"All gone! 'tis ours the goodly land----
Look round--the heritage behold;
Go forth--upon the mountain stand;
Then, if you can, be cold."
Sprague.
It was an enterprising and manly thing for a little vessel like the Sea
Lion to steer with an undeviating course into the mysterious depths of the
antarctic circle--mysterious, far more in that day, than at the present
hour. But the American sealer rarely hesitates. He has very little
science, few charts, and those oftener old than new, knows little of what
is going on among the savans of the earth, though his ear is ever open to
the lore of men like himself, and he has his mind stored with pictures of
islands and continents that would seem to have been formed for no other
purpose than to meet the wants of the race of animals it is his business
to pursue and to capture. Cape Horn and its vicinity have so long been
frequented by this class of men, that they are at home among their
islands, rocks, currents and sterility; but, to the southward of the Horn
itself, all seemed a waste. At the time of which we are writing, much less
was known of the antarctic regions than is known to-day; and even now our
knowledge is limited to a few dreary outlines, in which barrenness and ice
compete for the mastery. Wilkes, and his competitors, have told us that a
vast frozen continent exists in that quarter of the globe; but even their
daring and perseverance have not been able to determine more than the
general fact.
We should be giving an exaggerated and false idea of Roswell Gardiner's
character, did we say that he steered into that great void of the southern
ocean in a total indifference to his destination and objects. Very much
the reverse was his state of mind, as he saw the high land of the cape
sink, as it might be foot by foot, into the ocean, and then lost sight of
it altogether. Although the weather was fine for the region, it was dark
and menacing. Such, indeed, is usually the case in that portion of this
globe, which appears to be the favourite region of the storms. Although
the wind was no more than a good breeze, and the ocean was but little
disturbed, there were those symptoms in the atmosphere and in the long
ground-swells that came rolling in from the southwest, that taught the
mariner the cold lessons of caution. We believe that heavier gales of wind
at sea are encountered in the warm than in the cold months; but there is
something so genial in the air of the ocean during summer, and something
so chilling and repulsive in the rival season, that most of us fancy that
the currents of air correspond in strength with the fall of the mercury.
Roswell knew better than this, it is true; but he also fully understood
where he was, and what he was about. As a sealer, he had several times
penetrated as far south as the ne plus ultra of Cook; but it had ever
before been in subordinate situations. This was the first time in which he
had the responsibility of command thrown on himself, and it was no more
than natural that he should feel the weight of this new burthen. So long
as the Sea Lion of the Vineyard was in sight, she had presented a centre
of interest and concern. To get rid of her had been his first care, and
almost absorbing object; but, now that she seemed to be finally thrown out
of his wake, there remained the momentous and closely approaching
difficulties of the main adventure directly before his eyes. Roswell,
therefore, was thoughtful and grave, his countenance offering no bad
reflection of the sober features of the atmosphere and the ocean.
Although the season was that of summer, and the weather was such as is
deemed propitious in the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, a feeling of
uncertainty prevailed over every other sensation. To the southward a cold
mistiness veiled the view, and every mile the schooner advanced appeared
like penetrating deeper and deeper into regions that nature had hitherto
withheld from the investigation of the mariner. Ice, and its dangers, were
known to exist a few degrees farther in that direction; but islands also
had been discovered, and turned to good account by the enterprise of the
sealers.
It was truly a great thing for the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond to have thrown
off her namesake of the Vineyard. It is true both vessels were still in
the same sea, with a possibility of again meeting; but, Roswell Gardiner
was steering onward towards a haven designated in degrees and minutes,
while the other craft was most probably left to wander in uncertainty in
that remote and stormy ocean. Our hero thought there was now very little
likelihood of his again falling in with his late consort, and this so much
the more, because the islands he sought were not laid down in the vicinity
of any other known land, and were consequently out of the usual track of
the sealers. This last circumstance was fully appreciated by our young
navigator, and gave him confidence of possessing its treasures to himself,
could he only find the place where nature had hid them.
When the sun went down in that vast waste of water which lies to the
southward of this continent, the little Sea Lion had fairly lost sight of
land, and was riding over the long southwestern ground-swell like a gull
that holds its way steadily towards its nest. For many hours her course
had not varied half a point, being as near as possible to south-southwest,
which kept her a little off the wind. No sooner, however, did night come
to shut in the view, than Roswell Gardiner went aft to the man at the
helm, and ordered him to steer to the southward, as near as the breeze
would conveniently allow. This was a material change in the direction of
the vessel, and, should the present breeze stand, would probably place
her, by the return of light, a good distance to the eastward of the point
she would otherwise have reached. Hitherto, it had been Roswell's aim to
drop his consort; but, now it was dark, and so much time had already
passed and been improved since the other schooner was last seen, he
believed he might venture to steer in the precise direction he desired to
go. The season is so short in those seas, that every hour is precious, and
no more variation from a real object could be permitted than circumstances
imperiously required. It was now generally understood that the craft was
making the best of her way towards her destined sealing-ground.
Independently of the discoveries of the regular explorers, a great deal
of information has been obtained from the sealers themselves within the
present century, touching the antarctic seas. It is thought that many a
headland, and various islands, that have contributed their shares in
procuring the _accolades_ for different European navigators, were known to
the adventurers from Stonington and other by-ports of this country, long
before science ever laid its eyes upon them, or monarchs their swords on
the shoulders of their secondary discoverers.
That divers islands existed in this quarter of the ocean was a fact
recognised in geography long before the Sea Lion was thought of; probably
before her young master was actually born; but the knowledge generally
possessed on the subject was meagre and unsatisfactory. In particular
cases, nevertheless, this remark would not apply, there being at that
moment on board our little schooner several mariners who had often visited
the South Shetlands, New Georgia, Palmer's Land, and other known places in
those seas. Not one of them all, however, had ever heard of any island
directly south of the present position of the schooner.
No material change occurred during the night, or in the course of the
succeeding day, the little Sea Lion industriously holding her way toward
the south pole; making very regularly her six knots each hour. By the time
she was thirty-six hours from the Horn, Gardiner believed himself to be
fully three degrees to the southward of it, and consequently some distance
within the parallel of sixty degrees south. Palmer's Land, with its
neighbouring islands, would have been near, had not the original course
carried the schooner so far to the westward. As it was, no one could say
what lay before them.
The third day out, the wind hauled, and it blew heavily from the
north-east. This gave the adventurers a great run. The blink of ice was
shortly seen, and soon after ice itself, drifting about in bergs. The
floating hills were grand objects to the eye, rolling and wallowing in the
seas; but they were much worn and melted by the wash of the ocean, and
comparatively of greatly diminished size. It was now absolutely necessary
to lose most of the hours of darkness it being much too dangerous to run
in the night. The great barrier of ice was known to be close at hand; and
Cook's "Ne Plus Ultra," at that time the great boundary of antarctic
navigation, was near the parallel of latitude to which the schooner had
reached. The weather, however, continued very favourable, and after the
blow from the north-east, the wind came from the south, chill, and
attended with flurries of snow, but sufficiently steady and not so fresh
as to compel our adventurers to carry very short sail. The smoothness of
the water would of itself have announced the vicinity of ice: not only did
Gardiner's calculations tell him as much as this, but his eyes confirmed
their results. In the course of the fifth day out, on several occasions
when the weather cleared a little, glimpses were had of the ice in long
mountainous walls, resembling many of the ridges of the Alps, though
moving heavily under the heaving and setting of the restless waters. Dense
fogs, from time to time, clouded the whole view, and the schooner was
compelled, more than once that day, to heave-to, in order to avoid running
on the sunken masses of ice, or fields, of which many of vast size now
began to make their appearance.
Notwithstanding the dangers that surrounded our adventurers, they were
none of them so insensible to the sublime powers of nature as to withhold
their admiration from the many glorious objects which that lone and wild
scene presented. The ice-bergs were of all the hues of the rainbow, as the
sunlight gilded their summits or sides, or they were left shaded by the
interposition of dark and murky clouds. There were instances when certain
of the huge frozen masses even appeared to be quite black, in particular
positions and under peculiar lights; while others, at the same instant,
were gorgeous in their gleams of emerald and gold!
The aquatic birds, also, had now become numerous again. Penguins were
swimming about, filling the air with their discordant cries, while there
was literally no end of the cape-pigeons and petrels. Albatrosses, too,
helped to make up the picture of animated nature, while whales were often
heard blowing in the adjacent waters. Gardiner saw many signs of the
proximity of land, and began to hope he should yet actually discover the
islands laid down on his chart, as their position had been given by
Daggett.
In that high latitude a degree of longitude is necessarily much shorter
than when nearer to the middle of our orb. On the equator, a degree of
longitude measures, as is known to most boarding-school young ladies, just
sixty geographical, or sixty-nine and a half English statute miles. But,
as is not known to most boarding-school young ladies, or is understood by
very few of them indeed, even when known, in the sixty-second degree of
latitude, a degree of longitude measures but little more than thirty-two
of those very miles. The solution of this seeming contradiction is so very
simple that it may assist a certain class of our readers if we explain it,
by telling them that it arises solely from the fact that these degrees of
longitude, which are placed sixty geographical miles asunder at the centre
or middle of the earth, converge towards the poles, where they all meet in
a point. According to the best observations Roswell Gardiner could obtain,
he was just one of these short degrees of longitude, or two-and-thirty
miles, to the westward of the parallel where he wished to be, when the
wind came from the southward. The change was favourable, as it emboldened
him to run nearer than he otherwise might have felt disposed to do, to the
great barrier of ice which now formed a sort of weather-shore.
Fortunately, the loose bergs and sunken masses had drifted off so far to
the northward, that once within them the schooner had pretty plain
sailing; and Roswell, to lose none of the precious time of the season,
ventured to run, though under very short canvass, the whole of the short
night that succeeded. It is a great assistance to the navigation of those
seas that, during the summer months, there is scarcely any night at all,
giving the adventurer sufficient light by which to thread his way among
the difficulties of his pathless journey.
When the sun reappeared, on the morning of the sixth day after he had left
the Horn, Roswell Gardiner believed himself to be far enough west for his
purposes. It now remained to get a whole degree further to the south,
which was a vast distance in those seas and in that direction, and would
carry him a long way to the southward of the 'Ne Plus Ultra.' If there
was any truth in Daggett, however, that mariner had been there; and the
instructions of the owner rendered it incumbent on our young man to
attempt to follow him. More than once, that morning, did our hero regret
he had not entered into terms with the Vineyard men, that the effort might
have been made in company. There was something so portentous in a lone
vessel's venturing within the ice, in so remote a region, that, to say the
truth, Roswell hesitated. But pride of profession, ambition, love of Mary,
dread of the deacon, native resolution, and the hardihood produced by
experience in dangers often encountered and escaped, nerved him to the
undertaking. It must be attempted, or the voyage would be lost; and our
young mariner now set about his task with a stern determination to achieve
it.
By this time the schooner had luffed up within a cable's length of the
ice, along the margin of which she was running under easy sail. Gardiner
believed himself to be quite as far to the westward as was necessary, and
his present object was to find an opening, by means of which he could
enter among the floating chaos that was spread, far and wide, to windward.
As the breeze was driving the drifting masses to the northward, they
became loosened and more separated, every moment; and glad enough was
Gardiner to discover, at length, a clear spot that seemed to favour his
views. Without an instant's delay, the sheets were flattened in, a pull
was taken on the braces, and away went the little Sea Lion into a passage
that had a hundredfold more real causes of terror than the Scylla and
Charybdis of old.
One effect of the vicinity of ice, in extensive fields, is to produce
comparatively still water. It must blow a gale, and that over a
considerable extent of open sea, to produce much commotion among the
fields and bergs, though that heaving and setting, which has been likened
to the respiration of some monster, and which seamen call the
"ground-swell," is never entirely wanting among the waters of an ocean. On
the present occasion, our adventurers were favoured in this respect, their
craft gliding forward unimpeded by anything like opposing billows. At the
end of four hours, the schooner, tacking and waring when necessary, had
worked her way to the southward and westward, according to her master's
reckoning, some five-and-twenty miles. It was then noon, and the
atmosphere being unusually clear, though never without fog, Gardiner went
aloft, to take a look for himself at the condition of things around him.
To the northward, and along the very passage by which the vessel had
sailed, the ice was closing, and it was far easier to go on than to
return. To the eastward, and towards the south-east in particular,
however, did Roswell Gardiner turn his longing eyes. Somewhere in that
quarter of the ocean, and distant now less than ten leagues, did he expect
to find the islands of which he was in quest, if, indeed, they had any
existence at all. In that direction there were many passages open among
the ice, the latter being generally higher than in the particular place to
which the vessel had reached. Once or twice, Roswell mistook the summits
of some of these bergs for real mountains, when, owing to the manner in
which the light fell upon them, or rather did not fall upon them directly,
they appeared dark and earthy. Each time, however, the sun's rays soon
came to undeceive him; and that which had so lately been black and
frowning was, as by the touch of magic, suddenly illuminated, and became
bright and gorgeous, throwing out its emerald hues, or perhaps a virgin
white, that filled the beholder with delight, even amid the terrors and
dangers by which, in very truth, he was surrounded. The glorious Alps
themselves, those wonders of the earth, could scarcely compete in scenery
with the views that nature lavished, in that remote sea, on a seeming
void. But the might and honour of God were there, as well as beneath the
equator.
For one whole hour did Roswell Gardiner remain in the cross-trees, having
hailed the deck, and caused the schooner's head to be turned to the
south-east, pressing her through the openings as near the wind as she
could go. The atmosphere was never without fog, though the vapour drifted
about, leaving large vacancies that were totally clear. One spot, in
particular, seemed to be a favourite resting-place for these low clouds,
which just there appeared to light upon the face of the ocean itself. A
wide field of ice, or, it were better to say, a broad belt of bergs, lay
between this stationary cloud and the schooner, though the existence of
the vapour early caught Roswell's attention; and during the hour he was
aloft, conning the craft through a very intricate and ticklish channel,
not a minute passed that the young man did not turn a look towards that
veiled spot. He was in the act of placing a foot on the ratlin below him,
to descend to the deck, when he half-unconsciously turned to take a last
glance at this distant and seemingly immovable object. Just then, the
vapour, which had kept rolling and moving, like a fluid in ebullition,
while it still clung together, suddenly opened, and the bald head of a
real mountain, a thousand feet high, came unexpectedly into the view!
There could be no mistake; all was too plain to admit of a doubt. There,
beyond all question, was land; and it was doubtless the most western of
the islands described by the dying seaman. Everything corroborated this
conclusion. The latitude and longitude were right, or nearly so, and the
other circumstances went to confirm the conjecture, or conclusion. Daggett
had said that one island, high, mountainous, ragged and bleak, but of some
size, lay the most westerly in the group, while several others were within
a few miles of it. The last were lower, much smaller, and little more than
naked rocks. One of these last, however, he insisted on it, was a volcano
in activity, and that, at intervals, it emitted flames as well as a fierce
heat. By his account, however, the party to which he belonged had never
actually visited that volcanic cauldron, being satisfied with admiring its
terrors from a distance.
As to the existence of the land, Roswell got several pretty distinct and
certain views, leaving no doubt of its character and position. There is a
theory which tells us that the orb of day is surrounded by a luminous
vapour, the source of heat and light, and that this vapour, being in
constant motion, occasionally leaves the mass of the planet itself to be
seen, forming what it is usual to term the "spots on the sun." Resembling
this theory, the fogs of the antarctic seas rolled about the mountain now
seen, withdrawing the curtain at times, and permitting a view of the
striking and majestic object within. Well did that lone and nearly barren
mass of earth and rock merit these appellations! The elevation has already
been given; and a rock that is nearly perpendicular, rising out of the
ocean for a thousand feet, is ever imposing and grand. This was rendered
so much the more so by its loneliness, its stable and stern position amid
floating and moving mountains of ice, its brown sides and bald summit, the
latter then recently whitened with a fall of pure snow, and its frowning
and fixed aspect amid a scene that might otherwise be said to be ever in
motion.
Roswell Gardiner's heart beat with delight when assured of success in
discovering this, the first great goal of his destination. To reach it was
now his all-absorbing desire. By this time the wind had got round to the
southwest, and was blowing quite fresh, bringing him well to windward of
the mountain, but causing the ice-bergs to drift in towards the land, and
placing an impassable barrier along its western shore. Our young man,
however, remembered that Daggett had given the anchorage as on the
north-eastern side of the island, where, according to his statements, a
little haven would be found, in which a dozen craft might lie in security.
To this quarter of the island Gardiner consequently endeavoured to get.
There was no opening to the northward, but a pretty good channel was
before the schooner to the southward of the group. In this direction,
then, the Sea Lion was steered, and by eight bells (four in the afternoon)
the southern point of the largest island was doubled. The rest of the
group were made, and to the infinite delight of all on board her,
abundance of clear water was found between the main island and its smaller
neighbours. The bergs had grounded apparently, as they drew near the
group, leaving this large bay entirely free from ice, with the exception
of a few small masses that were floating through it. These bodies, whether
field or berg, were easily avoided; and away the schooner went, with
flowing sheets, into the large basin formed by the different members of
the group. To render 'assurance doubly sure,' as to the information of
Daggett, the smoke of a volcano arose from a rock to the eastward, that
appeared to be some three or four miles in circumference, and which stood
on the eastern side of the great basin, or some four leagues from
Sealer's Land, as Daggett had at once named the principal island. This
was, in fact, about the breadth of the main basin, which had two principal
passages into it, the one from the south and the other from the
north-east.
Once within the islands, and reasonably clear of all ice, it was an easy
thing for the schooner to run across the basin, or great bay, and reach
the north-eastern extremity of Sealer's Land. As the light would continue
some hours longer, there being very little night in that high latitude in
December, the month that corresponds to our June, Roswell caused a boat to
be lowered and manned, when he pulled at once towards the spot where it
struck him the haven must be found, if there were any such place at all.
Everything turned out as it had been described by Daggett, and great was
our young man's satisfaction when he rowed into a cove that was little
more than two hundred yards in diameter, and which was so completely
land-locked as not to feel the influence of any sea outside. In general,
the great difficulty is to land on any of the antarctic rocks, the
breakers and surf opposing it; but, in this spot, the smallest boat could
be laid with its bows on a beach of shingles, without the slightest risk
of its being injured. The lead also announced good anchorage in about
eight fathoms of water. In a word, this little haven was one of those
small basins that so often occur in mountainous islands, where fragments
of rock appear to have fallen from the principal mass as it was forced
upward out of the ocean, as if purposely intended to meet the wants of
mariners.
Nor was the outer bay, or the large basin formed by the entire group, by
any means devoid of advantages to the navigator. From north to south this
outer bay was at least six leagues in length, while its breadth could not
much have fallen short of four. Of course it was much more exposed to the
winds and waves than the little harbour proper, though Roswell was struck
with the great advantages it offered in several essential particulars. It
was almost clear of ice, while so much was floating about outside of the
circle of islands; thus leaving a free navigation in it for even the
smallest boat. This was mainly owing to the fact that the largest island
had two long crescent-shaped capes, the one at its north-eastern and the
other at its south-eastern extremity, giving to its whole eastern side the
shape of a new moon. The harbour just described was to the southward of,
or within the north-eastern cape, which our young master at once named
Cape Hazard, in honour of his chief mate's vigilance; that officer having
been the first to point out the facilities probably offered by the
formation of the land for an anchorage.
Though rocky and broken, it was by no means difficult to ascend the rugged
banks on the northern side of the harbour, and Gardiner went up it,
attended by Stimson, who of late had much attached himself to the person
of his commander. The height of this barrier above the waves of the ocean
was but a little less than a hundred feet, and when the summit was
reached, a common exclamation of surprise, not to say delight, broke from
the lips of both. Hitherto not a seal of any sort had been seen, and
Gardiner had felt some misgivings touching the benefits that were to be
derived from so much hardship, exposure and enterprise. All doubts,
however, vanished, the instant he got a sight of the northern shore of the
island. This shore, a reach of several miles in extent, was fairly alive
with the monsters of which he was in search. They lay in thousands on the
low rocks that lined that entire side of the island, basking in the sun of
the antarctic seas. There they were, sure enough! Sea Lions, Sea
Elephants, huge, clumsy, fierce-looking and revolting creatures, belonging
properly to neither sea nor land. These animals were constantly going and
coming in crowds, some waddling to the margin of the rocks and tumbling
into the ocean in search of food, while others scrambled out of the water,
and got upon shelves and other convenient places to repose and enjoy the
light of day. There was very little contention or fighting among these
revolting-looking creatures, though nearly every known species of the
larger seals was among them.
"There is famous picking for us, master Stephen," said Roswell to his
companion, fairly rubbing his hands in delight. "One month's smart work
will fill the schooner, and we can be off before the equinox. Does it not
seem to you that yonder are the bones of sea lions, or of seals of some
sort, lying hereaway as if men had been at work on the creatures?"
"No doubt on't at all, Captain Gar'ner; as much out of the way as this
island is--and I never heard of the place afore, old a sealer as I
am--but, as much out of the way as it is, we are not the first to find it.
Somebody has been here, and that within a year or two; and he has picked
up a cargo, too, depend on't."
As all this merely corresponded with Daggett's account of the place,
Roswell felt no surprise; on the contrary, he saw in it a confirmation of
all that Daggett had stated, and as furnishing so much the more reason to
hope for a successful termination to the voyage in all its parts. While on
the rocks, Roswell took such a survey of the localities as might enable
him to issue his orders hereafter with discretion and intelligence. The
schooner was already making short tacks to get close in with the island,
in obedience to a signal to that effect; and the second mate had pulled
out to the entrance of the little haven, with a view to act as pilot.
Before the captain had descended from the summit of the northern barrier,
the vessel came in under her jib, the wind being nearly aft, and she
dropped two anchors in suitable spots, making another flying moor of it.
General joy now illuminated every face. It was, in itself, a great point
gained to get the schooner into a perfectly safe haven, where her people
could take their natural rest at night, or during their watches below,
without feeling any apprehension of being crushed in the ice; but here was
not only security, but the source of that wealth of which they were in
quest, and which had induced them all to encounter so many privations and
so much danger. The crew landed to a man, each individual ascending to the
summit of the barrier, to feast his eyes on the spectacle that lay spread
in such affluent abundance, along the low rocks of the northern side of
the island.
As there were yet several hours of light remaining, Roswell, still
attended by Stimson, each armed with a sealing spear or lance, not only as
a weapon of defence but as a leaping-staff, set out to climb as high up
the central acclivity of the island as circumstances would allow him to
go. He was deceived in the distances, however, and soon found that an
entire day would be necessary to achieve such an enterprise, could it be
performed at all; but he did succeed in reaching a low spur of the central
mountain that commanded a wide and noble view of all that lay to the north
and east of it. From this height, which must have been a few hundred feet
above the level of the ocean, our adventurers got a still better view of
the whole north coast, or of what might have been called the sealing
quarter of the island. They also got a tolerably accurate idea of the
general formation of that lone fragment of rock and earth, as well as of
the islets and islands that lay in its vicinity. The outline of the first
was that of a rude, and of course an irregular triangle, the three
principal points of which were the two low capes already mentioned, and a
third that lay to the northward and westward. The whole of the western or
south-western shore seemed to be a nearly perpendicular wall of rock,
that, in the main, rose some two or three hundred feet above the ocean.
Against this side of the island in particular, the waves of the ocean were
sullenly beating, while the ice drove up 'home,' as sailors express it;
showing a vast depth of water. On the two other sides, it was different.
The winds prevailed most from the south-west, which rendered the
perpendicular face of the island its weather-wall; while the two other
sides of the triangle were more favoured by position. The north side, of
course, lay most exposed to the sun, everything of this nature being
reversed in the southern hemisphere from what we have it in the northern;
while the eastern or north-eastern side, to be precisely accurate, was
protected by the group of islands that lay in its front. Such was the
general character of Sealer's Land, so far as the hurried observations of
its present master enabled him to ascertain. The near approach of night
induced him now to hasten to get off of the somewhat dangerous acclivities
to which he had climbed, and to rejoin his people and his schooner.