MARCH TO THE NORTH
Next day at early dawn, Hatteras gave the signal for departure. The
well-fed and well-rested dogs were harnessed to the sledge. They had
been having a good time of it all the winter, and might be expected
to do good service during the summer.
It was six in the morning when the expedition started. After
following the windings of the bay and going past Cape Washington,
they struck into the direct route for the north, and by seven
o'clock had lost sight of the lighthouse and Fort Providence.
During the first two days they made twenty miles in twelve hours,
devoting the remainder of the time to rest and meals. The tent was
quite sufficient protection during sleep.
The temperature began to rise. In many places the snow melted
entirely away, and great patches of water appeared; here and there
complete ponds, which a little stretch of imagination might easily
convert into lakes. The travellers were often up to their knees, but
they only laughed over it; and, indeed, the Doctor was rather glad
of such unexpected baths.
"But for all that," he said, "the water has no business to wet
us here. It is an element which has no right to this country, except
in a solid or vaporous state. Ice or vapour is all very well, but
water—never!"
[Illustration]
Hunting was not forgotten during the march, for fresh meat was a
necessity. Altamont and Bell kept their guns loaded, and shot
ptarmigans, guillemots, geese, and a few young hares; but, by
degrees, birds and animals had been changing from trustfulness to
fear, and had become so shy and difficult to approach, that very
often, but for Duk, the hunters would have wasted their powder.
Hatteras advised them not to go more than a mile away, as there
was not a day, nor even an hour, to lose, for three months of fine
weather was the utmost they could count upon. Besides, the sledge
was often coming to difficult places, when each man was needed to
lend a helping hand.
[Illustration]
On the third day they came to a lake, several acres in extent, and
still entirely frozen over. The sun's rays had little access to
it, owing to its situation, and the ice was so strong that it must
have dated from some remote winter. It was strong enough to bear
both the travellers and their sledge, and was covered with dry snow.
[Illustration]
From this point the country became gradually lower, from which the
Doctor concluded that it did not extend to the Pole, but that most
probably this New America was an island.
Up to this time the expedition had been attended with no fatigue.
The travellers had only suffered from the intense glare of the sun
on the snow, which threatened them with snow-blindness. At another
time of the year they might have avoided this by walking during the
night, but at present there was no night at all. Happily the snow
was beginning to melt, and the brilliancy would diminish as the
process of dissolution advanced.
[Illustration]
On the 28th of June the thermometer rose to 45°, and the rain fell
in torrents. Hatteras and his companions, however, marched stoically
on, and even hailed the downpour with delight, knowing that it would
hasten the disappearance of the snow.
As they went along, the Doctor often picked up stones, both round
ones and flat pebbles, as if worn away by the tide. He thought from
this they must be near the Polar Basin, and yet far as the eye could
reach was one interminable plain.
There was not a trace of houses, or huts, or cairns visible. It was
evident that the Greenlanders had not pushed their way so far north,
and yet the famished tribes would have found their account in
coming, for the country abounded in game. Bears were frequently
seen, and numerous herds of musk-oxen and deer.
[Illustration: Bell killed a fox and Altamont a musk-ox.—P.192]
On the 29th, Bell killed a fox and Altamont a musk-ox. These
supplies of fresh food were very acceptable, and even the Doctor
surveyed, with considerable satisfaction, the haunches of meat they
managed to procure from time to time.
"Don't let us stint ourselves," he used to say on these
occasions; "food is no unimportant matter in expeditions like
ours."
"Especially," said Johnson, "when a meal depends on a lucky
shot."
"You're right, Johnson; a man does not think so much about
dinner when he knows the soup-pot is simmering by the
kitchen-fire."
On the 30th, they came to a district which seemed to have been
upturned by some volcanic convulsion, so covered was it with cones
and sharp lofty peaks.
[Illustration]
A strong breeze from the south-east was blowing, which soon
increased to a hurricane, sweeping over the rocks covered with snow
and the huge masses, of ice, which took the forms of icebergs and
hummocks, though on dry land.
The tempest was followed by damp, warm weather, which caused a
regular thaw.
On all sides nothing could be heard but the noise of cracking ice
and falling avalanches.
The travellers had to be very careful in avoiding hills, and even
in speaking aloud, for the slightest agitation in the air might
have caused a catastrophe. Indeed, the suddenness is the peculiar
feature in Arctic avalanches, distinguishing them from those of
Switzerland and Norway. Often the dislodgment of a block of ice is
instantaneous, and not even a cannon-ball or thunderbolt could be
more rapid in its descent. The loosening, the fall, and the crash
happen almost simultaneously.
[Illustration]
Happily, however, no accident befel any of the party, and three days
afterwards they came to smooth, level ground again.
[Illustration]
But here a new phenomenon met their gaze—a phenomenon which was
long a subject of patient inquiry among the learned of both
hemispheres. They came to a long chain of low hills which seemed to
extend for miles, and were all covered on the eastern side with
bright red snow.
It is easy to imagine the surprise and half-terrified exclamations
of the little company at the sight of this long red curtain; but the
Doctor hastened to reassure them, or rather to instruct them, as to
the nature of this peculiar snow. He told them that this same red
substance had been found in Switzerland, in the heart of the Alps,
and that the colour proceeded solely from the presence of certain
corpuscles, about the nature of which for a long time chemists could
not agree. They could not decide whether these corpuscles were of
animal or vegetable origin, but at last it was settled that they
belonged to the family of fungi, being a sort of microscopic
champignon of the species Uredo.
Turning the snow over with his iron-tipped staff, the Doctor found
that the colouring matter measured nine feet deep. He pointed this
out to his companions, that they might have some idea of the
enormous number of these tiny mushrooms in a layer extending so many
miles.
This phenomenon was none the less strange for being explained, for
red is a colour seldom seen in nature over any considerable area.
The reflection of the sun's rays upon it produced the most
peculiar effect, lighting up men, and animals, and rocks with a
fiery glow, as if proceeding from some flame within. When the snow
melted it looked like blood, as the red particles do not decompose.
It seemed to the travellers as if rivulets of blood were running
among their feet.
[Illustration]
The Doctor filled several bottles with this precious substance to
examine at leisure, as he had only had a glimpse of the Crimson
Cliffs in Baffin's Bay.
[Illustration]
This Field of Blood, as he called it, took three hours to get over,
and then the country resumed its usual aspect.
[Illustration: At Bell's suggestion torches were
contrived.—P.199]