MISCELLANEOUS REFLECTIONS--THE COAST OF GREENLAND--UPPERNAVIK--NEWS OF
THE POLE STAR--MIDNIGHT DAY--SCIENTIFIC FACTS AND FAIRY-LIKE SCENES--TOM
SINGLETON'S OPINION OF POOR OLD WOMEN--IN DANGER OF A SQUEEZE--ESCAPE.
In pursuance of his original intention, Captain Guy now proceeded
through Davis' Straits into Baffin's Bay, at the head of which he
intended to search for the vessel of his friend Captain Ellice, and
afterwards prosecute the whale-fishery. Off the coast of Greenland,
many whalers were seen, actively engaged in warfare with the giants of
the Polar Seas, and to several of these Captain Guy spoke, in the faint
hope of gleaning some information as to the fate or the _Pole Star_, but
without success. It was now apparent to the crew of the _Dolphin_ that
they were engaged as much on a searching, as a whaling expedition; and
the fact that the commander of the lost vessel was the father of "young
Mr Fred", as they styled our hero, induced them to take a deep interest
in the success of their undertaking.
This interest was further increased by the graphic account that honest
John Buzzby gave of the death of poor Mrs Ellice, and the enthusiastic
way in which he spoke of his old captain. Fred, too, had, by his frank,
affable manner, and somewhat reckless disposition, rendered himself a
general favourite with the men, and had particularly recommended himself
to Mivins the steward (who was possessed of an intensely romantic
spirit), by stating once or twice, very emphatically, that he (Fred)
meant to land on the coast of Baffin's Bay, should the captain fail to
find his father, and continue the search on foot and alone. There was
no doubt whatever that poor Fred was in earnest, and had made up his
mind to die in the search, rather than not find him. He little knew the
terrible nature of the country in which for a time his lot was to be
cast, and the hopelessness of such an undertaking as he meditated. With
boyish inconsiderateness he thought not of how his object was to be
accomplished; he cared not what impossibilities lay in the way, but with
manly determination he made up his mind to quit the ship and search for
his father through the length and breadth of the land. Let not the
reader smile at what he may perhaps style a childish piece of
enthusiasm. Many a youth, at his age, has dreamed of attempting as
great if not greater impossibilities. All honour, we say, to the boy
who _dreams_ impossibilities, and greater honour to him who, like Fred,
_resolves to attempt them_! James Watt stared at an iron tea kettle
till his eyes were dim, and meditated the monstrous impossibility of
making that kettle work like a horse; and men might (perhaps did) smile
at James Watt _then_; but do men smile at James Watt _now_--now that
thousands of iron kettles are dashing, like dreadful comets, over the
length and breadth of the land, not to mention the sea, with long tails
of men, and women, and children behind them?
"That's 'ow it is, sir," Mivins used to say, when spoken to by Fred on
the subject, "I've never bin in cold countries myself, sir, but I've bin
in 'ot, and I knows that with a stout pair o' legs, and a will to work,
a man can work 'is way hanywhere. Of course there's not much of a
pop'lation in them parts, I've heer'd; but there's Heskimos, and where
one man can live, so can another, and what one man can do, so can
another--that's bin my hexperience, and I'm not ashamed to hown it, I'm
not, though I _do_ say it as shouldn't, and I honour you, sir, for your
filleral detarmination to find your father, sir, and--"
"Steward!" shouted the captain down the cabin skylight.
"Yes, sir!"
"Bring me the chart."
"Yes, sir!" and Mivins disappeared like a Jack-in-the-box from the cabin
just as Tom Singleton entered it.
"Here we are, Fred," he said, seizing a telescope that hung over the
cabin door, "within sight of the Danish settlement of Uppernavik; come
on deck and see it."
Fred needed no second bidding. It was here that the captain had hinted
there would, probably, be some information obtained regarding the _Pole
Star_, and it was with feelings of no common interest the two friends
examined the low-roofed houses of this out-of-the-way settlement.
In an hour afterwards the captain and first mate, with our young
friends, landed amid the clamorous greetings of the entire population,
and proceeded to the residence of the governor, who received them with
great kindness and hospitality; but the only information they could
obtain was that, a year ago, Captain Ellice had been driven there in his
brig by stress of weather, and, after refitting and taking in a supply
of provisions, had set sail for England.
Here the _Dolphin_ laid in a supply of dried fish, and procured several
dogs, besides an Esquimaux interpreter and hunter, named Meetuck.
Leaving this little settlement, they stood out once more to sea, and
threaded their way among the ice, with which they were now well
acquainted in all its forms, from the mighty berg, or mountain of ice,
to the wide field. They passed in succession one or two Esquimaux
settlements, the last of which, Votlik, is the most northerly point of
colonisation. Beyond this all was terra incognita. Here enquiry was
again made, through the medium of the Esquimaux interpreter, who had
been taken on board at Uppernavik, and they learned that the brig in
question had been last seen, beset in the pack, and driving to the
northward. Whether or not she had ever returned, they could not tell.
A consultation was now held, and it was resolved to proceed north as far
as the ice would permit, towards Smith's Sound, and examine the coast
carefully in that direction.
For several weeks past there had been gradually coming over the aspect
of nature, a change to which we have not yet referred, and which filled
Fred Ellice and his friend, the young surgeon, with surprise and
admiration; this was the long-continued daylight, which now lasted the
whole night round, and increased in intensity every day, as they
advanced north. They had, indeed, often heard and read of it before,
but their minds had utterly failed to form a correct conception of the
exquisite calmness and beauty of the _midnight-day_ of the north.
Everyone knows that, in consequence of the axis of the earth not being
perpendicular to the plane of its orbit round the sun, the poles are
alternately directed more or less _towards_ that great luminary during
one part of the year, and _away_ from it during another part. So that,
far north, the days during the one season grow longer and longer until,
at last, there is _one long day_ of many weeks' duration, in which the
sun does not set at all; and during the other season there is _one long
night_, in which the sun is never seen. It was approaching the height
of the summer season when the _Dolphin_ entered the Arctic regions, and,
although the sun descended below the horizon for a short time each
night, there was scarcely any diminution of the light at all, and, as
far as one's sensations were concerned, there was but one long
continuous day, which grew brighter and brighter at midnight, as they
advanced.
"How thoroughly splendid this is," remarked Tom Singleton to Fred one
night, as they sat in their favourite out-look, the main-top, gazing
down on the glassy sea, which was covered with snowy icebergs and floes,
and bathed in the rays of the sun, "and how wonderful to think that the
sun will only set for an hour or so, and then get up as splendid as
ever!"
The evening was still as death. Not a sound broke upon the ear save the
gentle cries of a few sea-birds, that dipped ever and anon into the sea,
as if to kiss it gently while asleep, and then circled slowly into the
bright sky again. The sails of the ship, too, flapped very gently, and
a spar creaked plaintively, as the vessel rose and fell on the gentle
undulations that seemed to be the breathing of the ocean; but such
sounds did not disturb the universal stillness of the hour; neither did
the gambols of yonder group of seals and walrus, that were at play round
some fantastic blocks of ice; nor did the soft murmur of the swell that
broke in surf at the foot of yonder iceberg, whose blue sides were
seamed with a thousand water-courses, and whose jagged pinnacles rose up
like needles of steel into the clear atmosphere.
There were many bergs in sight, of various shapes and sizes, at some
distance from the ship, which caused much anxiety to the captain,
although they were only a source of admiration to our young friends in
the main-top.
"Tom," said Fred, breaking a long silence, "it may seem a strange idea
to you, but, do you know, I cannot help fancying that heaven must be
something like this."
"I'm not sure that that's such a strange idea, Fred, for it has two of
the characteristics of heaven in it--peace and rest."
"True; that didn't strike me. Do you know, I wish that it were always
calm like this, and that we had no wind at all."
Tom smiled. "Your voyage would be a long one if that were to happen. I
dare say the Esquimaux would join with you in the wish, however, for
their kayaks and oomiaks are better adapted for a calm than a stormy
sea."
"Tom," said Fred, breaking another long silence, "you're very tiresome
and stupid tonight; why don't you talk to me?"
"Because this delightful dreamy evening inclines me to think and be
silent."
"Ah, Tom! that's your chief fault. You are always inclined to think too
much, and to talk too little. Now I, on the contrary, am always--"
"Inclined to talk too much, and think too little; eh, Fred?"
"Bah! don't try to be funny, man; you haven't it in you. Did you ever
see such a miserable set of creatures as the old Esquimaux women are, at
Uppernavik?"
"Why, what put _them_ into your head?" enquired Tom, laughing.
"Yonder iceberg; look at it! There's the nose and chin, exactly, of the
extraordinary hag you gave your silk pocket-handkerchief to at parting.
Now, I never saw such a miserable old woman as that before; did you?"
Tom Singleton's whole demeanour changed, and his dark eyes brightened as
the strongly marked brows frowned over them, while he replied: "Yes,
Fred, I have seen old women more miserable than that. I have seen women
so old that their tottering limbs could scarcely support them, going
about in the bitterest November winds, with clothing too scant to cover
their wrinkled bodies, and so ragged and filthy, that you would have
shrunk from touching it--I have seen such groping about among heaps of
filth that the very dogs looked at, and turned away as if in disgust."
Fred was inclined to laugh at his friend's sudden change of manner, but
there was something in the young surgeon's character--perhaps its deep
earnestness--that rendered it impossible, at least for his friends, to
be jocular when he was disposed to be serious. Fred became grave as he
spoke.
"Where have you seen such poor wretches, Tom?" he asked with a look of
interest.
"In the cities, the civilised cities of our own Christian land. If you
have ever walked about the streets of some of these cities, before the
rest of the world was astir, at grey dawn, you must have seen them
shivering along, and scratching among the refuse cast out by the tenants
of the neighbouring houses. Oh, Fred, Fred, in my professional career,
short though it has been, I have seen much of these poor old women, and
many others, whom the world never sees on the streets at all,
experiencing a slow, lingering death by starvation, and fatigue, and
cold. It is the foulest blot on our country, that there is no
sufficient provision for the _aged poor_."
"I have seen those old women too," replied Fred, "but I never thought
very seriously about them before."
"That's it--that's just it; people don't _think_, otherwise this
dreadful state of things would not continue. Just listen _now_, for a
moment, to what I have to say. But don't imagine that I'm standing up
for the poor in general. I don't feel--perhaps I'm wrong," continued
Tom thoughtfully,--"perhaps I'm wrong--I hope not--but it's a fact I
don't feel much for the young and the sturdy poor, and I make it a rule
_never_ to give a farthing to _young_ beggars, not even to little
children, for I know full well that they are sent out to beg by idle,
good-for-nothing parents. I stand up only for the _aged_ poor, because,
be they good or wicked, they _cannot_ help themselves. If a man fell
down in the street, struck with some dire disease that shrunk his
muscles, unstrung his nerves, made his heart tremble, and his skin
shrivel up, would you look upon him and then pass him by _without
thinking_?"
"No!" cried Fred in an emphatic tone; "I would not! I would stop and
help him."
"Then, let me ask you," resumed Tom earnestly, "is there any difference
between the weakness of muscle and the faintness of heart which is
produced by disease, and that which is produced by old age, except that
the latter is incurable? Have not these women feelings like other
women? Think you that there are not amongst them those who have `known
better times?' They think of sons and daughters dead and gone, perhaps,
just as other old women in better circumstances do; but they must not
indulge such depressing thoughts, they must reserve all the energy, the
stamina, they have, to drag round the city--barefoot, it may be, and in
the cold--to beg for food, and scratch up what they can find among the
cinder-heaps. They groan over past comforts and past times, perhaps,
and think of the days when their limbs were strong, and their cheeks
were smooth--for they were not always `hags',--and remember that _once_
they had friends who loved them and cared for them, although they are
old, unknown, and desolate now."
Tom paused and pressed his hand upon his flushed forehead.
"You may think it strange," he continued, "that I speak to you in this
way about poor old women, but I feel _deeply_ for their forlorn
condition. The young can help themselves, more or less, and they have
strength to stand their sorrows, with _hope_, blessed hope, to keep them
up; but _poor_ old men and old women cannot help themselves and cannot
stand their sorrows, and, as far as this life is concerned, they have
_no hope_; except to die soon and easy, and, if possible, in
summer-time, when the wind is not so very cold and bitter."
"But how can this be put right, Tom?" asked Fred in a tone of deep
commiseration. "Our being sorry for it, and anxious about it (and
you've made me sorry, I assure you) can do very little good, you know."
"I don't know, Fred," replied Tom, sinking into his usual quiet tone.
"If every city and town in Great Britain would start a society whose
first resolution should be that they would not leave one poor _old_ man
or woman unprovided for, _that_ would do it. Or if the Government would
take it in hand _honestly_, that would do it."
"Call all hands, Mr Bolton," cried the captain in a sharp voice. "Get
out the ice-poles, and lower away the boats."
"Hallo! what's wrong!" said Fred, starting up.
"Getting too near the bergs, I suspect," remarked Tom. "I say, Fred,
before we go on deck, will you promise to do what I ask you?"
"Well--yes, I will."
"Will you promise, then, all through your life, especially if you ever
come to be rich or influential, to think _of_, and _for_, old men and
women who are poor?"
"I will," answered Fred, "but I don't know that I'll ever be rich, or
influential, or able to help them much."
"Of course you don't. But when a thought about them strikes you, will
you always _think it out_, and, if possible, _act it out_, as God shall
enable you?"
"Yes, Tom, I promise to do that as well as I can."
"That's right, thank you, my boy!" said the young surgeon, as they
descended the shrouds and leaped on deck.
Here they found the captain walking up and down rapidly, with an anxious
expression of face. After taking a turn or two he stopped short, and
gazed out astern.
"Set the stun'sails, Mr Bolton. The breeze will be up in a little, I
think. Let the men pull with a will."
The order was given, and soon the ship was under a cloud of canvas,
advancing slowly as the boats towed her between two large icebergs,
which had been gradually drawing near to each other the whole afternoon.
"Is there any danger, Buzzby?" enquired Fred, as the sturdy sailor stood
looking at the larger berg, with an ice-pole in his hands.
"Danger! ay, that there is, lad! more nor's agreeable, d'ye see. Here
we are without a breath o' wind to get us on, right between two bergs as
could crack us like a walnut. We can't get to starboard of 'em for the
current, nor to larboard of 'em for the pack, as ye see, so we must go
between them, neck or nothing."
The danger was indeed imminent. The two bergs were within a hundred
yards of each other, and the smaller of the two, being more easily moved
by the current, probably, was setting down on the larger at a rate that
bade fair to decide the fate of the _Dolphin_ in a few minutes. The men
rowed lustily, but their utmost exertions could move the ship but
slowly. Aid was coming, however, direct from the hand of Him who is a
refuge in the time of danger. A breeze was creeping over the calm sea
right astern, and it was to meet this that the studding sails had been
set a-low and aloft, so that the wide-spreading canvas, projecting far
to the right and left, had, to an inexperienced eye, the appearance of
being out of all proportion to the little hull, by which it was
supported.
With breathless anxiety those on board stood watching the two bergs and
the approaching breeze.
At last it came. A few cat's-paws ruffled the surface of the sea,
distending the sails for a moment, then leaving them flat and loose as
before. This, however, was sufficient; another such puff and the ship
was almost out of danger, but before it came, the projecting summit of
the smaller berg was overhanging the deck. At this critical moment the
wind began to blow steadily, and soon the _Dolphin_ was in the open
water beyond. Five minutes after she had passed, the moving mountains
struck with a noise louder than thunder; the summits and large portions
of the sides fell, with a succession of crashes like the roaring of
artillery, just above the spot where the ship had lain not quarter of an
hour before, and the vessel, for some time after, rocked violently to
and fro, in the surges that the plunge of the falling masses raised.