ACROSS THE ICE
The little troop descended towards the south-east. Simpson drove the
sledge. Dick helped him with zeal, and did not seem astonished at
the new occupation of his companions. Hatteras and the doctor walked
behind, whilst Bell went on in front, sounding the ice with his
iron-tipped stick. The rising of the thermometer indicated
approaching snow; it soon fell in thick flakes, and made the journey
difficult for the travellers; it made them deviate from the straight
line, and obliged them to walk slower; but, on an average, they made
three miles an hour. The surface of the ice was unequal, and the sledge
was often in danger of being overturned, but by great care it was
kept upright.
Hatteras and his companions were clothed in skins more useful than
elegant. Their heads and faces were covered with hoods, their mouths,
eyes, and noses alone coming into contact with the air. If they had
not been exposed the breath would have frozen their coverings, and
they would have been obliged to take them off with the help of an
axe--an awkward way of undressing. The interminable plain kept on
with fatiguing monotony; icebergs of uniform aspect and hummocks
whose irregularity ended by seeming always the same; blocks cast in
the same mould, and icebergs between which tortuous valleys wound.
The travellers spoke little, and marched on, compass in hand. It is
painful to open one's mouth in such an atmosphere; sharp icicles form
immediately between one's lips, and the breath is not warm enough
to melt them. Bell's steps were marked in the soft ground, and they
followed them attentively, certain of being able to go where he had
been before.
Numerous traces of bears and foxes crossed their path, but not an
animal was seen that day. It would have been dangerous and useless
to hunt them, as the sledge was sufficiently freighted. Generally
in this sort of excursion travellers leave provision-stores along
their route; they place them in hiding-places of snow, out of reach
of animals; unload during the journey, and take up the provisions
on their return. But Hatteras could not venture to do this on moveable
ice-fields, and the uncertainty of the route made the return the same
way exceedingly problematic. At noon Hatteras caused his little troop
to halt under shelter of an ice-wall. Their breakfast consisted of
pemmican and boiling tea; the latter beverage comforted the cold
wayfarers. They set out again after an hour's rest. The first day
they walked about twenty miles, and in the evening both men and dogs
were exhausted. However, notwithstanding their fatigue, they were
obliged to construct a snow-house in which to pass the night. It took
about an hour and a half to build. Bell showed himself very skilful.
The ice-blocks were cut out and placed above one another in the form
of a dome; a large block at the top made the vault. Snow served for
mortar and filled up the chinks. It soon hardened and made a single
block of the entire structure. It was reached by a narrow opening,
through which the doctor squeezed himself painfully, and the others
followed him. The supper was rapidly prepared with spirits of wine.
The interior temperature of the snow-house was bearable, as the wind
which raged outside could not penetrate. When their repast, which
was always the same, was over, they began to think of sleep. A
mackintosh was spread over the floor and kept them from the damp.
Their stockings and shoes were dried by the portable grate, and then
three of the travellers wrapped themselves up in their blankets,
leaving the fourth to keep watch; he watched over the common safety,
and prevented the opening getting blocked up, for if it did they would
be buried alive.
Dick shared the snow-house; the other dogs remained outside, and after
their supper they squatted down in the snow, which made them a blanket.
The men were tired out with their day's walk, and soon slept. The
doctor took his turn on guard at three o'clock in the morning. There
was a tempest during the night, the gusts of which thickened the walls
of the snow-house. The next day, at six o'clock, they set out again
on their monotonous march. The temperature lowered several degrees,
and hardened the ground so that walking was easier. They often met
with mounds or cairns something like the Esquimaux hiding-places.
The doctor had one demolished, and found nothing but a block of ice.
"What did you expect, Clawbonny?" said Hatteras. "Are we not the first
men who have set foot here?"
"It's very likely we are, but who knows?" answered the doctor.
"I do not want to lose my time in useless search," continued the
captain; "I want to be quick back to my ship, even if we don't find
the fuel."
"I believe we are certain of doing that," said the doctor.
"I often wish I had not left the _Forward_," said Hatteras; "a
captain's place is on board."
"Johnson is there."
"Yes; but--well, we must make haste, that's all."
The procession marched along rapidly; Simpson excited the dogs by
calling to them; in consequence of a phosphorescent phenomenon they
seemed to be running on a ground in flames, and the sledges seemed
to raise a dust of sparks. The doctor went on in front to examine
the state of the snow, but all at once he disappeared. Bell, who was
nearest to him, ran up.
"Well, Mr. Clawbonny," he called out in anxiety, "where are you?"
"Doctor!" called the captain.
"Here, in a hole," answered a reassuring voice; "throw me a cord,
and I shall soon be on the surface of the globe again."
They threw a cord to the doctor, who was at the bottom of a hole about
ten feet deep; he fastened it round his waist, and his companions
hauled him up with difficulty.
"Are you hurt?" asked Hatteras.
"Not a bit," answered the doctor, shaking his kind face, all covered
with snow.
"But how did you tumble down there?"
"Oh, it was the refraction's fault," he answered laughing. "I thought
I was stepping across about a foot's distance, and I fell into a hole
ten feet deep! I never shall get used to it. It will teach us to sound
every step before we advance. Ears hear and eyes see all topsy-turvy
in this enchanted spot."
"Can you go on?" asked the captain.
"Oh, yes; the little fall has done me more good than harm."
In the evening the travellers had marched twenty-five miles; they
were worn out, but it did not prevent the doctor climbing up an iceberg
while the snow-house was being built. The full moon shone with
extraordinary brilliancy in the clearest sky; the stars were
singularly bright; from the top of the iceberg the view stretched
over an immense plain, bristling with icebergs; they were of all sizes
and shapes, and made the field look like a vast cemetery, in which
twenty generations slept the sleep of death. Notwithstanding the cold,
the doctor remained a long time in contemplation of the spectacle,
and his companions had much trouble to get him away; but they were
obliged to think of rest; the snow-hut was ready; the four companions
burrowed into it like moles, and soon slept the sleep of the just.
The next day and the following ones passed without any particular
incident; the journey was easy or difficult according to the weather;
when it was cold and clear they wore their moccasins and advanced
rapidly, when damp and penetrating, their snow-shoes, and made little
way. They reached thus the 15th of January; the moon was in her last
quarter, and was only visible for a short time; the sun, though still
hidden below the horizon, gave six hours of a sort of twilight, not
sufficient to see the way by; they were obliged to stake it out
according to the direction given by the compass. Bell led the way;
Hatteras marched in a straight line behind him; then Simpson and the
doctor, taking it in turns, so as only to see Hatteras, and keep in
a straight line. But notwithstanding all their precautions, they
deviated sometimes thirty or forty degrees; they were then obliged
to stake it out again. On Sunday, the 15th of January, Hatteras
considered he had made a hundred miles to the south; the morning was
consecrated to the mending of different articles of clothing and
encampment; divine service was not forgotten. They set out again at
noon; the temperature was cold, the thermometer marked only 32 degrees
below zero in a very clear atmosphere.
All at once, without warning of any kind, a vapour rose from the ground
in a complete state of congelation, reaching a height of about ninety
feet, and remaining stationary; they could not see a foot before them;
it clung to their clothing, and bristled it with ice. Our travellers,
surprised by the frost-rime, had all the same idea--that of getting
near one another. They called out, "Bell!" "Simpson!" "This way,
doctor!" "Where are you, captain?" But no answers were heard; the
vapour did not conduct sound. They all fired as a sign of rallying.
But if the sound of the voice appeared too weak, the detonation of
the firearms was too strong, for it was echoed in all directions,
and produced a confused rumble without appreciable direction. Each
acted then according to his instincts. Hatteras stopped, folded his
arms, and waited. Simpson contented himself with stopping his sledge.
Bell retraced his steps, feeling the traces with his hands. The doctor
ran hither and thither, bumping against the icebergs, falling down,
getting up, and losing himself more and more. At the end of five
minutes he said:
"I can't go on like this! What a queer climate! It changes too suddenly,
and the icicles are cutting my face. Captain! I say, captain!"
But he obtained no answer; he discharged his gun, and notwithstanding
his thick gloves, burnt his hand with the trigger. During this
operation he thought he saw a confused mass moving at a few steps
from him.
"At last!" said he. "Hatteras! Bell! Simpson! Is it you? Answer, do!"
A hollow growl was the only answer.
"Whatever is that?" thought the doctor. The mass approached, and its
outline was more distinctly seen. "Why, it's a bear!" thought the
terrified doctor. It was a bear, lost too in the frost-rime, passing
within a few steps of the men of whose existence it was ignorant.
The doctor saw its enormous paws beating the air, and did not like
the situation. He jumped back and the mass disappeared like a phantom.
The doctor felt the ground rising under his feet; climbing on
all-fours he got to the top of a block, then another, feeling the
end with his stick. "It's an iceberg!" he said to himself: "if I get
to the top I shall be saved." So saying he climbed to a height of
about eighty feet; his head was higher than the frozen fog, of which
he could clearly see the top. As he looked round he saw the heads
of his three companions emerging from the dense fluid.
"Hatteras!"
"Doctor!"
"Bell!"
"Simpson!"
The four names were all shouted at the same time; the sky, lightened
by a magnificent halo, threw pale rays which coloured the frost-rime
like clouds, and the summits of the icebergs seemed to emerge from
liquid silver. The travellers found themselves circumscribed by a
circle less than a hundred feet in diameter. Thanks to the purity
of the upper layers of air, they could hear each other distinctly,
and could talk from the top of their icebergs. After the first shots
they had all thought the best thing they could do was to climb.
"The sledge!" cried the captain.
"It's eighty feet below us," answered Simpson.
"In what condition?"
"In good condition."
"What about the bear?" asked the doctor.
"What bear?" asked Bell.
"The bear that nearly broke my head," answered the doctor.
"If there is a bear we must go down," said Hatteras.
"If we do we shall get lost again," said the doctor.
"And our dogs?" said Hatteras.
At this moment Dick's bark was heard through the fog.
"That's Dick," said Hatteras; "there's something up; I shall go down."
Growls and barks were heard in a fearful chorus. In the fog it sounded
like an immense humming in a wadded room. Some struggle was evidently
going on.
"Dick! Dick!" cried the captain, re-entering the frost-rime.
"Wait a minute, Hatteras; I believe the fog is clearing off," called
out the doctor. So it was, but lowering like the waters of a pond
that is being emptied; it seemed to enter the ground from whence it
sprang; the shining summits of the icebergs grew above it; others,
submerged till then, came out like new islands; by an optical illusion
the travellers seemed to be mounting with their icebergs above the
fog. Soon the top of the sledge appeared, then the dogs, then about
thirty other animals, then enormous moving masses, and Dick jumping
about in and out of the fog.
"Foxes!" cried Bell.
"Bears!" shouted the doctor. "Five!"
"Our dogs! Our provisions!" cried Simpson. A band of foxes and bears
had attacked the sledge, and were making havoc with the provisions.
The instinct of pillage made them agree; the dogs barked furiously,
but the herd took no notice, and the scene of destruction was
lamentable.
"Fire!" cried the captain, discharging his gun. His companions
imitated him. Upon hearing the quadruple detonation the bears raised
their heads, and with a comical growl gave the signal for departure;
they went faster than a horse could gallop, and, followed by the herd
of foxes, soon disappeared amongst the northern icebergs.