sketch or chart, representing
with surprising accuracy of outline--but without much attention to
scale--the whole of the channel between the west coast of Greenland and
the east coast of America, and showing, at the top or northern margin,
an irregular line _evidently intended to represent land_. And in the
top left-hand corner of the chart was a square space marked off as a
separate and distinct chart, the centre of which was occupied by an
island, the southern coast-line of which corresponded in shape with the
line drawn next the northern margin of the main or principal chart.
Rudely drawn figures of the whale, narwhal, walrus, seal, and polar bear
were sketched here and there upon the chart, as though to indicate spots
where these animals had been seen by the author of the document; and on
the island shown in the small subsidiary chart, great numbers of animals
were drawn, among those represented being hares, foxes, deer, seals, and
_elephants_, besides others which the travellers failed to identify.
There was also a sketch of a ship--very similar in appearance to the
craft from which the chart had been taken--represented as _sailing away
from the island_. This particular sketch was the source of much
speculation on the part of the quartette; Sir Reginald and the colonel
being disposed to regard it as an insertion for the purpose merely of
giving a more effective appearance to the chart, whilst the professor
and Mildmay were of opinion that it was intended to convey an intimation
that the mysterious island had actually been visited.
The above particulars, it need scarcely be said, were ascertained and
the surmises discussed after dinner that day; the party not leaving the
galley until they had effected a thorough and exhaustive examination of
her from stem to stern. They found little else of interest on board
her, however, except ten more bodies in the large fore-cabin or
forecastle of the craft. The store-rooms occupied the central portion
of the vessel, being accessible only from the after end, and the fact
that they were clean swept of everything which could by any possibility
have served for food, tended to confirm the impression that the
expedition had perished of starvation. One or two documents and a
massive vellum-bound book were discovered, and these, together with some
of the armour and weapons found on board, were taken possession of, but
the documents and book proved to be written in a tongue wholly unknown
to either of the discoverers, and they were therefore destined to remain
for some time longer in ignorance of the history of the long-lost
expedition. One fact only was it possible to discover in connection
with it, which was that the hardy and resolute crew had undoubtedly cut
their way for a very considerable distance into the heart of that vast
field of everlasting ice. This was most conclusively ascertained by Sir
Reginald and his friends, who, on board the _Flying Fish_, were able to
follow quite unmistakable traces of the channel cut by the unknown
explorers for a distance of fully forty miles to the southward of the
galley itself.
The examination of this strange and interesting craft being at length
completed, the cabin doors were closed, the hatches replaced, and the
ship, with all that she contained, left to the mercy of the weather,
there being no doubt that the excavation so laboriously accomplished
would soon be again filled up by the almost ceaseless snow-fall, and the
ship again concealed in all probability for ever.
The first thing after breakfast on the following morning, the northward
journey was resumed in the face of a perfect hurricane from the
northward, accompanied by so tremendous and incessant a fall of snow
that it was utterly impossible to see anything at a distance of more
than twenty feet in any direction. It was, of course, quite out of the
question for anyone to venture outside the door of the pilot-house in
such terrible weather; and the cold even inside on the steering platform
was so intense that the breath of the travellers was condensed on their
moustaches, and, instantly congealing, rapidly formed into a mass of ice
which effectually prevented the opening of their mouths. An attempt was
made to elude the storm by rising into the higher regions of the
atmosphere; but the cold there proved to be so unbearable,
notwithstanding the protection afforded by the stubbornly non-conducting
material of which the _Flying Fish_ was built, that they were compelled
to descend once more, and their journey was continued at about a height
of one thousand feet above the ice, and at a speed of ninety miles per
hour, at which rate of travel they considered that they were stemming
the gale, and perhaps actually progressing to windward some ten miles or
so every hour.
The dreary day lagged slowly on, with the occurrence of no event of
importance, until about four o'clock in the afternoon, at which time the
travellers became conscious of a decided rise of temperature. By five
o'clock the cold had so greatly diminished that they were compelled to
throw off their thick fur outer clothing; and half an hour later, the
thick dreadnought jackets, which constituted their ordinary outer
covering in bad weather, were also discarded; the snow meanwhile giving
place to sleet, and the sleet in its turn yielding to a deluge of
driving rain. And, whilst they were still wondering what this singular
phenomenon might portend, a hoarse low muffled roar, accompanied by an
occasional grinding crash, smote upon their ears through the heavy
_swish_ of the rain; the dull white monotonous expanse of the ice-field
was abruptly broken into by a jagged irregular-shaped black blot ahead;
and, almost before they had time to realise the extraordinary change,
the _Flying Fish_ had swept beyond the northern boundary of the immense
expanse of paleocrystic ice, and was careering northward, at an
elevation of about a thousand feet, above the surface of a liquid sea
which raged and chafed and tossed its foamy arms to heaven under the
influence of the fast-diminishing gale.
"Hurrah!" ejaculated the professor; "hurrah! Scoresby and Kane spoke
the truth; and my pet theory turns out to be correct, after all.
Gentlemen, look round and feast your eyes upon the glorious spectacle of
_an open Polar Sea_!"
Whether it actually _was_ an open sea, or only an unusually wide channel
between two ice-fields, was now the question to be settled. It
certainly looked like the former; it was completely free of floating
ice, large or small, except the cakes which were broken away by the
waves from the edge of the enormous floe just left behind, and they were
kept by the wind close to their parent mass; the sea ran so high and was
so regular as to convey the idea of a very considerable extent of
"fetch;" and, lastly, there was neither ice nor ice-blink to be seen
anywhere along the whole stretch of the northern horizon.
Impatient to solve this momentous and interesting question, the _Flying
Fish_ was pushed to her utmost speed, causing her to make headway over
the ground, and against the fresh breeze still blowing, at a pace of
about ninety miles per hour. A quarter of an hour later the rain
ceased, and the flying ship plunged into the midst of a dense fog, so
thick that it was impossible to see even so far as the guard-rail on
either side of the deck. The temperature had by this time, however,
risen to _thirty-three degrees above zero (Fahrenheit)_, and the
travellers therefore at once resolved to again brave the rigours of the
upper atmosphere. An immediate ascent was accordingly made, with the
satisfactory result, that at an elevation of three thousand feet above
the sea-level they found themselves once more clear of the fog, with no
perceptible fall of the thermometer, and with a clear view ahead.
Twenty minutes more of travelling, and the northern skirts of the fog-
bank were past, the clouds broke away, and the westering sun cast his
ruddy beams upon the surface of the heaving waters. The sea was still
without a vestige of ice, and the horizon was perfectly clear ahead.
Consumed with enthusiasm and impatience, the travellers now effected a
descent to the surface of the sea, that having been proved to be the
situation in which the _Flying Fish_ made her greatest speed, and the
journey was promptly proceeded with. A further run of twenty miles
found them beneath a cloudless sky, with the wind, soft and balmy,
fallen to the gentlest of zephyrs, and the temperature risen to the
extraordinary height of forty-five degrees above zero. Their delight,
especially that of the professor, was excessive at this wonderful change
in their surroundings within so short a time; indeed von Schalckenberg
became positively extravagant in his demonstrations, dancing about the
deck like a schoolboy, laughing, cheering, clapping his hands, and
uttering the most extraordinary prophecies as to what awaited them at
the now not far distant pole. The moment was favourable for an
astronomical observation; and the ship, notwithstanding their eagerness
to press forward, was accordingly stopped for a few minutes to take the
necessary sights, after which "Northward ho!" again became their
watchword. A few minutes sufficed Mildmay to complete his calculations,
and then, amidst vociferous cheering on the part of his companions, he
announced to them the gratifying intelligence that they had approached
to within a distance of _only one hundred and sixty miles of the North
Pole_.
At the moment when this announcement was made it was exactly ten minutes
after six o'clock p.m. The speed gauge showed that the _Flying Fish_
was then making her way through the water at the rate of one hundred and
fifty miles per hour; in a trifle over one hour more, therefore, if
nothing prevented, they would reach the goal of their northward journey.
Their enthusiasm became almost painful in its intensity; and as the
_Flying Fish_ rushed at headlong speed through the rippling waters,
tossing the wavelets aside in a great outward-curling fringe of
sparkling foam, and as the minutes lagged slowly away, the eyes of the
quartette in the pilot-house were strained with ever-increasing
intensity in their vain efforts to pierce the mysteries of the horizon
ahead.
At exactly twenty minutes to seven o'clock, Mildmay electrified his
companions, and put the finishing touch to their excitement, by raising
an exultant shout of:
"Land ho!"
"Where?" "Show it me!" "I can't see it. You must be mistaken!"
exclaimed his companions in chorus, after a breathless moment of vain
peering into the pearly northern horizon.
"There it is, directly ahead, looking just like the edge of a flat grey
cloud showing above the water's edge," was the reply.
Sure enough it _was_ land; for when once their eyes had been directed to
the proper point there was little difficulty in discerning it.
Moreover, as the ship sped on, it rose rapidly above the horizon, the
grey tint growing every moment darker and more distinct, and a few
minutes later other land, more sharply defined in outline and more
distinctive in colour, rose above the horizon immediately below it,
showing that the table-land first made out lay at some distance from the
southern shore.
And at this auspicious moment the sea began to exhibit signs of the life
which teemed within its depths. An accidental glance astern showed an
enormous school of whales spouting on the southern horizon; porpoises
undulated sportively to windward; a troop of dolphins suddenly appeared
for a moment alongside the ship, evidently straining every nerve to keep
pace with her; and an occasional sea-otter rose now and then to the
surface of the placid sea, to dive out of sight again the next instant
in quite a ridiculous state of consternation at so unwonted a sight as
the rushing form of the _Flying Fish_. Flocks of sea-birds of various,
and indeed some of hitherto unknown, kinds next made their appearance,
industriously pursuing their avocation of fishermen, and--unlike the
sea-otters--paying little or no attention to their strange visitors.
And finally, as they drew nearer in with the land, seals of various
kinds were passed, sportively chasing each other, and pausing for a
moment to raise their heads inquisitively and turn their mild glances
upon the flying ship.
When within some ten miles of the land, it was deemed advisable to rise
out of the water and to complete the journey at a few feet above its
surface, thus taking the most effectual of precautions against
accidental collision with a sunken rock. As the ship drew in still
closer with the land, her speed was reduced; and, at a quarter after
seven o'clock on that calm July evening, she once more settled down,
like a wearied sea-fowl, upon the surface of the water, and let go her
anchor in a depth of twelve fathoms, at a distance of half a mile from
the shore, in a fine roomy well-sheltered bay of crescent form, the two
horns or outer extremities of which rose sheer out of the water in the
form of a pair of bold rocky spurs, backed up on the landward side by a
sweep of low grassy hills, crowned, at a short distance from the shore,
with a forest of majestic pines.
"Well!" ejaculated the professor, as he finally turned away and went
below to dinner, after feasting his eyes on the splendid landscape,
gloriously lighted up by the rays of the evening sun, "I was prepared to
see many unexpected sights in the event of our reaching the North Pole,
but grass and trees!--well, I was _not_ prepared to find _them_."
CHAPTER TWELVE.
ANOTHER STARTLING DISCOVERY.
Notwithstanding the state of excitement which the travellers had been
thrown into by the successful accomplishment of this, the first, and,
perhaps, the most difficult part of their novel enterprise, they managed
to secure a tolerably sound night's rest--if one may venture to term
night any part of the twenty-four hours at that season and in that
region, where the sun had never once sunk beneath the horizon since the
twenty-first of the preceding March, and where the day had still two
months more to run before it should wane into the long six-months' night
of winter. But, as might be expected, they were up bright and early on
the following morning, eager to explore this strange new polar land, and
scarcely patient enough to sit down and consume with becoming leisure
the appetising breakfast which the still imperturbable George had
provided for them.
The meal, however, like most other matters, had an end at last; and the
travellers felt themselves free to follow the bent of their impatient
inclinations. But the expedition upon which they were about to enter
was one not to be undertaken without due foresight and preparation. It
was only to be a preliminary exploration, it is true, only a journey of
some three or four miles into the interior; but the country and the
climate having already proved so extraordinarily at variance with all
their preconceived ideas, who could say what new and strange forms of
animal life might not possibly be lurking within those vast forest
depths? It therefore behoved them to adopt at least a reasonable amount
of precaution, and so to equip themselves that, in the event of their
encountering new and hitherto unsuspected dangers, they might not find
themselves in a wholly defenceless condition.
The question of the kind of clothing to be worn was soon settled. The
temperature stood at the extraordinary height (for that latitude) of
fifty-seven degrees Fahrenheit; and the air, actually cool and bracing,
felt almost oppressively warm to them after the rigours of the
paleocrystic ice-field; they therefore donned a suit of rough
serviceable cloth of moderate thickness, and stout waterproof leather
walking boots. Then, for arms, as they were merely going on a
reconnoitring and not a hunting expedition, they decided to take their
large-bore repeating rifles, which, with the explosive shells
constituting their ammunition, would enable the explorers to face
anything. And lastly, as accident or design might cause them to extend
their ramble beyond its originally intended limits, they adopted the
precaution of providing themselves each with a small light knapsack of
provisions. Thus equipped they proceeded on deck, raised the two boats
with their davits out of the snug below-deck compartments in which they
had hitherto been concealed, and, lowering the smaller boat of the two,
stepped into her, and were quickly conveyed to the shore.
It was with a curiously mingled feeling of awe and exultation that they
sprang from the boat to the strand, and planted their feet for the first
time upon this hitherto unknown and unvisited ground.