AMONG THE ICEBERGS.--DANGERS OF ARCTIC NAVIGATION.--A NARROW ESCAPE
FROM A CRUMBLING BERG.--MEASUREMENT OF AN ICEBERG.
[Sidenote: AMONG THE ICEBERGS.]
Upernavik is not less the limit of safe navigation than the remotest
boundary of civilized existence. The real hardships of our career
commenced before its little white gabled church was fairly lost against
the dark hills behind it. A heavy line of icebergs was discovered to
lie across our course; and, having no alternative, we shot in among
them. Some of them proved to be of enormous size, upwards of two
hundred feet in height and a mile long; others were not larger than
the schooner. Their forms were as various as their dimensions, from
solid wall-sided masses of dead whiteness, with waterfalls tumbling
from them, to an old weather-worn accumulation of Gothic spires, whose
crystal peaks and sharp angles melted into the blue sky. They seemed
to be endless and numberless, and so close together that at a little
distance they appeared to form upon the sea an unbroken canopy of ice;
and when fairly in among them the horizon was completely obliterated.
Had we been in the centre of the Black Forest, we could not have been
more absolutely cut off from "seeing daylight." As the last streak of
the horizon faded from view between the lofty bergs behind us, the
steward (who was of a poetical turn of mind) came from the galley,
and halting for an instant, cast one lingering look at the opening,
and then dropped through the companion scuttle, repeating from the
"Inferno":--
"They who enter here leave hope behind."
The officers were calling from below for their coffee, and it was
never discovered whether the steward was thinking of the cabin or the
icebergs.
During four days we continued threading our way through this apparently
interminable labyrinth. The days passed wearily away, for the wind, at
best but a "cat's paw," often died away to a dead calm, leaving us to
lounge through the hours in a chilly fog or in the broad blaze of the
constant daylight. If this state of things had its novelty, it had too
its dangers and anxieties.
[Sidenote: PHOTOGRAPHING.]
The bergs, influenced only by the under-currents, were, to us,
practically stationary; and the surface flow of the water which drifted
us to and fro, when we lost our steerage-way, rendered our situation
any thing but safe. They soon came to be looked upon as our natural
enemies, and were eyed with suspicion. We were often drifted upon
them, and escaped not without difficulty and alarm; and many times
more we saved ourselves from collision by the timely lowering of the
boats and taking the schooner in tow, or by planting an ice-anchor in
another berg and warping ourselves into greater security. Sometimes
we tied up to a berg and waited for the wind. We had hard work, and
made little progress. I found consolation, however, in my sketch-book,
which was in constant use; and one fine day I got out my photographic
apparatus. Landing on a neighboring island, with the aid of my two
young assistants, Radcliffe and Knorr, I made my first trial at this
new business. It was altogether unsatisfactory, except to convince me
that, with perseverance, we might succeed in obtaining at least fair
pictures.
Practically I knew nothing whatever of the art. It was a great
disappointment to me that I could not secure for the expedition the
services of a professional photographer; but this deficiency did not,
I am happy to say, prevent me, in the end, from obtaining some views
characteristic of the rugged beauties of the Arctic landscape. We had,
however, only books to guide us. With our want of knowledge and an
uncomfortable temperature to contend with, we labored under serious
disadvantages.
Sonntag went ashore with me, and obtained good sextant sights for our
position, and some useful results with the magnetometer. Knorr added
to my collection some fine specimens of birds. The gulls, mollimuks
and burgomeisters, the chattering kittiwake and the graceful tern were
very numerous. They fairly swarmed upon the bergs. The hunters were
often out after eider-ducks, large flocks of which congregate upon
the islands, and sweep over us in long undulating lines. Seals, too,
were sporting about the vessel, bobbing their intelligent, almost
human-looking faces up and down in the still water, marks for the fatal
rifles of our sportsmen. They looked so curiously innocent while making
their inspections of us that I would not have had the heart to kill
them, were it not that they were badly needed for the dogs.
We led a strange weird sort of life,--a spice of danger, with much of
beauty and a world of magnificence. I should have found pleasure in the
lazy hours, but that each hour thus spent was one taken from my more
serious purposes, and this reflection made the days irksome to me.
[Sidenote: IN DANGER.]
Four days of almost constant calm would tax the patience of even
Job-like resignation. We had a breath of wind now and then to tantalize
us, treacherous currents to keep us ever anxious, icebergs always
threatening us; now at anchor, then moored to a berg, and again keeping
free from danger through a hard struggle with the oars. We had many
narrow escapes, one of which, as illustrating a peculiar feature of
Arctic navigation, is perhaps worthy of more particular record.
We had made a little progress during the night, but soon after
breakfast the wind died away, and the schooner lay like a log upon the
water. Giving too little heed to the currents, we were eagerly watching
the indications of wind which appeared at the south, and hoping for
a breeze, when it was discovered that the tide had changed, and was
stealthily setting us upon a nest of bergs which lay to leeward. One of
them was of that description known among the crew by the significant
title of "Touch me not," and presented that jagged, honey-combed
appearance indicative of great age. They are unpleasant neighbors. The
least disturbance of their equilibrium may cause the whole mass to
crumble to pieces, and woe be unto the unlucky vessel that is caught in
the dissolution.
In such a trap it seemed, however, that we stood a fair chance of being
ensnared. The current was carrying us along at an uncomfortably rapid
rate. A boat was lowered as quickly as possible, to run out a line to a
berg which lay grounded about a hundred yards from us. While this was
being done, we grazed the side of a berg which rose a hundred feet
above our topmasts, then slipped past another of smaller dimensions. By
pushing against them with our ice-poles we changed somewhat the course
of the schooner; but when we thought that we were steering clear of the
mass which we so much dreaded, an eddy changed the direction of our
drift, and carried us almost broadside upon it.
[Sidenote: FIGHTING AN ICEBERG.]
The schooner struck on the starboard quarter, and the shock, slight
though it was, disengaged some fragments of ice that were large enough
to have crushed the vessel had they struck her, and also many little
lumps which rattled about us; but fortunately no person was hit. The
quarter-deck was quickly cleared, and all hands, crowding forward,
anxiously watched the boat. The berg now began to revolve, and was
settling slowly over us; the little lumps fell thicker and faster upon
the after-deck, and the forecastle was the only place where there was
the least chance of safety.
At length the berg itself saved us from destruction. An immense mass
broke off from that part which was beneath the surface of the sea, and
this, a dozen times larger than the schooner, came rushing up within a
few yards of us, sending a vast volume of foam and water flying from
its sides. This rupture arrested the revolution, and the berg began to
settle in the opposite direction. And now came another danger. A long
tongue was protruding immediately underneath the schooner; already the
keel was slipping and grinding upon it, and it seemed probable that
we should be knocked up into the air like a foot-ball, or at least
capsized. The side of our enemy soon leaned from us, and we were in
no danger from the worse than hail-stone-showers which had driven us
forward; so we sprang to the ice-poles, and exerted our strength in
endeavoring to push the vessel off. There were no idle hands. Danger
respects not the dignity of the quarter-deck.
[Sidenote: PULLING FOR LIFE.]
After we had fatigued ourselves at this hard labor without any useful
result, the berg came again to our relief. A loud report first startled
us; another and another followed in quick succession, until the noise
grew deafening, and the whole air seemed a reservoir of frightful
sound. The opposite side of the berg had split off, piece after piece,
tumbling a vast volume of ice into the sea, and sending the berg
revolving back upon us. This time the movement was quicker; fragments
began again to fall; and, already sufficiently startled by the alarming
dissolution which had taken place, we were in momentary expectation
of seeing the whole side nearest to us break loose and crash bodily
upon the schooner, in which event she would inevitably be carried down
beneath it; as hopelessly doomed as a shepherd's hut beneath an Alpine
avalanche.
By this time Dodge, who had charge of the boat, had succeeded in
planting an ice-anchor and attaching his rope, and greeted us with
the welcome signal, "_Haul in_." We pulled for our lives, long and
steadily. Seconds seemed minutes, and minutes hours. At length we began
to move off. Slowly and steadily sank the berg behind us, carrying away
the main-boom, and grazing hard against the quarter. But we were safe.
Twenty yards away, and the disruption occurred which we had all so much
dreaded. The side nearest to us now split off, and came plunging wildly
down into the sea, sending over us a shower of spray, raising a swell
which set us rocking to and fro as if in a gale of wind, and left us
grinding in the _débris_ of the crumbling ruin.
[Sidenote: CRUMBLING ICEBERGS.]
At last we succeeded in extricating ourselves, and were far enough
away to look back calmly upon the object of our terror. It was still
rocking and rolling like a thing of life. At each revolution fresh
masses were disengaged; and, as its sides came up in long sweeps, great
cascades tumbled and leaped from them hissing into the foaming sea.
After several hours it settled down into quietude, a mere fragment of
its former greatness, while the pieces that were broken from it floated
quietly away with the tide.
Whether it was the waves created by the dissolution which I have just
described, or the sun's warm rays, or both combined, I cannot pretend
to say, but the day was filled with one prolonged series of reports
of crumbling icebergs. Scarcely had we been moored in safety when a
very large one about two miles distant from us, resembling in its
general appearance the British House of Parliament, began to go to
pieces. First a lofty tower came plunging into the water, starting
from their inhospitable perch an immense flock of gulls, that went
screaming up into the air; over went another; then a whole side settled
squarely down; then the wreck capsized, and at length after five
hours of rolling and crashing, there remained of this splendid mass
of congelation not a fragment that rose fifty feet above the water.
Another, which appeared to be a mile in length and upwards of a hundred
feet in height, split in two with a quick, sharp, and at length long
rumbling report, which could hardly have been exceeded by a thousand
pieces of artillery simultaneously discharged, and the two fragments
kept wallowing in the sea for hours before they came to rest. Even the
berg to which we were moored chimed in with the infernal concert, and
discharged a corner larger than St. Paul's Cathedral.
[Sidenote: EFFECTS OF DISSOLUTION.]
No words of mine can adequately describe the din and noise which filled
our ears during the few hours succeeding the encounter which I have
narrated, and therefore I borrow from the "Ancient Mariner":--
"The ice was here,
The ice was there,
The ice was all around;
It creaked and growled,
And roared and howled
Like demons in a swound."
It seemed, indeed, as if old Thor himself had taken a holiday, and had
come away from his kingdom of Thrudwanger and his Winding Palace of
five hundred and forty halls, and had crossed the mountains with his
chariot and he-goats, armed with his mace of strength, and girt about
with his belt of prowess, and wearing his gauntlets of iron, for the
purpose of knocking these Giants of the frost to right and left for his
own special amusement.
It is, however, only at this season of the year that the bergs are so
unneighborly. They are rarely known to break up except in the months of
July and August. It must be then owing to an unevenly heated condition
of the interior and exterior, caused by the sun's warm rays playing
upon them. From the sunny side of a berg I have not unfrequently seen
pieces discharged in a line almost horizontal, with great force, and
with an explosive report like a quarryman's blast. These explosions and
the crumbling of the ice are always attended with a cloud of vapor, no
doubt caused by the colder ice of the interior being brought suddenly
in contact with the warmer air. The effect is often very remarkable as
well as beautiful, especially when the cloud reflects the rays of the
sun.
[Sidenote: BEAUTIES OF THE ICEBERGS.]
If, however, my pen cannot convey a picture of these icebergs in their
more terrible aspects, it will, I fear, be equally impotent to portray
their wondrous beauties. I have tried it once before, and was much
dissatisfied with the result. I had then, however, a soft sky, when
the whole heavens were a mass of rich, warm color, the sea a dissolved
rainbow, and the bergs great floating monoliths of malachite and marble
bathed in flame. Now the sky was gray, the air clear, and the ice
everywhere a dead white or a cold transparent blue.
I clambered up the sloping side of the berg to which we were tied,
and, from an elevation of nearly two hundred feet, obtained a view
which well repaid me for the trouble of the venture. I am glad to say,
however, that I came down again before St. Paul's Cathedral tumbled
from its corner; an event which sent us drifting away to a less
uncomfortable neighborhood, at the expense of an ice-anchor and eighty
fathoms of manilla line.
As I approached the berg, I was struck with the remarkable transparency
of the water. Looking over the gunwale of the boat, I could trace the
ice stretching downward apparently to an interminable distance. Looking
back at the schooner, its reflection was a perfect image of itself,
and it required only the separation of it from the surrounding objects
to give to the mind the impression that two vessels, keel to keel,
were floating in mid-air. This singular transparency of the water
was further shown when I had reached the top of the berg. Off to the
southeast a high rocky bluff threw its dark shadow upon the water, and
the dividing line between sunlight and shade was so marked that it
required an effort to dispel the illusion that the margin of sunlight
was not the edge of a fathomless abyss.
[Sidenote: VIEW FROM AN ICEBERG.]
It is difficult for the mind to comprehend the immense quantity of ice
which floated upon the sea around me. To enumerate the separate bergs
was impossible. I counted five hundred, and gave up in despair. Near
by they stood out in all the rugged harshness of their sharp outlines;
and from this, softening with the distance, they melted away into the
clear gray sky; and there, far off upon the sea of liquid silver, the
imagination conjured up effigies both strange and wonderful. Birds and
beasts and human forms and architectural designs took shape in the
distant masses of blue and white. The dome of St. Peter's loomed above
the spire of Old Trinity; and under the shadow of the Pyramids nestled
a Byzantine tower and a Grecian temple.
To the eastward the sea was dotted with little islets,--dark specks
upon a brilliant surface. Icebergs, great and small, crowded through
the channels which divided them, until in the far distance they
appeared massed together, terminating against a snow-covered plain that
sloped upward until it was lost in a dim line of bluish whiteness. This
line could be traced behind the serrated coast as far to the north
and south as the eye would carry. It was the great _mer de glace_
which covers the length and breadth of the Greenland Continent. The
snow-covered slope was a glacier descending therefrom,--the parent stem
from which had been discharged, at irregular intervals, many of the
icebergs which troubled us so much, and which have supplied materials
for this too long description.
[Sidenote: TESSUISSAK.]
At length a strong breeze came moaning among the bergs, and sent us on
our way rejoicing. In the evening; of August 21st we were moored in a
little harbor scarcely large enough for the schooner to turn round.
We lay abreast of a rocky slope on which were pitched a few seal-skin
tents, inhabited by a set of well-to-do-looking Esquimaux. I noticed
two or three native huts, overgrown with moss and grass, and one,
better looking than the rest, in which Jensen, my interpreter, informed
me that he had resided. The place is called Tessuissak, which means
"the place where there is a bay." Sonntag went ashore with his sextant
and "horizon," to find out its exact position in the world, an event
which had not before come to pass in its history, and which I fear was
not duly appreciated by its inhabitants.
We should have been away in a couple of hours; but Jensen discovered
that his team was scattered, and many of the animals could not be found
until after much searching. Meanwhile some ice drifted across the mouth
of the harbor, and hermetically sealed us up.
At last the dogs were all aboard, something over thirty in number. The
poor ones I had either given away or exchanged, and we had four superb
teams. Thirty wild beasts on the deck of a little schooner! Think of
it, ye who love a quiet life and a tidy ship! Some of them were in
cages arranged along the bulwarks; others running about the deck; all
of them badly frightened, and most of them fighting. They made day and
night hideous with their incessant howling.
We were all ready for sea, and impatient to be off. Our Arctic wardrobe
was complete with a few purchases made of the natives in exchange for
pork and beans. We were thoroughly prepared for the ice encounters.
The lines were all neatly and carefully coiled; the ice-anchors and
ice-hooks and ice-saws and ice-chisels and ice-poles were all so placed
that they were within easy reach when wanted. The capstan and windlass
were free, and Dodge, who had not forgotten his naval experience,
reported "the decks cleared for action." Would the tide float away the
ice and let us out?
I was growing very restless. The season was moving on; already ice
began to form; the temperature was below freezing. The nights made a
decided scum on the fresh-water pools. I could count upon only fifteen
days of open season. The _Fox_ was frozen up in the "pack" on the 26th
of August, 1857, only four days later, notwithstanding her advantage of
steam-power.
I did every thing I could to while away the tedium of this detention.
I tried the photographic apparatus, and with less satisfactory results
than before. I tried dredging, without much to show for it; botanizing,
and found nothing which I had not already in my Pröven and Upernavik
collections. The flowers warned me of the approach of winter. The
petals had begun to fall, and their drooping heads wore a melancholy
look. They seemed to be pleading with the chilly air for a little
longer lease of life.
[Sidenote: MEASUREMENT OF AN ICEBERG.]
One thing only was satisfactorily done. An immense iceberg lay off
the harbor, and I had the measurement of it in my note-book, and a
sketch of it in my portfolio. The square wall which faced toward my
base of measurement was three hundred and fifteen feet high, and a
fraction over three quarters of a mile long. The natives told me that
it had been grounded for two years. Being almost square-sided above
the sea, the same shape must have extended beneath it; and since, by
measurements made two days before, I had discovered that fresh-water
ice floating in salt water has above the surface to below it the
proportion of one to seven, this crystalized piece of Eric's Greenland
had stranded in a depth of nearly half a mile. A rude estimate of
this monster, made on the spot, gave me in cubical contents about
twenty-seven thousand millions of feet, and in weight something like
two thousand millions of tons. I leave the reader to calculate for
himself its equivalent in dollars and cents, were it transported to
the region of ice-creams and sherry-cobblers, and how much of it would
be required to pay off the national debt, and how much more than
half a century it would withstand the attacks of the whole civilized
world upon it, for all those uses to which luxury-loving man puts the
skimmings of the Boston ponds.
[Sidenote: HEADING FOR MELVILLE BAY.]
The tide at length carried off the ice which imprisoned us, and in the
evening of the 22d we were again threading our way among the bergs and
islands. Cape Shackleton and the Horse's Head lay off the starboard
bow, and we were shaping our course for Melville Bay.
[Illustration]