[Illustration: THE CREW OF THE “HANSA” DRAGGING THEIR BOATS
ACROSS THE ICE.
_See page 257._]
THE
ARCTIC WORLD:
ITS PLANTS, ANIMALS, AND NATURAL PHENOMENA.
With a Historical Sketch of Arctic Discovery,
DOWN TO THE
BRITISH POLAR EXPEDITION:
1875–76.
[Illustration: “Here let the billows stiffen, and have
rest.”--COLERIDGE.]
LONDON:
T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW;
EDINBURGH; AND NEW YORK.
PREFACE.
Englishmen have always felt a special interest in the regions of the
icy North, from the days when Dr. Thorne first proposed the search
after a passage to the Pole, down to these present times, when the
Expedition under Captains Nares and Stephenson has shown that such a
passage is virtually impracticable. The interest originally kindled
by commercial considerations has been maintained by purer and loftier
motives,--by the thirst after knowledge, and the sympathy with the
brave deeds of brave men. And it must be admitted that our national
virtues of resolute perseverance and patient courage have never been
more happily displayed than in the prosecution of the great work
of Arctic Discovery. Our explorers have refused to know when they
were beaten; and in defiance of a terrible climate, of icebergs and
ice-floes, of hurricanes and driving snow-storms, of obstacles,
dangers, and difficulties, have pressed onward, until the latest
adventurers have crossed the Threshold of the Unknown Region, and
confronted the immense plain of ice that extends for four hundred miles
from the Pole. Their labours, indeed, have been attended by the shadows
of melancholy disasters, and the long Arctic night closes over the
graves of many whom England was loath to lose; but in their successful
issue they have brought us acquainted with the phenomena of a strange
and wonderful world, and opened up to us a succession of scenes of the
most remarkable character.
There can be no question that in the frozen wastes and snowy
wildernesses lurks a powerful fascination, which proves almost
irresistible to the adventurous spirit. He who has once entered the
Arctic World, however great his sufferings, is restless until he
returns to it. Whether the spell lies in the weird magnificence of
the scenery, in the splendours of the heavens, in the mystery which
still hovers over those far-off seas of ice and remote bays, or in
the excitement of a continual struggle with the forces of Nature, or
whether all these influences are at work, we cannot stop to inquire.
But it seems to us certain that the Arctic World has a romance and an
attraction about it, which are far more powerful over the minds of men
than the rich glowing lands of the Tropics, or the
“Summer-isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea,”
which are crowned with the bread-fruit and the palm, the spontaneous
gifts of a liberal soil. We follow with far deeper interest the
footprints of a Parry and a Franklin than those of a Wallis, a
Carteret, or even a Cook.
The general reader, therefore, may not be displeased at the attempt of
the present writer to put before him, with bold touches, and in outline
rather than in detail, a picture of that Polar World which is so
awful and yet so fascinating. In the following pages he will find its
principal features sketched, its chief characters legibly and clearly
traced. They are not intended for the scientific,--though it is hoped
the scientific, if they fall in with them, will find no ground for
censure. They aim at describing the wonders of sky and sea and land;
the glories of the aurora; the beauty of the starry Arctic night; the
majesty of iceberg and glacier; the rugged dreariness of the hummocky
fields of ice; the habits of the Polar bear, the seal, and the walrus;
and the manners and customs of the various tribes which frequent the
shores of the Polar seas and straits, or dwell on the border-land of
the Frigid Zone. In a word, it has been the writer’s object to bring
together just such particulars as might enable the intelligent reader
to realize to himself the true character of the world which extends
around the North Pole. In carrying out this object, he has necessarily
had recourse to the voyages of numerous explorers and the narratives of
sundry scientific authorities; and he believes that not a statement has
been ventured which could not claim their support.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Various routes between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
described--Advantages of a North-West Passage, if
practicable--What is to be gained from further Arctic
exploration--What zoology would gain--The problem of the
migration of birds--About the Knots--Boundaries of the North
Polar Regions--Their principal geographical
features--Divisions into two zones, or sections--The stony
tundras--The flora of the North--The Siberian desert--Limits
of perpetual snow--General character of life in the Polar
World 9–21
CHAPTER II.
An imaginary voyage--View of the Greenland coast--A splendid
picture of land and sea--The winter night and its atmospheric
phenomena--The aurora borealis described--Its peculiarities and
possible causes--Winds and whirlwinds--Phenomena of
refraction--The “ice-blink”--Characteristics of the Arctic
night--Described by Dr. Kane--Remarkable atmospheric
conditions--Effect of prolonged darkness on animal
life--Characteristics of the Arctic spring--A spring landscape
described by Dr. Hayes--Summer in the North--The Northern
heavens and the Pole-Star--List of Northern constellations--The
Great Bear--Some conspicuous stars 22–40
CHAPTER III.
The Polar seas--Formation of icebergs--Their dimensions and
appearance--Description of colossal bergs--Their danger to
navigation--Adventures with bergs--Quotations from various
writers--Dissolution of an iceberg--Icebergs in Melville
Bay--How icebergs are formed--Reference to icebergs in the
Alpine lakes--Professor Tyndall quoted--Breaking up of a berg
described by Dr. Hayes--A vision of icebergs--Their range--The
“pack-ice” described--Extent of the ice-fields--“Taking the
pack”--An incident described by Admiral Beechey--Dangerous
position of Captain Parry’s ships--Character of an
ice-field--Crossing an ice-field--Its extraordinary
dimensions--Animal life in the Polar
seas--Walrus-hunting--Quotation from Mr. Lamont--A disagreeable
process--Natural history of the walrus--The walrus and the
Polar bear--Historical sketch of the walrus-fishery--Adventure
with walruses--A walrus-hunt described--Hunting in an Arctic
gale--The Phocidæ family--Natural history of the seal--Different
genera--Seal’s flesh, and its uses--An incident in Dr. Kane’s
expedition--An Eskimo hut--An Eskimo seal-hunter--The whale, and
all about it--The Greenland whale--What is whalebone?--Food of
the whale--The Northern rorqual--Eskimo whale-fishers--About the
narwhal--The black dolphin--The orc, or grampus--The Polar
bear--Bears and seals--Particulars of the habits of the Polar
bear--His voracity--Affection of the bear for her young--An
episode described--Battle with a bear--The bear and the Eskimo
dogs--The Arctic night--Its various phases--Coming of the
sun--Return of the birds--Guillemots and auks--About the
puffins--The mergansers--The smew, or white nun--The eider duck
described--Eider ducks in Iceland--Collecting eider down--The
wild swan--Fables about its death-song--The Arctic waters, and
their teeming life--Migrations of fish 41–107
CHAPTER IV.
The formation of snow described--Snow-crystals--Effects of the
crystallizing force--Ice-flowers--Sir David Brewster’s
experiment with polarised light--Regelation and moulding of
ice--Characteristics of glacier-ice--Cleavage in compact
ice--The aspect of glaciers--On the motion of glaciers--History
of its discovery--Moraines described--Theory of
glacier-motion--Quotation from Professor Tyndall--Glaciers of
the Polar Regions--Glacier in Bell Sound--Formation of
icebergs--Icebergs in Baffin Bay--Glacier described by Dr.
Hayes--The Greenland Mer de Glace--Glacier of
Sermiatsialik--The great Humboldt Glacier--Discovered by Dr.
Kane--Description of its features--Kane’s theory of
icebergs--Notes on the glacier 108–134
CHAPTER V.
Red snow, what is it?--First forms of vegetable life--The
lichens, their variety--Reindeer moss--Rock-hair--Rock tripe,
or _tripe de roche_--Used as food--Iceland moss and its
properties--The mosses of the Arctic Regions--Scurvy-grass--The
fly-agaric--Microscopic vegetation--A memorial of
Franklin--Phænogamous plants of the North--Cryptogamous
plants--Vegetation in Novaia Zemlaia--In Spitzbergen--In
Kamtschatka--The _Fritallaria sarrana_--The wooded and desert
zones--Forms of animal life--Natural history of the
reindeer--His usefulness--His food--Reindeer and
wolves--Cunning of the Arctic wolf--Domesticity of the
wolf--The musk-ox described--Captain M’Clintock quoted--The
Arctic fox--His wariness--A fox-trap--The bear and the
fox--The Arctic hare--The Alpine hare--The Hudson Bay
lemming--The Mustelidæ family--The marten--The sable--The
polecat--About the glutton, or wolverine--anecdotes of his
extraordinary sagacity--A great enemy to the trapper--The biter
bit--Arctic birds--The falcons--The crows--Distribution of
animals 135–161
CHAPTER VI.
Iceland, its extent--Its history--Its volcanoes--Hekla and
its eruptions--Eruption of the Skaptá Jokul--The geysers,
or boiling springs--Their phenomena described--Account of the
Strokr--Coasts and valleys of Iceland--The
Thingvalla--Description of Reikiavik, the capital--Character
of the Icelander--His haymaking operations--His dwelling
described--An Icelandic church--Icelandic clergy--Travelling
in Iceland--Its inconveniences--Fording the streams--Fishing
in Iceland 162–174
CHAPTER VII.
The land of the Eskimos--Range of the so-called Arctic
Highlanders--Danish settlements in Greenland--Upernavik
described--Jacobshav’n--Godhav’n--Their Eskimo
inhabitants--The Moravian Missions--Characteristics of the
nomadic Eskimos--Their physical qualities--Their mode of
dress--An Eskimo hut--The Eskimo kayak, or canoe--Their
weapons and implements--Hostility between the Eskimos and
Red Indians--Eskimo settlement at Anatoak--Eskimo
singing--Food of the Eskimos--Dr. Hayes’ intercourse with
the Eskimos--The story of Hans the Hunter--The Eskimo
dogs--Anecdote of Toodla--The Eskimo sledge--Equipment
of the sledge--Equipment of an Eskimo hunter--General
character of the Eskimos 175–196
CHAPTER VIII.
Lapland, its divisions, extent, and boundaries--Its
climate--Its inhabitants--Their physical
characteristics--Dress of the Lapps--Their
superstitions--The Mountain Lapps--Their migratory
habits--Their _tuguria_, or huts, described--Milking the
reindeer--Sledging and skating--A Lapp’s skates--A Lapp’s
sledge--The Lapp hunters--Encounter with a bear--Intemperance
of the Mountain Lapps--The Forest Lapps--Interior economy of
a Lapland hut--Lapps at Bjorkholm--Racial characteristics of
the Lapps--Habits and manners of the Lapps--The Lapp
dialect--The Lapps and the Quénes--The stationary Lapps, and
their _gârds_ 197–207
CHAPTER IX.
The Samojedes--Their degrading superstitions--Samojede idol
at Waigatz--The _Tadebtsios_, or spirits--Influence of the
_Tadibe_, or sorcerer--His mode of incantation--Customs of
the Samojedes--The Ostiaks--Their _Schaïtans_ and
_Schamans_--Residence of the Ostiaks--Hunting the white
bear--Kamtschatka described--Its inhabitants--Their physical
peculiarities--The dog of Kamtschatka--His qualities--His
usefulness--How he is trained--Siberia and its tribes--The
Jakuts--Their _jarts_, or huts--Their hardy horses--The
character of the Jakuts--Jakut travellers--Jakut merchants
and their caravans--Dreariness of the country they
inhabit--Hunting the reindeer--At Kolymsk--The Tungusi--His
mode of travelling--His food--The Tchuktche, and their
land--Their activity as traders--Tobacco, a staple of
commerce--Visit to a Tchuktche family--The Tenngyk and the
Oukilon 208–221
CHAPTER X.
History of Discovery in the Arctic Regions--Expeditions of
Thorne and Hore--Of Sir Hugh Willoughby--Martin Frobisher
and his adventures--Discoveries of Davis--Hudson, his
discovery of Hudson Bay, Jan Mayen, and Cape Wolstenholm--His
fate--Baffin’s voyages--Highway to the North Pole--Expedition
of Ross and Parry--Parry’s second expedition--Loss of the
_Fury_--Overland journeys--Franklin’s last expedition--The
search after Franklin--Discovery of relics--Captain Penny’s
expedition--Sir Robert M’Clure’s discovery of the North-West
Passage--Voyage of M’Clintock--Lieutenant Hobson’s
discoveries--Dr. Kane’s expedition--Explores Smith
Sound--Discovers the Humboldt Glacier and Kennedy
Channel--Wintering in the Arctic Regions--Dr. Hayes’
expedition--Voyage of the _Germania_ and the _Hansa_--Loss
of the latter--Escape of the crew on an ice-raft--Arrival
at Greenland--Adventures of the _Germania_--Barents and
Carlsen--Austrian expedition under Payer--Voyage of the
_Polaris_--Death of Hall--Tyson’s voyage on an
ice-raft--Rescued by the _Tigress_--Captain Buddington
abandons the _Polaris_--His winter quarters--Boat voyage--Safe
arrival--British expedition of 1875–76--Departure of the
_Alert_ and _Discovery_--Narrative of the expedition--Winter
amusements--The sledging-parties--Important discoveries--No
road to the Pole--Return home--Cruise of the Pandora 222–337
[Illustration: NORTH POLAR REGIONS]
List of Illustrations.
1. THE CREW OF THE “HANSA” DRAGGING THEIR BOATS ACROSS
THE ICE (FRONTISPIECE).
2. A DESERT OF ICE IN THE ARCTIC REGION, 13
3. THE SWAMPS OF THE OBI, 16
4. IN THE FOREST ZONE OF THE NORTH (FULL-PAGE), 17
5. THE MIDNIGHT SUN (FULL-PAGE), 23
6. OFF THE COAST OF GREENLAND, 25
7. MOONLIGHT IN THE POLAR WORLD, 26
8. THE AURORA BOREALIS, 28
9. THE AURORA BOREALIS--THE CORONA, 29
10. ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS:--REFLECTION
OF ICEBERGS, 32
11. ADVENT OF SPRING IN THE POLAR REGIONS, 35
12. URSA MAJOR AND URSA MINOR, 36
13. NEBULA IN ANDROMEDA, 39
14. ARCHED ICEBERG OFF THE GREENLAND COAST, 42
15. AMONG THE BERGS--A NARROW ESCAPE, 43
16. ICEBERG AND ICE-FIELD, MELVILLE BAY, GREENLAND, 45
17. ORIGIN OF ICEBERGS--EXTENSION OF A GLACIER SEAWARDS, 47
18. THE ALETSCH GLACIER, SWITZERLAND, FROM THE ÆGGISCHHORN,
SHOWING ITS MORAINES, 48
19. THE MARJELEN SEA, SWITZERLAND, 48
20. FALL OF AN ICEBERG (FULL-PAGE), 51
21. IN AN ICE-PACK, MELVILLE BAY, 53
22. CHANNEL IN AN ICE-FIELD, 54
23. “NIPPED” IN AN ICE-FIELD, 54
24. AMONG THE ICE-HUMMOCKS (FULL-PAGE), 57
25. HUNTING THE WALRUS, 61
26. THE WALRUS, OR MORSE, 63
27. A WALRUS FAMILY, 64
28. FIGHT BETWEEN A WALRUS AND A POLAR BEAR, 64
29. BOAT ATTACKED BY A WALRUS (FULL-PAGE), 65
30. FIGHT WITH A WALRUS, 68
31. HERD OF SEALS, NEAR THE DEVIL’S THUMB, BAFFIN SEA,
GREENLAND, 71
32. THE COMMON SEAL, 73
33. SHOOTING A SEAL, 74
34. THE OTARY, 75
35. THE HOODED SEAL, 76
36. AN ESKIMO SEAL-HUNTER, 77
37. THE GREENLAND WHALE, 79
38. NARWHALS, MALE AND FEMALE, 82
39. A SHOAL OF DOLPHINS, 83
40. POLAR BEARS, 84
41. BEAR CATCHING A SEAL, 86
42. BEARS DESTROYING A CACHE, 88
43. FIGHT WITH A WHITE BEAR (FULL-PAGE), 89
44. STALKING A BEAR, 94
45. SEA-BIRDS IN THE POLAR REGIONS, 97
46. THE GREAT AUK--RAZOR-BILLS--THE PUFFIN, 98
47. PUFFINS, 99
48. THE GOOSANDER, 100
49. A BIRD “BAZAAR” IN NOVAIA ZEMLAIA (FULL-PAGE), 101
50. THE BLACK-BACKED GULL, 103
51. THE EIDER-DUCK, 103
52. THE HAUNT OF THE WILD SWAN, 105
53. VARIOUS FORMS OF SNOW-CRYSTALS, 109
54. EXHIBITION OF ICE-FLOWERS BY PROJECTION, 110
55. ICE-FLOWERS, 110
56. MOULDING ICE, 112
57. A POLAR GLACIER, 118
58. GLACIER, ENGLISH BAY, SPITZBERGEN, 119
59. GLACIER, BELL SOUND, SPITZBERGEN, 120
60. STEAMER “CHARGING” AN ICEBERG, UPERNAVIK, GREENLAND
(FULL-PAGE), 121
61. FORCING A PASSAGE THROUGH THE ICE (FULL-PAGE), 125
62. THE GLACIER OF SERMIATSIALIK, GREENLAND (FULL-PAGE), 129
63. PROTOCOCCUS NIVALIS, 136
64. WILD REINDEER, 145
65. THE MUSK-OX, 150
66. ARCTIC FOXES, 152
67. A FOX-TRAP, 153
68. THE ERMINE, OR SABLE MARTEN, 156
69. THE GLUTTON, OR WOLVERINE, 157
70. PTARMIGAN, 160
71. AN ICELANDIC LANDSCAPE, 163
72. MOUNT HEKLA, FROM THE VALLEY OF HEVITA, 164
73. THE GREAT GEYSER, 166
74. HARBOUR OF REIKIAVIK, 169
75. ICELANDERS FISHING FOR NARWHAL, 174
76. UPERNAVIK, GREENLAND, 176
77. DISKO ISLAND, GREENLAND, 177
78. GODHAV’N, DISKO ISLAND, GREENLAND, 177
79. DANISH SETTLEMENT OF JACOBSHAV’N, GREENLAND, 178
80. BUILDING AN ESKIMO HUT, 181
81. THE ESKIMO KAYAK, 182
82. THE ESKIMO OOMIAK, 183
83. DR. HAYES FALLS IN WITH HANS THE HUNTER (FULL-PAGE), 187
84. ESKIMO DOGS, 191
85. ESKIMO SLEDGE AND TEAM (FULL-PAGE), 193
86. REINDEER IN LAPLAND, 200
87. TRAVELLING IN LAPLAND, 201
88. FISHER LAPPS, 203
89. SAMOJEDE HUTS ON WAIGATZ ISLAND, 209
90. A SAMOJEDE FAMILY, 210
91. JAKUT HUNTER AND BEAR, 212
92. KAMTSCHATKANS, 213
93. A KAMTSCHATKAN SLEDGE AND TEAM, 215
94. THE LOSS OF THE “SQUIRREL,” 224
95. SHIP OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, 225
96. SCENERY OF JAN MAYEN, 226
97. THE “HECLA” AND “FURY” WINTERING AT WINTER ISLAND, 229
98. THE “FURY” ABANDONED BY PARRY, 230
99. DISCOVERY OF THE CAIRN CONTAINING SIR JOHN FRANKLIN’S
PAPERS, 235
100. RELICS OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION BROUGHT BACK TO
ENGLAND, 235
101. DISCOVERY OF ONE OF THE BOATS OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION, 236
102. THE “THREE BROTHER TURRETS,” 238
103. MORTON ON THE SHORE OF THE SUPPOSED POLAR OCEAN, 240
104. DR. KANE PAYING A VISIT TO AN ESKIMO HUT AT ETAH, 241
105. TRYING TO LASSO A BEAR (FULL-PAGE), 247
106. THE MIDNIGHT SUN, GREENLAND, 249
107. A BEAR AT ANCHOR, 249
108. SKATING--OFF THE COAST OF GREENLAND, 250
109. SNOW LINNETS AND BUNTINGS VISITING THE CREW OF THE
“HANSA,” 254
110. THE CREW OF THE “HANSA” BIVOUACKING ON THE ICE
(FULL-PAGE), 255
111. A RASH INTRUDER, 259
112. BEAR-HUNTING, GREENLAND, 260
113. “INTO A WATER-GAP,” 261
114. THE CREW OF THE “GERMANIA” IN A SNOW-STORM (FULL-PAGE), 263
115. MATERIALS FOR THE HOUSE, 266
116. ATTACK ON A BEAR, 267
117. SETTING FOX-TRAPS, 268
118. RELIEVED, 269
119. FUNERAL OF CAPTAIN HALL (FULL-PAGE), 273
120. AN ARCTIC SNOW-STORM, 276
121. THE CASTAWAYS ON THE ICE (FULL-PAGE), 279
122. ADRIFT ON THE ICE-FLOE, 281
123. RECOVERY OF THE BOAT BY CAPTAIN TYSON, 282
124. IGLOES CONSTRUCTED BY THE CASTAWAYS, 283
125. HANS MISTAKEN FOR A BEAR, 284
126. DIFFICULT TRAVELLING (FULL-PAGE), 285
127. THE GUIDING LIGHT, 287
128. DRAGGING A SEAL, 288
129. RETURN OF THE SUN (FULL-PAGE), 289
130. SHOOTING NARWHAL, 291
131. DRAGGING THE OOGJOOK, 292
132. SUNLIGHT EFFECT IN THE ARCTIC REGION (FULL-PAGE), 293
133. FIRST SIGHT OF A WHALE, 295
134. FACE TO FACE WITH A POLAR BEAR, 296
135. AN ARCTIC ICE-SCAPE (FULL-PAGE), 297
136. ON BOARD THE BOAT, 299
137. BREAKING UP OF THE ICE, 300
138. JOE CAPTURES A SEAL, 300
139. A NIGHT OF FEAR (FULL-PAGE), 301
140. A “HELL OF WATERS,” 303
141. DRAGGING THE BOAT ON TO A FLOE, 304
142. CLINGING TO THE BOAT (FULL-PAGE), 305
143. SAVED! (FULL-PAGE), 309
THE ARCTIC WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
THE NORTH POLE--THRESHOLD OF THE UNKNOWN WORLD--THE CIRCUMPOLAR
REGIONS--THE FLORA OF THE NORTH--LIFE IN THE POLAR WORLD--THE
NORTH-WEST AND NORTH-EAST PASSAGES.
As the reader knows, the Poles are the two extremities of the axis
round which the Earth revolves. It is to the North Pole, and the
regions surrounding it, that the following pages will be devoted.
The inhabitants of Western Europe, and more particularly those of the
British Isles, have a peculiar interest in the North Polar Regions.
Deriving their wealth and importance from their commercial enterprise,
and that commercial enterprise leading their ships and seamen into the
furthest seas, they have necessarily a vital concern in the discovery
of the shortest possible route from that side of the Earth which they
inhabit to the other, or eastern side; and this, more particularly,
because the East is rich in natural productions which are of high value
to the peoples of the West.
Now a glance at the map will show the reader that the traders
of Western Europe--the British, the French, the Dutch, the
Scandinavians--are situated on the northern shores of the Atlantic
Ocean, and that, to reach the Pacific Ocean or the Indian, only
two routes are at present open. For instance, they may cross the
Atlantic to the American coast, and, keeping southward, strike through
Magellan’s stormy Strait or round the bleak promontory of Cape Horn
into the Pacific, and then, over some thousands of miles of water,
proceed to Australia or Hindustan or China; or they may keep along
the African coast to the Cape of Good Hope, its southernmost point,
and so stretch across the warm Tropical seas to India and the Eastern
Archipelago. A third, an _artificial_ route, has indeed of late
years been opened up; and ships, entering the Mediterranean, may pass
through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. But this last-named route is
unsuitable for sailing-ships, and all three routes are laborious and
slow. How greatly the distance would be shortened were it possible
to navigate the Northern Seas, and, keeping along the north coast of
the American continent, to descend Behring’s Strait into the Pacific!
In other words, were that North-West Passage practicable, which, for
three centuries, our geographers and explorers so assiduously and
courageously toiled to discover! But a still shorter route would be
opened up, if we could follow a line drawn from the British Islands
straight across the North Pole to Behring’s Sea and the Aleutian
Archipelago. This line would not exceed 5000 miles in length, and would
bring Japan, China, and India within a very short voyage from Great
Britain. We should be able to reach Japan in three or four weeks, to
the obvious advantage of our extensive commerce.
Hitherto, however, all efforts to follow out this route, and to throw
open this great ocean-highway between Europe and Asia, have failed. Man
has been baffled by Nature; by ice, and frost, and winds, and climatic
influences. With heroic perseverance he has sought to gain the open
sea which, it is believed, surrounds the Pole, but a barrier of ice
has invariably arrested his progress. His researches have carried him
within about 500 miles of the coveted point; but he is as yet unable
to move a step beyond this furthest limit of geographical discovery.
Immediately around the North Pole, within a radius of eight to ten
degrees or more, according to locality, still lies an Unknown Region,
on the threshold of which Science stands expectant, eagerly looking
forward to the day when human skill and human courage shall penetrate
its solitudes and reveal its secrets.
This Unknown Region comprises an area of 2,500,000 square miles; an
immense portion of the terrestrial surface to be shut out from the
knowledge of Civilized Man. Its further exploration, if practicable,
cannot but be rich in valuable results. Not only would it furnish the
shortest route from the West to the East, from progressive Europe to
conservative Asia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but it could not
fail to add in a very important degree to our stores of scientific
information. Sir Edward Sabine is surely right when he says, that it is
the greatest geographical achievement which can be attempted, and that
it will be the crowning enterprise of those Arctic researches in which
England has hitherto had the pre-eminence.
We may briefly indicate to the reader some of the advantages which
might be expected from exploration in the Unknown Region. It would
unquestionably advance the science of hydrography, and lead to a
solution of some of the more difficult problems connected with the
Equatorial and Polar ocean-currents, those great movements of the
waters of which, as yet, we know so little.
A series of pendulum observations, it is said, at and near the North
Pole, would be of essential service to the science of geology. We are
unable, at present, for want of sufficient data, to form a mathematical
theory of the physical condition of the Earth, and to ascertain its
exact configuration. No pendulum observations have been taken nearer
than 600 or 620 miles to the North Pole.
Again: what precious information respecting the strange and wonderful
phenomena of magnetism and atmospheric electricity would certainly be
acquired! How much we have yet to learn in reference to the Aurora,
which can be learned only in high latitudes, and at or near the point
which apparently represents a magnetic focus or centre!
It has also been pointed out by Mr. Markham that the climate of Europe
is largely affected by the atmospheric conditions of the Polar area, in
which the development of extremely low temperatures necessarily leads
to corresponding extreme changes of pressure, and other atmospheric
disturbances, whose influence extends far into the Temperate Zone. For
the satisfactory appreciation of these phenomena, says Mr. Markham, a
precise knowledge is required of the distribution of land and water
within the Polar Region; and any addition to our knowledge of its
unknown area, accompanied by suitable observations of its meteorology,
cannot fail to afford improved means of understanding the meteorology
of our own country, and of the Earth generally.
There can be no doubt, too, that geology would profit, if we could
push our researches nearer to the Pole, and force our way through the
great barrier of the Polar ice. It is highly desirable, too, that we
should know more of that interesting class of animals, the Mollusca,
both terrestrial and aquatic, fresh-water and salt-water. Again: what
a wide field of inquiry is opened up by the Polar glaciers; their
extent, their elevation, their range, and the effects produced by the
slow but continuous motion of those huge ice-rivers over the surface
of the country. And the botanist has a right to calculate upon the
discovery of many precious forms of vegetable life in the Unknown
Region. The Arctic flora is by no means abundant, but it is peculiarly
interesting. In Greenland, besides numerous mosses, lichens, algæ, and
the like, flourish three hundred kinds of flowering plants, all of
which are natives of the Scandinavian peninsula; and Dr. Joseph Hooker
remarks that they exhibit scarcely any admixture of American types,
though these are found on the opposite coast of Labrador. It would seem
probable that in the warm period which preceded the Glacial Age, the
Scandinavian flora spread over the entire area of the Polar Regions;
but that during the Age of Ice it was gradually driven within its
present limits, only the hardier types surviving the blight of the long
lingering winter.
And what would be the gain to the zoologist? Why, it is a well-known
fact that life abounds in the Arctic waters, and especially those
minute organisms which play so important a part in the formation of
sedimentary deposits, and help to build up the terrestrial crust. We
have much to learn, moreover, of the habits and habitats of the fish,
the echinoderms, the molluscs, the corals, the sponges of the extreme
Northern Seas.
There are questions connected with the migrations of birds which can
be elucidated only by an exploration of the Unknown Region. Multitudes
which annually visit our shores in the winter and spring, return in
summer to the far North. This is their regular custom, and obviously
would not have become a custom unless it had been found beneficial.
Therefore we may assume that in the zone they frequent they find some
water which is not always frozen; some land on which they can rest
their weary feet; and an adequate supply of nourishing food.
From Professor Newton we adopt, in connection with this consideration,
a brief account of the movements of one class of migratory birds,--the
Knots.[1]
The knot, or sandpiper, is something half-way between a snipe and a
plover. It is a very active and graceful bird, with rather long legs,
moderately long wings, and a very short tail. It swims admirably, but
is not often seen in the water; preferring to assemble with its fellows
on the sandy sea-shores, where it gropes in the sand for food, or
fishes in the rock-pools and shallow waters for the small crustaceans.
It is known both as the red and the ash-coloured sandpiper, because
it changes the colour of its plumage according to the season of the
year; a bright red in summer, a sober ashen-gray in winter. Now, in the
spring the knot seeks our island in immense flocks, and after remaining
on the coasts for about a fortnight, can be traced proceeding gradually
northwards, until it finally takes leave of us. It has been noticed
in Iceland and Greenland, but not to stay; the summer there would be
too rigorous for its liking, and it goes further and further north.
Whither? Where does it build its nest, and hatch its young? We lose all
trace of it for some weeks: what becomes of it?
Towards the end of summer back it comes to us in larger flocks than
before, and both old birds and young birds remain upon our coasts until
November, or, in mild seasons, even later. Then it wings its flight
to the south, and luxuriates in blue skies and balmy airs until the
following spring, when it resumes the order of its migrations.
Commenting upon these facts, Professor Newton infers that the lands
visited by the knot in the middle of summer are less sterile than
Iceland or Greenland; for certainly it would not pass over these
countries, which are known to be the breeding-places for swarms of
water-birds, to resort to regions not so well provided with supplies of
food. The _food_, however, chiefly depends on the _climate_.
Wherefore we conclude that beyond the northern tracts already explored
lies a region enjoying in summer a climate more genial than they
possess.
Do any races of men with which we are now unacquainted inhabit the
Unknown Region? Mr. Markham observes that although scarcely one-half
of the Arctic world has been explored, yet numerous traces of former
inhabitants have been found in wastes which are at present abandoned
to the silence and solitude. Man would seem to migrate as well as the
inferior animals, and it is possible that tribes may be dwelling in the
mysterious inner zone between the Pole and the known Polar countries.
The extreme points reached by our explorers on the ice-bound Greenland
coast are in about 82° on the west, and 76° on the east side; these
two points lying about six hundred miles apart. As man has dwelt at
both these points, and as they are separated from the settlements
further south by a dreary, desolate, uninhabitable interval, it is
not an extravagant conjecture that the unknown land to the north has
been or is inhabited. In 1818 a small tribe was discovered on the
bleak Greenland coast between 76° and 79° N.; their southward range
being bounded by the glaciers of Melville Bay, and their northward by
the colossal mass of the Humboldt Glacier, while inland their way is
barred by the _Sernik-sook_, a great glacier of the interior.
These so-called Arctic Highlanders number about one hundred and forty
souls, and their existence “depends on open pools and lanes of water
throughout the winter, which attract animal life.” Wherever such
conditions as these are found, man may be found.
We know that there are or have been inhabitants north of the Humboldt
Glacier, on the very threshold of the Unknown Region; for Dr. Kane’s
expedition discovered the runner of a sledge made of bone lying on the
beach immediately to the north of it. The Arctic Highlanders, moreover,
cherish a tradition that herds of musk-oxen frequent an island situated
far away to the north in an iceless sea. Traces of these animals were
found by Captain Hall’s expedition, in 1871–72, as far north as 81°
30′; and similar indications have been noted on the eastern side of
Greenland. In 1823, Captain Clavering found twelve natives at Cape
Borlase Warren, in lat. 79° N.; but when Captain Koldewey, of the
German expedition, wintered in the same neighbourhood, in 1869, they
had disappeared, though there were traces of their occupancy, and ample
means of subsistence. Yet they cannot have gone southward, owing to
insuperable natural obstacles; they must have moved towards the North
Pole.
We have thus indicated some of the results which may be anticipated
from further researches in the Unknown Region. It is not to be
forgotten, however, that “the unexpected always happens,” and it is
impossible to calculate definitely the consequences which may ensue
from a more extensive investigation. “Columbus,” it has been justly
said, “found very few to sympathize with him, or perceive the utility
of the effort on his part to go out into the unknown waste of waters
beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, in search of a new country. Who can,
at this time, estimate the advantages which have followed upon that
adventure? If now it should be possible to reach the Pole, and to make
accurate observations at that point, from the relation which the Earth
bears to the sun and to the whole stellar universe, the most useful
results are very likely to follow, in a more thorough knowledge of our
globe.”
The reader has now before him the particulars which will enable him to
form an idea of the extent and character of the undiscovered region
of the Pole. Roughly speaking, it is bounded by the 80th parallel of
latitude on the European side, except at a few points where our gallant
explorers have succeeded in crossing the threshold; on the Asiatic side
it descends as low as 75°; and to the west of Behring Strait as low
as 72°. Thus, it varies from 500 or 600 to 1400 or 1500 miles across.
Below these parallels, and bounded by the Arctic Circle, or, in some
places, by the 60th parallel, extends a vast belt of land and water
which is generally known as the Arctic or Circumpolar Regions. These
have been more or less thoroughly explored; and it is to a description
of their principal features, their forms of animal and vegetable life,
and their natural phenomena, that we propose to devote the present
volume.
[Illustration: A DESERT OF ICE IN THE ARCTIC REGION.]
It is important to remember that the northern shores of Europe, Asia,
and America are skirted by the parallel of 70°, and that the belt
between the 70th and 80th parallels, having been partially explored
by the seamen and travellers of various nations, intervenes as a kind
of neutral ground between the known and the unknown. We may, indeed,
formulate our statement thus; from the Pole to the 80th degree
stretches the unknown; from the 80th to the 70th, the partially known;
while, south of the 70th, we traverse the lands and seas which human
enterprise has completely conquered.
The Circumpolar Zone includes the northernmost portions of the three
great continents, Europe, Asia, and America; and by sea it has three
approaches or gateways: one, through the Northern Ocean, between Norway
and Greenland; another, through Davis Strait,--both these being from
the Atlantic; and a third, through Behring Strait,--the entrance from
the Pacific.
It will be seen that the Circumpolar Regions, as they are now
understood, and as we shall describe them in the following pages,
extend to the south of that imaginary line drawn by geographers round
the North Pole, at a distance from it equal to the obliquity of the
ecliptic, or 23° 30’. Within this circle, however, there is a period of
the year when the sun does not set; while there is another when he is
never seen, when a settled gloom spreads over the face of nature,--this
period being longer or shorter at any given point according as that
point is nearer to or further from the Pole.
But as animal and vegetable life are largely affected by climate,
it may be justly said that wherever an Arctic climate prevails
_there_ we shall find an Arctic or Polar region; and, hence, many
countries below even the 60th parallel, such as Kamtschatka, Labrador,
and South Greenland, fall within the Circumpolar boundary.
The waters surrounding the North Pole bear the general designation
of the Arctic Ocean. But here again it is almost impossible to
particularize any uniform limit southward. It joins the Pacific at
Behring Strait in about lat. 66° N., and consequently in this quarter
extends fully half a degree _beyond_ the Arctic Circle. At
Scoresby Sound, as at North Cape, where it meets the Atlantic, it is
intersected by the parallel of 71°, and consequently falls short of the
Arctic Circle by about 4° 30’.
In the Old World, the Polar Ocean, if we include its gulfs, extends, in
the White Sea, fully two degrees _beyond_ the Arctic Circle; while
at Cape Severo, the northernmost point of Asia, in lat. 78° 25’ N., it
is 11° 55’ distance from it. Finally, in the New World it is everywhere
confined _within_ the Circle; as much as 5° at Point Barrow, about
7° 30’ at Barrow Strait, and about 3° at the Hecla and Fury Strait.
We may add that, so far as temperature is concerned, the great gulfs
known, in memory of their discoverers, as Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, and
Hudson Bay, are portions of the Arctic Ocean.
Of the more southerly area of this great ocean, the only section which
has been adequately explored to a distance from the continent, and
in the direction of the Pole, is that which washes the north-east
of America. Here we meet, under the collective name of the Polar
Archipelago, with the following islands:--Banks Land, Wollaston Land,
Prince Albert Land, Victoria Land, Prince Patrick Island, Princess
Royal Islands, Melville Island, Cornwallis Island, North Devon, Beechey
Island, Grinnell Land, and North Lincoln. Further to the east lie
Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen Island, Novaia Zemlaia, New Siberia, and the
Liakhov Islands. The chief straits and inlets are Lancaster Sound,
Barrow Strait, Smith Sound, Regent Inlet, Hecla and Fury Strait,
Wellington Channel, and Cumberland Sound; while further westward are
Belcher Channel, Melville Sound, M’Clintock Channel, Banks Strait, and
Prince of Wales Strait.
The Arctic Lands comprehend two well-defined sections, or zones; that
of the forests, and the treeless wastes.
To the latter belong the islands within the Arctic Circle, and also a
considerable tract of the northern continents, forming the “barrens” of
North America, and the “tundras” and “steppes” of European Russia and
Siberia.
The treeless character of this vast area of wilderness is owing to
the bleak sea-winds which drive, without let or hindrance, across the
islands and level shores of the Polar Ocean, compelling even the most
vigorous plant to bend before them and creep along the ground.
Drearier scenes are nowhere presented than these stony tundras, or
their boundless swamps. Almost the only vegetation are a few gray
lichens, a few dull blackish-looking mosses; the stunted flowers or
crawling grasses that here and there occur do not relieve the uniform
desolation,--they serve simply to enhance its gloomy character. In
summer, indeed, the tundras are full of life; for the spawning instinct
of the salmon and the sturgeon impels them to enter their rivers
and seek the quiet recesses of their mysterious lakes. The reindeer
assemble in numerous herds to feed on the herbage warmed into temporary
vitality by the upward-slanting sun; the whirr of countless wings
announces the coming of the migratory birds to breed, and feed their
young, on the river-banks and the level shores; and in their trail
arrive the eagle and the hawk, intent on prey.
But with the first days of September a change passes over the scene.
Animal life hastens to the more genial south; the birds abandon the
frozen wastes; the reindeer retires to the shelter of the forests;
the fish desert the ice-bound streams; and a terrible silence reigns
in the desolate wilderness, broken only by the harsh yelp of a fox or
the melancholy hooting of a snow-owl. For some eight or nine months a
deep shroud or pall of snow lies on the whitened plains. No cheerful
sunbeams irradiate it with a rosy glow; the sky is dull and dark; and
it seems as if Nature had been abandoned to eternal Night.
But blank and dreary as the limitless expanse of snow appears, it is
the security of man in these far northern regions. It affords the
necessary protection to the scanty vegetable life against the rigour
of the long winter season. In Rensselaer Bay, Dr. Kane found, when the
surface temperature had sunk to -30°, a temperature at two feet deep
of -8°, at four feet deep of +2°, and at eight feet deep of +26°, or
no more than 6° below freezing-point. Hence, underneath their thick
frozen pall, the Arctic grasses and lichens maintain a struggling
existence, and are able to maintain it until thoroughly resuscitated
by the summer sun. It is owing to this wise and beneficent provision
that, in the highest latitudes, the explorer discovers some feeble
forms of vegetation. Thus, as Hartwig reminds us, Morton gathered a
crucifer at Cape Constitution, in lat. 80° 45’ N.; and Dr. Kane, on the
banks of the Minturn River, in lat. 78° 52’, met with a flower-growth
which, though fully Arctic in its type, was gaily and richly
coloured--including the purple lychnis, the starry chickweed, and the
hesperis, among the festuca and other tufted grasses.
In the tundras, the most abundant vegetable forms, next to the
lichens and mosses, are the grasses, the crucifers, the saxifrages,
the caryophyles, and the compositæ. These grow fewer and fewer as we
move towards the north, but the number of individual plants does not
decrease. Where the soil is fairly dry, we shall find an extensive
growth of lichens; in moister grounds, these are intermingled with
the well-known Iceland moss. Lichens are everywhere, except in the
sparse tracts of meadow-land lying at the foot of sheltering hills,
or in those alluvial inundated hollows which are thickly planted with
“whispering reeds” and dwarf willows.
It is not easy to trace exactly the boundary between the tundras and
the forest zone. The former descend to the south, and the latter
advances to the north, according to the climatic influences which
prevail; following the isothermic lines of uniform temperature, and
not the mathematical limits of the geographical parallels of latitude.
Where the ground undulates, and hilly ridges break the fury of the
icy blasts, the forests encroach on the stony treeless region; but
the desolate plains strike into the wooded zone in places where the
ocean-winds range with unchecked sway.
[Illustration: THE SWAMPS OF THE OBI.]
The southernmost limit of the “barrens” is found in Labrador, where
they descend to lat. 57°; nor is this to be wondered at, when we
remember the peculiar position of that gloomy peninsula, with icy seas
washing it on three sides, and cold winds sweeping over it from the
north. On the opposite coasts of Hudson Bay they do not strike lower
than 60°; and they continue to rise as we proceed westward, until in
the Mackenzie Valley we find the tall forest growth reaching as far
north as 68° or even 70°. Thence they recede gradually, until, on the
bleak shore of Behring Sea, they do not rise higher than 65°. Crossing
into the eastern continent, we find them beginning, in the land of the
Tuski (or Tchuktche), in 63°, and from thence encroaching gradually
upon the tundras until, at the Lena, they reach as high as 71°. From
the Lena to the Obi the tundras gain upon the forests, and in the
Obi Valley descend below the Arctic Circle; but from the Obi to the
Scandinavian coast the forests gain upon the tundras, terminating,
after many variations, in lat. 70°.
[Illustration: IN THE FOREST ZONE OF THE NORTH.]
The result to which this rapid survey brings us is, that the “tundras”
or “barrens” of Europe, Asia, and America occupy an area larger than
the whole of Europe. The Siberian wilderness is more extensive than the
African Sahara or the South American Pampas. But of still vaster area
are the Arctic forest regions, which stretch in an “almost continuous
belt” through three quarters of the world, with a breadth of from
15° to 20°--that is, of 1000 to 1400 miles. And it is a peculiarity
of these Circumpolar woods, that they are almost wholly composed of
conifers, and that frequently a wide space of ground is covered for
leagues upon leagues with a single kind of fir or pine.
“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Blended with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.”
The American species, however, differ from the Asiatic or European.
While in the Hudson Bay territories grow the white and black spruce,[2]
the Canadian larch,[3] and the gray pine[4]; in Scandinavia and
Siberia, the Siberian fir and larch,[5] the _Picea olovata_, and
the _Pinus umbra_ flourish. But both in the Old World and the
New the birch advances beyond the fir and pine, and on the banks of
the rivers and the shores of the lakes dwarf willows form immense and
almost impenetrable thickets. The Arctic forests also include various
kinds of ash, elder, and the service tree; and though orchard trees are
wholly wanting, both man and beast find a great boon in the bilberries,
cranberries, bog-berries, and the like, which grow plentifully in many
localities.
The area of the Arctic flora comprises Greenland, in the western
hemisphere, and extends considerably to the south of the Arctic Circle,
especially on the coasts, where it reaches the parallel of 60° N. lat.,
and even overpasses it.
In Greenland the vegetation is more truly of an Arctic character than
even in Iceland. The valleys are covered with marsh-plants and dingy
mosses; the gloomy rocks are encrusted with lichens; while the grasses
on the meadow-lands that border the fiords and inlets are nearly four
times less varied than those of Iceland.
The flora of Iceland is approximative to that of Great Britain; yet
only one in every four of British plants is included in it. The total
number of species may be computed at eight hundred and seventy, of
which more than half blossom; this proportion is greater than prevails
in Scotland, but then only thirty-two are of woody texture. They are
scattered about in groups according as they prefer a marshy, volcanic,
dry, or marine soil. Many bloom in the immediate vicinity of the hot
springs; some not far from the brink of the basin of the Great Geyser,
where every other plant is petrified; and several species of confervæ
flourish in a spring the waters of which are hot enough, it is said, to
boil an egg.
From the nature of the Arctic forests, the reader will be prepared to
learn that they are not inhabited, like those of the Tropics, by swarms
of animals; or made musical by the songs of birds, like our European
woods. Even the echoes are silent, except when the hoarse wind bears
to them the peculiar cry of the reindeer, the howl of the wolf, or the
sharp scream of some bird of prey. Insect life, however, is active and
abundant; and our Arctic travellers have suffered greatly from the
legions of gnats which haunt their swampy recesses.
* * * * *
Passing from the forest region into the treeless wastes, we may glance
once again at their strikingly impressive features. North of the 62nd
parallel no corn can ripen, on account of the fatal power of the winds
which pour down from the Arctic Ocean. As we advance to the northward,
a wide-spread area of desolation stretches before us: salt steppes,
stony plains, boundless swamps, and lakes of salt and fresh water. So
terrible is the cold that the spongy soil is perpetually frozen to the
depth of some hundred feet below the surface; and the surface itself,
though not thawed until the end of June, is again ice-bound by the
middle of September. One of the most graphic sketches with which we are
acquainted of the extreme Siberian desert is furnished by Admiral von
Wrangel, who travelled during the winter from the mouth of the Kolyma
to Behring Strait.
Here, he says, endless snows and ice-crusted rocks bound the horizon;
Nature lies shrouded in all but perpetual winter; life is a constant
conflict with privation and with the terrors of cold and hunger; the
grave of Nature, containing only the bones of another world. The
people, and even the snow, throw off a continual vapour; and this
evaporation is instantly changed into millions of needles of ice, which
make a noise in the air like the sound of torn satin or the rustle of
thick silk. The reindeer take to the forest, or crowd together for
heat; and the raven alone, the dark bird of winter, still smites the
frosty air with heavy laborious wing, leaving behind him a long trail
of thin vapour to mark the course of his solitary flight. The trunks
of the thickest trees are rent with a loud clang, masses of rock
are torn from their sites, the ground in the valleys is split into
a myriad fissures, from which the waters that are underneath bubble
up, throwing off a cloud of smoke, and immediately congealing into
ice. The atmosphere grows dense; the glistening stars are dimmed. The
dogs outside the huts of the Siberians burrow in the snow, and their
howling, at intervals of six or eight hours, interrupts the general
silence of winter.
The abundance of fur-bearing animals in the less rigorous parts of the
tundras has induced the hardy Russians to colonize and build towns on
these confines of the Frozen World. Yakutsk, on the river Lena, in
62° 1′ 30″ N., may be regarded, perhaps, as the coldest town on the
Earth. The ground is perpetually frozen to the depth of more than 400
feet, of which three feet only are thawed in summer, when Fahrenheit’s
thermometer frequently marks 77° in the shade. Yet in winter the rigour
of the climate is so extreme that mercury is constantly frozen for two
and occasionally even for three months.
* * * * *
From the data set forth in the preceding pages, the reader will
conclude that, as indeed results from physical laws, the line of
perpetual snow will be found to descend lower and lower on advancing to
the Pole. By the line of perpetual snow we mean, of course, the limit
above which a continual frost endures. Now, this limit varies according
to climate. The lower the temperature, the lower the snow-line; the
higher the temperature, the higher the snow-line. In the Tropics it
does not sink below the summits of the loftiest mountains. Thus, at
1° from the Equator, where the mean temperature at the sea-level is
84°.2, the snow-line must be sought at the elevation of 15,203 feet;
in 51° 30’ lat., the latitude of London, it is usually found at about
5900 feet; in lat. 80°, where the mean temperature is 33°.6, it sinks
to 457 feet. These figures, however, represent its _normal_
elevations; but temperature, as we all know, is greatly affected by
local circumstances, and therefore the perpetual snow-line varies
greatly in height. Owing to causes already explained, the snow-line
in the Circumpolar Regions sinks to a very low level; and, therefore,
many mountainous regions or elevated table-lands, such as Spitzbergen,
Greenland, and Novaia Zemlaia, which, in a more temperate climate,
would bloom with emerald slopes and waving woods, are covered with
huge glaciers and fields of ice, with apparently interminable reaches
of untrodden snow.
It should be noted, however, that nowhere does the perpetual snow-line
descend to the water’s edge; nowhere has the spell of winter absolutely
crushed the life out of all vegetation. Lichens and grasses, on which
the reindeer gains its hardy subsistence, are found near lat. 80°; even
on the awful plains of Melville Island the snow melts at midsummer;
and the deserts of New Siberia afford food for considerable numbers of
lemmings. As far as man has reached to the north, says a popular and
accurate writer, vegetation, when fostered by a sheltered situation
and the refraction of solar heat from the rocks, has everywhere been
found to rise to a considerable altitude above the level of the sea;
and should there be land at the North Pole, we may reasonably suppose
that it is destitute neither of animal nor vegetable life. It would be
quite wrong to conclude that the cold of winter invariably increases
as we approach the Pole, the temperature of a land being controlled
by many other causes besides its latitude. Even in the most northern
regions visited by man, the influence of the sea, particularly where
favoured by warm currents, considerably mitigates the severity of the
winter, while at the same time it diminishes the heat of summer. On the
other hand, the large continental tracts of Asia or America that slope
towards the Pole, possess a more rigorous winter and a fiercer summer
than many coast lands or islands situated far nearer to the Pole. For
example: the western shores of Novaia Zemlaia, fronting a wide expanse
of sea, have an average winter temperature of only -4°, and a mean
summer temperature which rises very little above the freezing-point of
water (+ 36° 30’); while Yakutsk, situated in the centre of Siberia,
and 20° nearer to the Equator, has a winter temperature of -36° 6’, and
a summer of + 66° 6’.
But though such are the physical conditions of the Polar Regions, it
must not be supposed that Nature wears only a severe and repellent
aspect. There is something beautiful in the vast expanse of snowy plain
when seen by the light of a cloudless moon; something majestic in the
colossal glaciers which fill up the remote Arctic valleys; something
picturesque in the numerous icebergs which grandly sail down the dark
Polar waters; something mysterious and wonderful in the coruscations of
the Aurora, which illuminates the darkness of the winter nights with
the glory of the celestial fires. The law of compensation prevails in
the far North, as in the glowing and exuberant regions of the Tropics.