As the doctor said, _il faut manger_, and, in spite of all they had gone
through, their appetites were so sharp-set that they made a most hearty
repast, and were ready to declare themselves prepared to encounter
anything.
Steve thought that this was rather boastful, and due in a great measure
to the fact that they all, himself included, felt that, for the present
at any rate, they had no danger to encounter, but he said nothing.
In fact, when they returned on deck the noise of the ice had died away
into a distant murmur, and the fiord, with its smooth, blue water, huge,
nearly perpendicular walls, and shattered rocks of dark stone made
brilliant with ice, looked so beautiful that their position appeared to
be more a cause of congratulation than complaint. Certainly they were
blocked in; but ice that shut them up so quickly might, by another
movement, likely enough set them free; and, besides, most of these
northern fiords were like those on the Norwegian or Highland coasts--
channels inside islands; and consequently, for aught they knew to the
contrary, there was a way out to the north which might not be closed.
But the captain had no intention of making a long exploration on that
day. He was content to run on a short distance, to anchor in what
looked to be a snug berth behind a jutting mass of the rocky side which
sheltered them from the north wind in case it should come tearing down
the channel, and faced the sunny south. The fires were then raked out,
and that night, after the watch was set, those who were free indulged in
a long and much-needed sleep.
Steve rose the next morning bright and cheerful, to find the others the
same. The intense cold which accompanied the storm had passed, and
there in the sheltered fiord the air felt, by comparison with that which
they had gone through, quite salutary. The change must have taken place
directly they had gone to rest, for the warm sunshine of the night had
thawed the icy rigging to a great extent, so that ropes and stays had
resumed their customary aspect, and the snow, which had penetrated the
furled sails, was coming away in drips.
It was a wonderful and cheery change, and Steve eagerly waited for the
captain's first proceedings in this unknown land--unknown as far as any
one there could say.
Watty Links was sunning himself as if in imitation of Skene, who was
comfortably basking at the galley door, his head resting upon his paws,
and his figure suggesting that he must be on very friendly terms with
the cook.
The dog seemed to be fast asleep, but one eye opened a little as Steve
approached, and his tail was raised to give three solemn raps on the
deck; then, at a word, Skene sprang up, yawned, stretched himself, and
followed his master.
Steve gave Watty a word, too; but that gentleman only grunted, and the
lad went on to where the men were busy finishing the brushing and
scrubbing of the deck.
Here he encountered Mr Lowe, the mate, who had been round the vessel in
the dinghy to examine the hull as regarded damages. But she had been
too well prepared for her journey into ice-land with a casing of tough
wood as a kind of partial outer skin, and this had only been rubbed and
channelled a little by the blocks which had tried to plough her sides,
so that he had nothing but good to report to the captain, who had been
about for an hour looking bright and eager for the long day's work.
Breaking away from them, Steve joined the Norwegians, who greeted him in
their frank, grave way.
"Well, Mr Steve," said Johannes, "I suppose we shall begin hunting
directly; there is plenty of game about. You and I must go and get some
eggs from the shelves."
"Eggs? there'll be no eggs," said Steve; "they would all be blown away
by the storm. Don't you know that these sea-birds lay their eggs on the
bare stones generally? Oh, but of course you knew that," he added
hurriedly, as it struck him that the Norseman must know ten times as
much as he.
"Yes," said Johannes quietly. "I know that, and I have also noticed how
wonderfully they stay on those shelves in spite of the great winds that
blow. No doubt many were blown off in the storm; but many would stay."
"Why, do the sea-birds stick them down tight?"
"No," said Johannes, smiling. "But you have seen the strange shape of
many of the eggs of sea-birds. They are not like those of other fowls."
"No, they're thick at one end and very thin at the other, going off
quite straight instead of being rounded."
"That is why they stay on the rocks," said the Norseman: "when the wind
strikes them the light, thin end flies round, and they begin to spin so
fast that you can hardly see them turn."
"That's curious," said Steve, who looked hard at Johannes, as if ready
to think that the man was telling him a travellers' tale. But the
Norseman was the last man who could be expected to indulge in fiction,
and the boy hastened to ask about their prospects.
"We all feel satisfied that this place abounds with game," said
Johannes. "Jakobsen here saw a couple of bears, the seals are
plentiful, and we passed yesterday enough of the walrus to feel sure
that there must be plenty more."
"Here, Steve!" cried the captain just then; "breakfast! I am going up
the fiord in one of the boats directly after. Do you care to go?"
"Care to go!" cried Steve. "Oh, I say, Captain Marsham, don't leave me
behind in any of your trips."
The captain did not seem to hear him, but went to where some of the crew
were busy now, unfurling and shaking out the jib preparatory to hoisting
it to dry, while other men were busy with the stay-sail.
The lads brightened up at the order given, and the result was that an
hour later the largest boat, well manned, and prepared for any
emergencies in the way of meeting game, from walrus to wild duck, pushed
off from the ship's side, leaving her floating as snugly and as
motionless as if in a dock.
The morning was glorious, and as they rowed north the various turnings
of the fiord soon shut out all view of the _Hvalross_. After a while
the huge towering cliffs, which had risen up nearly sheer from the
water's edge, began to retire, becoming less precipitous, and leaving a
shore which, from being a mere ribbon, rapidly increased till there was
a wide stretch of level land on either side, showing patches of green
here and there where the snow had melted away; and soon after a narrow
valley opened off to the right, but not going far, its upper end being
choked by a glacier of great extent.
The men rowed as if glad of the chance to stretch their muscles, and
soon after another valley was passed, and again another, but both on the
right, the left side of the fiord being formed by a long, rocky and icy
ridge, showing no gap whatever or means of getting through it toward the
sea.
The valleys they still kept on passing, away east, gave plenty of
promise of deer, so that, even if kept prisoners for some time, there
did not appear to be any lack of food; but the other side was the more
eagerly scanned by the Norsemen, who had the walrus harpoons, ropes, and
lances lying ready to hand, and who longed to wield them again.
The party did not attempt to land, but travelled on for miles, and
always through plenty of water, passing at last a likely-looking chasm
on their left, through which ran a narrow, zigzagging, deep-looking
canal; and in the hope that this might prove to be a way through to the
west coast, it was left for the time being, while they pushed on for a
mile or two farther. Here they came upon an unmistakable passage
through a rocky defile, whose bottom was clear, dark water, going right
on as far as they could see, while, leaving this too so as to finish the
exploration of the main fiord first, they rowed on once more. At last,
turning a headland, they came suddenly in view of a magnificent sight
from the point of view of a lover of nature, but a terribly damping one
to a captain whose ship was caught in a trap; for there, about a mile
away, and spreading from side to side of the fiord, whose blue waters
touched its foot, was another grand glacier, which looked from the
distance like a frozen cataract, flowing down from high up in the
mountains, to empty its solid waters into the fiord.
"No way out," said the captain, after a few minutes' examination of the
great glacier with his glass; and he handed it to the doctor, who was
fain to confess that the fiord was sealed up there as effectually as at
the other end.
"It's very grand," he said with a sigh, "magnificent; but rather a dash
to your hopes."
"Back again!" said the captain, after Steve had had his survey as well,
and longed to be rowed close up to the blue ice grottoes he could see at
the foot of the glacier, beyond which many peaks towered up while the
land was scored with valleys.
The oars dipped again in the blue water, and they rowed back to the
rugged defile they had left to explore on their return.
Here the prospects were more cheerful as far as the boat was concerned;
and they rowed at once into a chasm which seemed to be one vast rift
through the mountain, as if torn open by some convulsion of nature.
There was plenty of room for the boat, and the water looked, from its
blackness, of great depth; but there was room for the boat only in
places, their oars almost touching the perpendicular rocks on either
side, these rising so high that they almost shut out the light. There
was a trace of motion, too, in this water, which soon satisfied the
captain that it might be possible to pass through to the sea. And so it
proved, after about an hour's winding in and out, for the most part in
twilight; for all at once the gloom gave place to a burst of sunshine,
which struck in like sheaves of rays of light, and a little farther on
the chasm opened out, and they were on the western side of the ridge
which had divided them from the sea, while on either hand were rocks,
and before them the piled-up masses of ice-floe, evidently a part of the
army of floating masses which had been forced up all along the shore.
This stopped further progress, and they sat with oars balanced gazing
before them at a chaos of ice, where the previous day all had been open
water.
At first all looked beautiful, but utterly devoid of life. Only,
though, for a short time. Before long something was seen to move a
short distance away; and upon the boat being paddled round an
intervening block of ice, there was a sight which sent a thrill of
excitement through the Norsemen, a feeling which the others shared; for
there, in ample supply, they saw that which they had come for one thing
to seek--a herd of the arctic sea-horses, offering themselves as a ready
aim for the Norsemen's harpoons and lances, as well as for the rifles of
the captain and doctor.
"Will you try for one to-day, sir?" asked Johannes respectfully.
"It would be waste," replied Captain Marsham. "I do not want to destroy
the creatures if we cannot utilise the oil."
"We can, sir," said Johannes quietly. "The ship must come up to the
other end of the fiord, and we can hunt here and cut up the walrus, and
carry the oil out to be boiled down as easily as we could take it
elsewhere."
"Yes, you are right," said the captain. "But how will you reach the
animals?"
"You gentlemen will reach them with your guns," said the man quietly.
"Stalk them?" said the captain.
"Yes; creep up very cautiously, for they may be shy. Try and get
between them and the sea."
So the boat was rowed close up to the edge of the forced-up ice, and the
party landed for their first walrus hunt, Steve shouldering his rifle
with the rest.