Produced by F E H, MWS and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Transcriber’s Note
Author’s name [Richard Mayde] supplied by the transcriber.
In some chapters, there are very few paragraph
breaks therefore the illustrations have been positioned
as close as possible to their original position in the book.
There are 18 illustrations within the book without
accompanying captions, so I have used the individual captions
from the Table of Illustrations and have placed them
beneath each illustration.
I have retained the title ‘Greenlanders’ in the Table of
Illustrations page 67, plus retained the illustration title as quoted
in the body of the book as, ‘A Young Man. A Young Woman’.
Page 54: The word ‘they’ has been added to the sentence.
....the danger would be greatest, they made with their dogs....
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE FROZEN NORTH.
_ILLUSTRATED._
NEW YORK:
DODD, MEAD, AND COMPANY,
751 BROADWAY.
_Copyright, 1876, Dodd, Mead, & Company._
_Press of Rand, Avery, and Company, Boston._
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. A Russian Carriage. FRONTISPIECE
2. An Old Woman of Greenland. PAGE 9
3. The Barren Grounds in Summer. 14
4. Egg Gathering. 21
5. Arctic Birds. 23
6. Bird Catching. 25
7. The Edge of a Pack. 30
8. Lifted by the Ice. 32
9. Among the Icebergs. 33
10. Encounter with Icebergs. 40
11. An Arctic Scene. 40
12. A Greenland Glacier. 43
13. Arctic Navigation. 47
14. Seal-hunting on the Ice. 50
15. Walrus. 53
16. The Walrus. 55
17. Polar Bears. 61
18. An Unpleasant Experience. 62
19. Greenlanders. 66
20. Esquimaux Hut. 70
21. Esquimaux Village. 73
22. Dog Sledge. 76
23. Arctic Dog. 77
24. Danish Settlement in Greenland. 81
25. The River Jokulsa. 85
26. Mt. Hecla. 85
27. Great Geyser. 94
28. Reykjavik. 95
29. Travelling in Iceland. 98
30. Icelandic Interior. 101
CHAPTER I.
As we travel northward, leaving the sunny lands of the temperate zone,
we come after a time to mighty and seemingly endless forests of pines
and firs. Mile after mile, they stretch away in a lonely silence. The
wintry gale that rages among them is answered only by the howl of
the wolf, while a few bears, reindeer, and the arctic fox, alone of
animals, find a home in their snowy depths.
[Illustration: AN OLD WOMAN OF GREENLAND.]
Gradually as we go onward the trees are more stunted, gradually the
pines and firs give way to dwarfed willows, and soon we come to the
barren grounds, a vast region extending about the pole, and greater in
size than the whole continent of Europe.
The boundary line of these barren grounds, is not everywhere equally
distant from the pole. The temperature of arctic lands, like that of
other climes, is affected greatly by the surrounding seas and by ocean
currents. In the sea-girt peninsula of Labrador they reach their most
extreme southerly point; and as a rule they extend southward where the
land borders on the ocean, receding far to the northward in the centre
of the continents.
All this vast territory is a frozen waste, its only vegetation a few
mosses and lichens. The few weeks of arctic summer do not allow the
growth of even shrubs. As we advance through the forests the trees
are more and more dwarfed. Soon they become merely stunted stems, for
though they put forth buds in summer, winter is upon them before wood
can be formed. On the shores of the Great Bear Lake, it is said that a
trunk a foot in diameter requires four hundred years for its formation.
A more desolate scene than the barren grounds in winter, it is
difficult to imagine. Buried deep under the heaped up snows, with the
winds howling across their dreary wastes, and an intense cold of which
we have little idea, it is no wonder that almost no animal, save the
hardy arctic fox, can find a subsistence upon them.
But no sooner does the returning sun bring the short weeks of summer
than all this is changed, and they are the scene of varied life and
activity. Vast herds of reindeer come from the forests to feed upon
the fresh mosses, flocks of sea-birds fly northward to lay their eggs
upon the rocks, and to seek their food in the rivers teeming with fish,
while millions of gnats fill the air in clouds, enjoying to the utmost
their short lives.
And their lives are indeed short, for it is almost July before the
snows are gone and the hardy lichens can send forth shoots, and by
September all vegetation is again beneath its snowy coverlet for
another long nine months’ sleep. The reindeer have, before this, made
haste to seek the shelter of the forest, the bears have disposed of
themselves for their winter sleep, the birds have all sought the
milder region southward, and all is again silence and solitude.
It is due to the snow, that at first seems such an enemy to vegetation,
that even such low forms of life as mosses are able to exist on the
barren grounds. Before the intense cold of the arctic winter has set
in, they are buried deep beneath its warm folds. Outside the wind may
howl and the cold grow more and more severe till the thermometer marks
for months forty degrees below zero; beneath the snow an even and
comparatively mild temperature exists. Dr. Kane found that when the
outside air was thirty below zero, beneath eight feet of snow it was
twenty-six above zero, a difference of fifty-six degrees.
[Illustration: THE BARREN GROUNDS IN SUMMER.]
Great as are the barren grounds, or tundri, as they are called in
Siberia, the arctic forest region is far greater, for it reaches
around the globe in a broad belt, nearly a thousand miles in width. Few
indeed are the occupants of these great tracts, compared with the more
favored southern lands. The poverty of the soil, and the severity of
the climate, prevent the growth of crops, and man is offered only such
subsistence as can be gained by hunting and fishing. In consequence
they are inhabited but by scattered tribes of savages and by hardy
trappers, who brave their dangers for the rich booty to be gained from
their many fur-bearing animals.
Of all the four footed inhabitants of these forests, by far the most
interesting is the reindeer. What the camel is to the native of the
desert, the reindeer is to the Lapp, or the Samojede. While it cannot
compare with its finely formed relative the stag, it is excellently
fitted for the situation in which nature has placed it. Its hoofs are
very broad, forming a species of snow shoe, which prevents it from
sinking in the drifts and allows it to leap and run with the greatest
swiftness, while the squarely-built body, short legs and broad hoofs
are of the greatest help in swimming. The most surprising thing about
reindeer is their sense of smell. For the greater part of the year,
their food consists entirely of mosses which are buried beneath the
snow. These they uncover with their feet, having first discovered their
existence by their scent, and no case has ever been known, where a
reindeer has made a mistake and dug for moss in vain. They are easily
domesticated and taught to draw a light sledge, though it is said when
overloaded or otherwise maltreated, they turn upon their persecutors
with horns and hoofs, and force him to take refuge in flight. In many
countries, as for instance Lapland, they form the chief article of
wealth and are owned in herds of thousands. Unfortunately an epidemic
disease often appears, and the wealthy proprietor sees his whole herd
die in a single season, while he himself must resort to the uncertain
occupation of the fisherman for support. Besides the reindeer the
arctic forests are the home of many other animals. Such are the black
bear, the marten, ermine, mink, sable, various foxes, and others.
Notwithstanding the vast extent of this forest region and the small
number of its inhabitants, so eagerly are all these animals hunted for
their skins, that already certain varieties are fast disappearing.
The hand of every man is against them, and hundreds of thousands fall
every year, either by the arrow or trap of the native races, or the
rifle ball of the trapper. The number of men who follow this life is
very great. Wild, hazardous and lonely as it is, it possesses for them
a strange attraction, and though they may forsake it for a time, they
invariably return to it.
Nearly the whole of the arctic lands of North America are hunted over
by the Hudson’s Bay Company, which has its trading forts and its
outposts at intervals over the whole country, from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, and northward to the barren grounds. This great company
employs as overseers, guides, or voyageurs, over three thousand men,
and may be said beside to have in its service nearly every Indian in
North America; in all perhaps a hundred thousand men.
Communication is held between the posts in the interior by means
of voyageurs, who, with birch bark canoes, paddle up the rivers,
carrying immense loads, passing onward through the trackless forest as
unerringly as if upon a broad highway. “When after a hard day’s
work, they rest for the night, the axe is immediately at work in the
forest, and in less than ten minutes the tent is up, and the kettle
simmering on the fire. They drag the unloaded canoe ashore, turn it
over and examine it carefully, either to fasten again some loose
stitches or to paint over some damaged part with fresh rosin. Under
the cover of the boat, and with a flaming fire in the foreground, they
bid defiance to the weather. At one o’clock in the morning _lève lève_
is called; in half an hour the encampment is broken up, and the boat
reladen and relaunched. At eight in the morning a halt is made for
breakfast, for which three-quarters of an hour are allowed. About two,
half an hour’s rest suffices for a cold dinner. Eighteen hours work and
six rest make out the day.” And this is not all; presently a rapid is
reached. Here the whole cargo has to be taken out, the boat lifted on
the shoulders of one of the men and carried perhaps for several miles
through swamp and brier, while the cargo is carried by the others in a
like laborious manner.
[Illustration: EGG GATHERING.]
[Illustration: ARCTIC BIRDS.]
But the scene of greatest life, in the arctic regions, is to be found
among the birds. On the rocky cliffs, that stand out in the Polar sea
in the short northern summer, they are to be found in such quantities
as to literally darken the sky. Auks, and gulls, and ducks, cover the
rocks. The most daring arctic explorer has never penetrated to lands
where he has not found the eider duck. Well may this bird dare to
make journeys into tracts where none can follow. With its warm coat it
can bid defiance to the cold, and on its swift wing it can fly over
fifty miles an hour, and should danger arise, can soon be beyond its
reach. The hardy natives of Iceland gather each year large quantities
of their feathers, which have a high value. Reaching their nests
they take from them the delicate feathers, which the female bird has
pulled from her breast to make a soft covering for the expected young.
No sooner does she find her nest bare, than she again pulls a fresh
supply, which is again taken from her. A third time she lines anew her
nest, and now she is left in peace, for if again disturbed, the bird
deserts entirely her accustomed breeding place, and seeks a new region
beyond the reach of man.
[Illustration: BIRD CATCHING.]
Coasts, such as those of Norway, where the rocky cliffs rising hundreds
of feet above the sea stretch for mile after mile, are especially
fancied by sea birds. Every ledge is crowded with their nests, while
the air is dark with them. But no cliff can protect them against their
great enemy, man. No cliff is too inaccessible for him to reach.
Where the rocks can be approached from the sea, a boat lands two men
on some projecting ledge. Their only aid is a long pole terminating
in a hook, and the rope by which they are tied together. One, using
his hands and feet, proceeds to climb up the cliff to some higher
ledge, while his comrade fixing the hook firmly in his leathern belt,
pushes from below till the point is reached. He himself is then pulled
upward, by the rope, till both stand together. Continuing this perilous
journey, they often ascend to a height of five or six hundred feet
above the sea. Here the birds are so tame that they have but to put
forth their hand to catch them, and the work of destruction begins.
As fast as killed, they are thrown into the sea and picked up by the
boat’s crew in waiting below. Sometimes when the weather is fair, the
men spend several days on the cliff, sleeping at night on some broad
ledge.
When the cliff cannot be reached in this way, it is common for a man
to be lowered over the face of the rock by a rope, as is shown in the
picture. Hanging thus in mid-air, with the ocean roaring a thousand
feet below and the sea-birds flying wildly about him, a single mistake,
or often a moment’s hesitation, would cause his certain death, and a
cool head alone can be trusted at this perilous work.
It is said that an ancient law of Norway required that when a man fell
in this way, his nearest relative should at once take the position in
which the dead man was. If he could keep it in safety, Christian burial
was allowed the body, but if he refused to undertake it, death was
considered the result of recklessness, and the dead man was considered
a suicide.