THE ENGLISH FLAG
For a few seconds they seemed stupefied, and then a cry of
"Hatteras!" broke from every lip.
On all sides, nothing was visible but the tempestuous ocean. Duk
barked desperately, and Bell could hardly keep him from leaping into
the waves.
"Take the helm, Altamont," said the Doctor, "and let us try
our utmost to find our poor captain."
Johnson and Bell seized the oars, and rowed about for more than an
hour; but their search was vain—Hatteras was lost!
Lost! and so near the Pole, just as he had caught sight of the goal!
The Doctor called, and shouted, and fired signals, and Duk made
piteous lamentations; but there was no response. Clawbonny could
bear up no longer; he buried his head in his hands, and fairly wept
aloud.
At such a distance from the coast, it was impossible Hatteras could
reach it alive, without an oar or even so much as a spar to help
him; if ever he touched the haven of his desire, it would be as a
swollen, mutilated corpse!
Longer search was useless, and nothing remained but to resume the
route north. The tempest was dying out, and about five in the
morning on the 11th of July, the wind fell, and the sea gradually
became calm. The sky recovered its polar clearness, and less than
three miles away the land appeared in all its grandeur.
The new continent was only an island, or rather a volcano, fixed
like a lighthouse on the North Pole of the world.
[Illustration: Two men in a boat observing a volcano in the
distance.]
The mountain was in full activity, pouring out a mass of burning
stones and glowing rock. At every fresh eruption there was a
convulsive heaving within, as if some mighty giant were respiring,
and the masses ejected were thrown up high into the air amidst
jets of bright flame, streams of lava rolling down the sides in
impetuous torrents. In one part, serpents of fire seemed writhing
and wriggling amongst smoking rocks, and in another the glowing
liquid fell in cascades, in the midst of purple vapour, into a
river of fire below, formed of a thousand igneous streams, which
emptied itself into the sea, the waters hissing and seething like a
boiling cauldron.
[Illustration]
Apparently there was only one crater to the volcano, out of which
the columns of fire issued, streaked with forked lightning.
Electricity seemed to have something to do with this magnificent
panorama.
Above the panting flames waved an immense plume-shaped cloud of
smoke, red at its base and black at its summit. It rose with
incomparable majesty, and unrolled in thick volumes.
The sky was ash-colour to a great height, and it was evident that
the darkness that had prevailed while the tempest lasted, which had
seemed quite inexplicable to the Doctor, was owing to the columns of
cinders overspreading the sun like a thick curtain. He remembered a
similar phenomenon which occurred in the Barbadoes, where the whole
island was plunged in profound obscurity by the mass of cinders
ejected from the crater of Isle St. Vincent.
This enormous ignivomous rock in the middle of the sea was six
thousand feet high, just about the altitude of Hecla.
It seemed to rise gradually out of the water as the boat got nearer.
There was no trace of vegetation, indeed there was no shore; the
rock ran straight down to the sea.
"Can we land?" said the Doctor.
"The wind is carrying us right to it," said Altamont. "But I
don't see an inch of land to set our foot upon."
"It seems so at this distance," said Johnson; "but we shall be
sure to find some place to run in our boat at, and that is all we
want."
"Let us go on, then," said Clawbonny, dejectedly.
He had no heart now for anything. The North Pole was indeed before
his eyes, but not the man who had discovered it.
As they got nearer the island, which was not more than eight or ten
miles in circumference, the navigators noticed a tiny fiord, just
large enough to harbour their boat, and made towards it immediately.
They feared their captain's dead body would meet their eyes on the
coast, and yet it seemed difficult for a corpse to lie on it, for
there was no shore, and the sea broke on steep rocks, which were
covered with cinders above watermark.
At last the little sloop glided gently into the narrow opening
between two sandbanks just visible above the water, where she would
be safe from the violence of the breakers; but before she could be
moored, Duk began howling and barking again in the most piteous
manner, as if calling on the cruel sea and stony rocks to yield up
his lost master. The Doctor tried to calm him by caresses, but in
vain. The faithful beast, as if he would represent the captain,
sprang on shore with a tremendous bound, sending a cloud of cinders
after him.
"Duk! Duk!" called Clawbonny.
But Duk had already disappeared.
[Illustration]
After the sloop was made fast, they all got out and went after him.
Altamont was just going to climb to the top of a pile of stones,
when the Doctor exclaimed, "Listen!"
Duk was barking vehemently some distance off, but his bark seemed
full of grief rather than fury.
"Has he come on the track of some animal, do you think?" asked
Johnson.
"No, no!" said Clawbonny, shuddering. "His bark is too
sorrowful; it is the dog's tear. He has found the body of
Hatteras."
They all four rushed forward, in spite of the blinding cinder-dust,
and came to the far-end of a fiord, where they discovered the dog
barking round a corpse wrapped in the British flag!
"Hatteras! Hatteras!" cried the Doctor, throwing himself on the
body of his friend. But next minute he started up with an
indescribable cry, and shouted, "Alive! alive!"
"Yes!" said a feeble voice; "yes, alive at the North Pole, on
Queen's Island."
"Hurrah for England!" shouted all with one accord.
"And for America!" added Clawbonny, holding out one hand to
Hatteras and the other to Altamont.
Duk was not behind with his hurrah, which was worth quite as much as
the others.
For a few minutes the joy of recovery of their captain filled all
their hearts, and the poor fellows could not restrain their tears.
The Doctor found, on examination, that he was not seriously hurt.
The wind threw him on the coast where landing was perilous work,
but, after being driven back more than once into the sea, the hardy
sailor had managed to scramble on to a rock, and gradually to hoist
himself above the waves.
Then he must have become insensible, for he remembered nothing more
except rolling himself in his flag. He only awoke to consciousness
with the loud barking and caresses of his faithful Duk.
After a little, Hatteras was able to stand up supported by the
Doctor, and tried to get back to the sloop.
He kept exclaiming, "The Pole! the North Pole!"
"You are happy now?" said his friend.
"Yes, happy! And are not you? Isn't it joy to find yourself
here! The ground we tread is round the Pole! The air we breathe is
the air that blows round the Pole! The sea we have crossed is the
sea which washes the Pole! Oh! the North Pole! the North Pole!"
He had become quite delirious with excitement, and fever burned in
his veins. His eyes shone with unnatural brilliancy, and his brain
seemed on fire. Perfect rest was what he most needed, for the Doctor
found it impossible to quiet him.
A place of encampment must therefore be fixed upon immediately.
[Illustration: Altamont speedily discovered a grotto composed of
rocks.—P.234]
Altamont speedily discovered a grotto composed of rocks, which had
so fallen as to form a sort of cave. Johnson and Bell carried in
provisions, and gave the dogs their liberty.
About eleven o'clock, breakfast, or rather dinner, was ready,
consisting of pemmican, salt meat, and smoking-hot tea and coffee.
But Hatteras would do nothing till the exact position of the island
was ascertained; so the Doctor and Altamont set to work with their
instruments, and found that the exact latitude of the grotto was
89° 59' 15". The longitude was of little importance, for all
the meridians blended a few hundred feet higher.
The 90° of lat. was then only about three quarters of a mile off,
or just about the summit of the volcano.
When the result was communicated to Hatteras, he desired that a
formal document might be drawn up to attest the fact, and two copies
made, one of which should be deposited on a cairn on the island.
Clawbonny was the scribe, and indited the following document, a copy
of which is now among the archives of the Royal Geographical Society
of London:—
"On this 11th day of July, 1861, in North latitude 89° 59'
15" was discovered Queen's Island at the North Pole, by Captain
Hatteras, Commander of the brig Forward of Liverpool, who signs
this, as also all his companions.
"Whoever may find this document is requested to forward it to the
Admiralty.
"(Signed) JOHN HATTERAS, Commander
of the Forward
"DR. CLAWBONNY
"ALTAMONT, Commander of the Porpoise
"JOHNSON, Boatswain
"BELL, Carpenter."
"And now, friends, come to table," said the Doctor, merrily.
Coming to table was just squatting on the ground.
"But who," said Clawbonny, "would not give all the tables and
dining-rooms in the world to dine at 89" 59' and 15" N.
lat.?"
It was an exciting occasion this first meal at the Pole! What
neither ancients nor moderns, neither Europeans, nor Americans, nor
Asiatics had been able to accomplish was now achieved, and all past
sufferings and perils were forgotten in the glow of success.
"But, after all," said Johnson, after toasts to Hatteras and the
North Pole had been enthusiastically drunk, "what is there so very
special about the North Pole? Will you tell me, Mr. Clawbonny?"
"Just this, my good Johnson. It is the only point of the globe
that is motionless; all the other points are revolving with extreme
rapidity."
"But I don't see that we are any more motionless here than at
Liverpool."
"Because in both cases you are a party concerned, both in the
motion and the rest; but the fact is certain."
Clawbonny then went on to describe the diurnal and annual motions of
the earth—the one round its own axis, the extremities of which are
the poles, which is accomplished in twenty-four hours, and the other
round the sun, which takes a whole year.
Bell and Johnson listened half incredulously, and couldn't see why
the earth could not have been allowed to keep still, till Altamont
informed them that they would then have had neither day nor night,
nor spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
[Illustration]
"Ay, and worse still," said Clawbonny, "if the motion chanced
to be interrupted, we should fall right into the sun in sixty-four
and a half days."
"What! take sixty-four and a half days, to fall?" exclaimed
Johnson.
"Yes, we are ninety-five millions of miles off. But when I say the
Pole is motionless, it is not strictly true; it is only so in
comparison with the rest of the globe, for it has a certain movement
of its own, and completes a circle in about twenty-six thousand
years. This comes from the precession of the equinoxes."
A long and learned talk was started on this subject between Altamont
and the Doctor, simplified, however, as much as possible for the
benefit of Bell and Johnson.
Hatteras took no part in it, and even when they went on to speculate
about the earth's centre, and discussed several of the theories
that had been advanced respecting it, he seemed not to hear; it was
evident his thoughts were far away.
Among other opinions put forth was one in our own days, which
greatly excited Altamont's surprise. It was held that there was an
immense opening at the poles which led into the heart of the earth,
and that it was out of the opening that the light of the Aurora
Borealis streamed. This was gravely stated, and Captain Synness, a
countryman of our own, actually proposed that Sir Humphrey Davy,
Humboldt, and Arago should undertake an expedition through it, but
they refused."
"And quite right too," said Altamont.
"So say I; but you see, my friends, what absurdities imagination
has conjured up about these regions, and how, sooner or later, the
simple reality comes to light."