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[Illustration: ADRIFT. Page 162.]
ADRIFT IN THE ICE-FIELDS.
BY
CAPT. CHARLES W. HALL,
AUTHOR OF "THE GREAT BONANZA," ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED._
BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.
1877.
COPYRIGHT:
BY LEE AND SHEPHARD.
1877.
PREFACE.
To open to the youth of America a knowledge of some of the winter sports
of our neighbors of the maritime provinces, with their attendant
pleasures, perils, successes, and reverses, the following tale has been
written.
It does not claim to teach any great moral lesson, or even to be a guide
to the young sportsman; but the habits of all birds and animals treated
of here have been carefully studied, and, with the mode of their
capture, have been truthfully described.
It attempts to chronicle the adventures and misadventures of a party of
English gentlemen, during the early spring, while shooting sea-fowl on
the sea-ice by day, together with the stories with which they whiled
away the long evenings, each of which is intended to illustrate some
peculiar dialect or curious feature of the social life of our colonial
neighbors.
Later in the season the breaking up of the ice carries four hunters into
involuntary wandering, amid the vast ice-pack which in winter fills the
great Gulf of St. Lawrence. Their perils, the shifts to which they are
driven to procure shelter, food, fire, medicine, and other necessaries,
together with their devious drift and final rescue by a sealer, are used
to give interest to what is believed to be a reliable description of the
ice-fields of the Gulf, the habits of the seal, and life on board of a
sealing steamer.
It would seem that the world had been ransacked to provide stories of
adventure for the boys of America; but within the region between the
Straits of Canso and the shores of Hudson's Bay there still lie hundreds
of leagues of land never trodden by the white man's foot; and the
folk-lore and idiosyncrasies of the population of the Lower Provinces
are almost as unknown to us, their near neighbors.
The descendants of emigrants from Bretagne, Picardy, Normandy, and
Poitou, still retaining much of their ancient patois, costume, habits,
and superstitions; the hardy Gael, still ignorant of any but the
language of Ossian and his burr-tongued Lowland neighbors; the people of
each of Ireland's many counties, clinging still to feud, fun, and their
ancient Erse tongue, together with representatives from every English
shire, and the remnants of Indian tribes and Esquimaux hordes,--offer an
opportunity for study of the differences of race, full of picturesque
interest, and scarcely to be met with elsewhere.
The century which has with us almost realized the apostolic
announcement, "Old things are passed away; behold, all things have
become new," with them has witnessed little more than the birth,
existence, and death of so many generations, and the old feuds and
prejudices of race and religion, little softened by the lapse of time,
still remain with their appropriate developments, in the social life of
the scattered peoples of these northern shores.
Regretting that the will to depict those life-pictures has not been
better seconded by more skill in word-painting, the author lays down his
pen, hoping that the pencil of the artist will atone, in some degree,
for his own "many short-comings."
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. OUR COMPANY 9
II. BUILDING THE ICE-HOUSES.--MATTHEW COLLINS'S
GHOST 19
III. THE SILVER THAW.--A FOX HUNT.--ANTHONY
WORRELL'S DOG 55
IV. THE GRAND FLIGHT.--A GOOD STRATAGEM.--THE
PACKET LIGHT 75
V. A MAD SPORTSMAN.--SNOW-BLIND.--A NIGHT OF PERIL 95
VI. ADDITIONS TO THE PARTY.--AN INDIAN OUTFIT.--A
CONTESTED ELECTION 110
VII. A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER.--BREAKING UP OF
THE ICE.--JIM MOUNTAIN'S FIGHT WITH THE DEVIL 136
VIII. FLOAT-SHOOTING.--A GENERAL FIELD-DAY.--CHANGES
OF THE ICE 148
IX. ADRIFT 158
X. THE COUNCIL.--PASSING THE CAPE 169
XI. TAKING AN INVENTORY.--SETTING UP THE STOVE 175
XII. DOCTORING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.--AN ANXIOUS
NIGHT.--FROZEN UP 187
XIII. THE CHAPEL BELL.--THE FIRST SEAL.--THE
NORTH CAPE.--A SNOW-SQUALL 199
XIV. THE PACK OPENS.--MYSTERIOUS MURMURS.--LOVE
SCENES AND SOUNDS 207
XV. A SAIL.--THE SEALING GROUNDS.--THE ESQUIMAUX
LAMP.--AN INDIAN LEGEND 220
XVI. THE BREEDING-GROUNDS OF THE SEAL.--A
CURIOUS SIGHT.--A SHARP ENCOUNTER.--ICE CHANGES 230
XVII. ENLARGING THE BOAT.--WINGED SCAVENGERS.--NOTICE
TO QUIT 244
XVIII. A CHANGE OF BASE.--BUILDING A SNOW-HUT.--THE
VIEW FROM THE BERG.--A STRANGE MEETING 254
XIX. THE RING.--THE BURIAL.--A MAUSOLEUM OF ICE 263
XX. A STRANGE LIFE-HISTORY.--AMONG THE RED INDIANS 271
XXI. NORTHWARD AGAIN.--THE STEAMER.--TAKING
TO THE BOAT 287
XXII. THE FORECASTLE OF THE SEALER.--A SEALER'S
STORY.--THE LAST HUNT.--ARRIVAL AT ST. JOHN'S 303
XXIII. THE CAPTAIN'S VISIT.--HOMEWARD BOUND.--BROTHER
AND SISTER 313
ILLUSTRATIONS:
Adrift.
Map of Prince Edward Island and the Northumberland Straits.
Adrift in the Ice Fields.
Capt. Lund headed a Party to assist their Friends
Gie me my Guse, Mon, and dinna delay me
Well, George, you're here at last
And the next Second the glittering Teeth were about to close upon his
helpless Victim
On the Top of the Berg they felt repaid for the Fatigue of their Journey
and Ascent
Kneeling beside it, the Lad bowed his Head as if in silent Prayer
In His Hands La Salle Waved the Banner
[Illustration]
[Illustration: (map of Prince Edward Island and the Northumberland
Straits.)]
[Illustration: ADRIFT IN THE ICE FIELDS.]
CHAPTER I.
OUR COMPANY.
Five hundred miles away to the north and east lies the snug little
Island of St. Jean; a beautiful land in summer, with its red cliffs of
red sandstone and ruddy clay, surmounted by green fields, which stretch
away inland to small areas of the primeval forest, which once extended
unbroken from the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the waters of
the Straits of Northumberland.
Drear and desolate is it in winter, when the straits are filled with
ice, which, in the shape of floe, and berg, and pinnacle, pass in
ghostly procession to and fro, as the wind wafts them, or they feel the
diurnal impetus of the tides they cover, to escape in time from the
narrow limits of the pass, and lose themselves in the vast ice-barrier
that for five long months shuts out the havens of St. Jean from the open
sea.
No ship can enter the deserted ports, over whose icy covering the
farmer carries home his year's firing, and the young gallant presses his
horse to his greatest speed to beat a rival team, or carry his fair
companion to some scene of festivity twenty miles away. Many spend the
whole winter in idleness; and to all engaged in aught but professional
duties, the time hangs heavily for want of enjoyable out-of-door
employment. It is, therefore, a season of rejoicing to the cooped-up
sportsman when the middle of March arrives, attended, as is usually the
case, by the first lasting thaws, and the advent of a few flocks of wild
geese.
Among the wealthier sportsmen great preparations are made for a spring
campaign, which often lasts six or eight weeks. Decoys of wood,
sheet-iron, and canvas, boats for decoy-shooting and stealthy approach,
warm clothes, caps, and mittens of spotless white, powder by the keg,
caps and wads by the thousand, and shot by the bag, boots and moccasons
water and frost proof, and a vast variety of small stores for the inner
man, are among the necessaries provided, sometimes weeks in advance of
the coming of the few scattering flocks which form, as it were, the
skirmish line of the migrating hosts of the Canada goose.
It is usual for a small party to board with some farmer, as near as
possible to the shooting grounds, or rather ice, for not infrequently
the strong-winged foragers, who press so closely on the rearguard of the
retreating frost king, find nothing in the shape of open water; but
after leaving their comrades, dead and dying, amid the fatal decoys on
the frozen channels, sweep hastily southward before cold, fatigue,
hunger, and the wiles and weapons of man, can finish the deadly work so
thoroughly begun.
Such a party of six, in the spring of 186-, took up their quarters with
Captain Lund, a pilot, who held the larger portion of the arable land of
the little Island of St. Pierre, which lies three miles south of the
mouth of the harbor of C., and ends in two long and dangerous shoals,
known as the East and West Bars.
The party was composed of Messrs. Risk, Davies (younger and older),
Kennedy, Creamer, and La Salle. Mr. Henry Risk was an English gentleman,
of about fifty-five years of age, handsome, portly, and genial, a keen
sportsman, and sure shot with the long, single, English ducking-gun, to
which he stuck, despite of the jeers and remonstrances of the owners of
muzzle and breech-loading double barrels.
Davies the elder, an old friend of the foregoing, had for many years
been accustomed to leave his store and landed property to the care of
his partners and family, while, in company with Risk, he found in the
half-savage life and keen air of the ice-fields a bracing tonic, which
prepared them for the enervating cares of the rest of the year. The two
had little in common--Risk being a stanch Episcopalian, and Davies an
uncompromising Methodist. Risk, rather conservative, and his comrade a
ready liberal; but they both possessed the too rare quality of respect
for the opinions of others, and their occasional disputations never
degenerated into quarrels.
Ben Davies, a nephew of the foregoing, and also a merchant, was an
athletic young fellow, of about five feet eight, just entering upon his
twenty-second year. A proficient in all manly exercises, and a keen
sportsman, he entered into this new sport with all the enthusiasm of
youth, and his preparations for the spring campaign were on the most
liberal scale of design and expenditure. In these matters he relied
chiefly on the skill, experience, and judgment of his right-hand man and
shooting companion, Hughie Creamer.
Hughie was of Irish descent, and middle size, but compact, lithe, and
muscular, with a not unkindly face, which, however, showed but too
plainly the marks of habitual dissipation. A rigger by occupation, a
sailor and pilot at need, a skilful fisherman, and ready shot, with a
roving experience, which had given him a smattering of half a score of
the more common handicrafts, Hughie was an invaluable comrade on such a
quest, and as such had been hired by his young employer. It may be
added, that a more plausible liar never mixed the really interesting
facts of a changeable life with well-disguised fiction; and it may be
doubted if he always knew himself which part of some of his favorite
"yarns" were truths, and which were due, as a phrenologist would say,
"to language and imaginativeness large, insufficiently balanced by
conscientiousness."
Kennedy was a wiry little New Brunswicker, born just across the St.
Croix, but a thorough-going Yankee by education, business habits, and
naturalization. "A Brahmin among the Brahmins," he believed in the New
York Tribune, as the purest source of all uninspired wisdom; and
bitterly regretted that the manifold avocations of Horace Greeley had
thus far prevented that truly great man from enlightening his
fellow-countrymen on the habits and proper modes of capture of the
_Anser Canadiensis_. As, despite his attenuated and dry appearance,
there was a deal of real humor in his composition, Kennedy was
considered quite an addition to our little party.
La Salle was--Well, reader, you must judge for yourself of what he was,
by the succeeding chapters of this simple history, for he it is who
recalls from the past these faint pen-pictures of scenes and pleasures
never to be forgotten, although years have passed since their
occurrence, and the grave has already claimed two of the six,--Risk, the
robust English gentlemen, and Hughie, the cheery, ingenious adventurer.
It is not easy to draw a fair picture of one's self, even with the aid
of a mirror, and when one can readily note the ravages of time in
thinning locks and increasing wrinkles, it is hard to speak of the
robust health of youth without exaggeration. At that time, however, he
was about twenty-three, having dark hair and eyes, a medium stature,
and splendid health. Like Hughie, in a humbler sphere, he was a dabbler
in many things,--lawyer, novelist, poet, trader, inventor, what
not?--taking life easily, with no grand aspirations, and no disturbing
fears for the future. In the intervals of business he found a keen
delight in the half-savage life and wholly natural joys of the angler
and sportsman, and ever felt that to wander by river and mere, with rod
and gun, would enable him to draw from the breast of dear old Mother
Earth that rude but joyous physical strength, with the possession of
which it is a constant pleasure even to exist.
It was late at night when, by the light of the winter moon, the boats
and decoys were unloaded from the heavy sleds, and placed in position on
the various bars and feeding-grounds. The ice that season was of unusual
thickness, and gave promise of lasting for many weeks. As under the
guidance of Black Bill, they entered the farm-yard of his master, the
elder Lund, they found the rest of the family just entering the house,
and joining them, attacked, with voracious appetites, a coarse but ample
repast of bacon, potatoes, coarse bread, sweet butter, and strong black
tea. After this guns were prepared, ammunition and lunch got ready for
the coming morning, for, with the earliest gleam of the rising sun, they
were to commence the first short day of watching for the northward
coming hosts of heaven.
The exact manner in which the ingenious Mrs. Lund managed to accommodate
six sportsmen, besides her usual family of four girls, three boys, and a
hired man, within the limits of a low cottage of about nine small
apartments, has always been an unsolved mystery to all except members of
the household. To be sure, Risk and the elder Davies occupied a
luxurious couch of robes and blankets in the little parlor, and a huge
settle before the kitchen stove opened its alluring recesses to Ben and
his man Friday, while one of the elder sons and Black Bill shared with
Kennedy and La Salle the largest of the upper rooms. In later years, the
question of where the eight others slept, has attained a prominent place
among the unsolved mysteries of life; but at that time all were tired
enough to be content with knowing that they could sleep soundly, at all
events.
Few have ever passed from port to port of the great Gulf, without
meeting, or at least hearing, of "Captain Tom Lund," known as the most
skilful pilot on the coast.
"Alike to him was tide or time,
Moonless midnight or matin's prime."
And when his skill could not make a desired haven, or tide over a
threatened danger, the mariners of the Gulf deemed the case hopeless
indeed.
Every winter, however, the swift Princess lay in icy bonds, beside the
deserted wharves, and the veteran pilot went home to his farm, his
little house with its brood of children, his shaggy horses, Highland
cows, and long-bodied sheep, and became as earnest a farmer as if he had
never turned a vanishing furrow on the scarless bosom of the ocean.
Always pleasant, anxious to oblige, careful of the safety of his guests,
and with a seaman's love of the wonderful and marvellous, he played the
host to general satisfaction, and in the matter of charges set an
example of moderation such as is seldom imitated in this selfish and
mercenary world.
After supper, however, on this first evening, an unwonted cloud hung
over the brow of the host, which yielded not to the benign influence of
four cups of tea, and eatables in proportion; withstood the sedative
consolations of a meerschaum of the best "Navy," and scarcely gave way
when, with the two eldest of the party, he sat down to a steaming glass
of "something hot," whose "controlling spirit" was "materialized" from a
bottle labeled "Cabinet Brandy." After a sip or two, he hemmed twice, to
attract general attention, and said, solemnly,--
"It is nonsense, of course, to warn you, gents, of danger, when the ice
is so thick everywhere that you couldn't get in if you tried; but mark
my words, that something out of the common is going to happen this
spring, on this here island. I went over to the Pint, just now, after
you came into the yard, to look up one of the cows, and saw two men in
white walking up the track, just below the bank. I thought it must be
some of you coming up from the East Bar, but all of a sudden the men
vanished, and I was alone; and when I came into the yard, you were all
here! Now something of the kind almost always precedes a death among us,
and I shan't feel easy until your trip is safely over, and you are all
well and comfortable at home."
"Now, Lund," said the elder Davies, "you don't believe in any such
nonsense, do you?"
"Nonsense!" said Lund, quietly but gravely; "little Johnnie there, my
youngest boy, will tell you that he has often seen on the East Bar the
warning glare of the Packet Light, which often warns us of the approach
of a heavy storm. It is nearly thirty years since it first glowed from
the cabin windows of the doomed mail packet, but to all who dwell upon
this island its existence is beyond doubt. Few who have sailed the Gulf
as I have, but have seen the Fireship which haunts these waters, and
more than once I have steered to avoid an approaching light, and after
changing my course nearly eight pints, found the spectre light still
dead ahead. No, gentlemen, I shan't slight the warning. If you value
life, be careful; for if we get through the breaking up of the ice
without losing two men, I shall miss my guess."
"Come, Tom," said Risk, quickly, "don't depress the spirits of the
youngsters with such old-world superstitions. As you say, they couldn't
get through the ice now if they would, without cutting a hole; and when
the ice grows weak, will be time enough for you to worry. Take another
ruffle to your night-cap, Tom, and you youngsters had better get to bed,
and prepare to take to the ice at six o'clock, after a cup of hot coffee
and a lunch of sandwiches. Here's luck all round, gentlemen."
The toasts were drank by the three elderly men, and re-echoed by the
younger ones, who chose not to avail themselves of the proffered
stimulant, and then all sought repose in their allotted quarters.
Fifteen minutes later the house was in utter darkness and silence,
through which the varied breathings of sixteen adults and children would
have given ample opportunities for comparison to any waking auditor, had
such there been; but no one kept awake, and to all intents and purposes
"silence reigned supreme."
[Illustration]