ONE OF JAMES ROSS'S FOXES.
On that day the thermometer fell to three degrees below zero. The day
was calm; the cold was very endurable in the absence of wind. Hatteras
took advantage of the clearness of the air to reconnoitre the
surrounding plains; he ascended one of the highest icebergs to the
north, but even with his glass he could make out nothing but a series
of ice-mountains and ice-fields. There was no land in sight, nothing
but gloomy confusion. He returned, and tried to calculate the probable
length of their imprisonment.
The hunters, and among them the doctor, James Wall, Simpson, Johnson,
and Bell, kept them supplied with fresh meat. The birds had
disappeared, seeking a milder climate in the south. The ptarmigans
alone, a sort of rock-partridge peculiar to this latitude, did not
flee the winter; it was easy to kill them, and there were enough to
promise a perpetual supply of game.
[Illustration]
Hares, foxes, wolves, ermines, and bears were plentiful; a French,
English, or Norwegian hunter would have had no right to complain; but
they were so shy that it was hard to approach them; besides, it was
hard to distinguish them on the white plain, they being white
themselves, for in winter they acquire that colored fur. In opposition
to the opinions of some naturalists, the doctor held that this change
was not due to the lowering of the temperature, since it took place
before October; hence it was not due to any physical cause, but rather
providential foresight, to secure these animals against the severity
of an arctic winter.
Often, too, they saw sea-cows and sea-dogs, animals included under the
name of seals; all the hunters were specially recommended to shoot
them, as much for their skins as for their fat, which was very good
fuel. Besides, their liver made a very good article of food; they
could be counted by hundreds, and two or three miles north of the ship
the ice was continually perforated by these huge animals; only they
avoided the hunter with remarkable instinct, and many were wounded who
easily escaped by diving under the ice.
[Illustration]
Still, on the 19th, Simpson succeeded in getting one four hundred
yards distant from the ship; he had taken the precaution to close its
hole in the ice, so that it could not escape from its pursuers. He
fought for a long time, and died only after receiving many bullets. He
was nine feet long; his bull-dog head, the sixteen teeth in his jaw,
his large pectoral fins shaped like little wings, his little tail with
another pair of fins, made him an excellent specimen. The doctor
wished to preserve his head for his collection of natural history, and
his skin for future contingences, hence he prepared both by a rapid
and economical process. He plunged the body in the hole, and thousands
of little prawns removed the flesh in small pieces; at the end of half
a day the work was half finished, and the most skilful of the
honorable corporation of tanners at Liverpool could not have done
better.
When the sun had passed the autumn equinox, that is to say, September
23d, the winter fairly begins in the arctic regions. The sun, having
gradually sunk to the horizon, disappeared at last, October 23d,
lighting up merely the tops of the mountains with its oblique rays.
The doctor gave it his last farewell. He could not see it again till
the month of February.
Still the darkness was not complete during this long absence of the
sun; the moon did its best to replace it; the stars were exceedingly
brilliant, the auroras were very frequent, and the refractions
peculiar to the snowy horizons; besides, the sun at the time of its
greatest southern declension, December 21st, approaches within
thirteen degrees of the polar horizon; hence, every day there was a
certain twilight for a few hours. Only the mist and snow-storms often
plunged these regions in the deepest obscurity.
Still, up to this time the weather was very favorable; the partridges
and hares alone had reason to complain, for the hunters gave them no
rest; a great many traps were set for foxes, but these crafty animals
could not be caught; very often they scraped the snow away beneath the
trap and took the bait without running any risk; the doctor cursed
them, being very averse to making them such a present.
[Illustration]
October 25th, the thermometer fell as low as -4 degrees. A violent
hurricane raged; the air was filled with thick snow, which permitted
no ray of light to reach the _Forward_. For several hours there was
some anxiety about the fate of Bell and Simpson, who had gone some
distance away hunting; they did not reach the ship till the next day,
having rested for a whole day wrapped up in their furs, while the
hurricane swept over them and buried them under five feet of snow.
They were nearly frozen, and the doctor found it very hard to restore
their circulation.
The tempest lasted eight days without interruption. No one could set
foot outside. In a single day there were variations in the temperature
of fifteen or twenty degrees.
During this enforced leisure every one kept to himself, some sleeping,
others smoking, others again talking in a low tone and stopping at the
approach of Johnson or the doctor; there was no moral tie between the
men of the crew; they only met at evening prayers and at Sunday
services.
Clifton knew perfectly well that when the seventy-eighth parallel was
passed, his share of the pay would amount to three hundred and
seventy-five pounds; he thought it a good round sum, and his ambition
did not go any further. His opinion was generally shared, and all
looked forward to the day when they should enjoy this hardly-earned
fortune.
Hatteras kept almost entirely out of sight. He never took part in the
hunts or the walks from the ship. He took no interest in the
meteorological phenomena which kept the doctor in a constant state of
admiration. He lived with but a single idea; it consisted of three
words,--The North Pole. He only thought of when the _Forward_, free at
last, should resume her bold course.
In fact, the general feeling on board was one of gloom. Nothing was so
sad as the sight of this captive vessel, no longer resting in its
natural element, but with its shape hidden beneath thick layers of
ice; it looks like nothing; it cannot stir, though made for motion; it
is turned into a wooden storehouse, a sedentary dwelling, this ship
which knows how to breast the wind and the storms. This anomaly, this
false situation, filled their hearts with an indefinable feeling of
disquiet and regret.
During these idle hours the doctor arranged the notes he had taken,
from which this book is made up; he was never out of spirits, and
never lost his cheerfulness. Yet he was glad to see the end of the
storm, and prepared to resume his hunting.
November 3d, at six o'clock in the morning, with a temperature of -5
degrees, he set off in company with Johnson and Bell; the expanse of
ice was unbroken; all the snow which had fallen so abundantly during
the preceding days was hardened by the frost, and made good walking;
the air was keen and piercing; the moon shone with incomparable
purity, glistening on the least roughness in the ice; their footprints
glowed like an illuminated trail, and their long shadows stood out
almost black against the brilliant ice.
[Illustration: "The moon shone with incomparable purity, glistening on
the least roughness in the ice."]
The doctor had taken Duke with him; he preferred him to the Greenland
dogs to hunt game, and he was right; for they are of very little use
under such circumstances, and they did not appear to possess the
sacred fire of the race of the temperate zone. Duke ran along with his
nose on the ground, and he often stopped on the recent marks of bears.
Still, in spite of his skill, the hunters did not find even a hare in
two hours' walking.
"Has all the game felt it necessary to go south?" said the doctor,
stopping at the foot of a hummock.
"I should fancy it must be so, Doctor," answered the carpenter.
"I don't think so," said Johnson; "the hares, foxes, and bears are
accustomed to this climate; I think this last storm must have driven
them away; but they will come back with the south-winds. Ah, if you
were to talk about reindeer and musk-deer, that might be different!"
"And yet at Melville Island numberless animals of this sort are
found," resumed the doctor; "it lies farther south, it is true, and
during the winters he spent there Parry always had plenty of this
magnificent game."
"We have much poorer luck," answered Bell; "if we could only get
enough bear's meat, we would do very well."
"The difficulty is," said the doctor, "the bears seem to me very rare
and very wild; they are not civilized enough to come within gun-shot."
"Bell is talking about the flesh of the bear," said Johnson, "but his
grease is more useful than his flesh or his fur."
"You are right, Johnson," answered Bell; "you are always thinking of
the fuel."
"How can I help it? Even with the strictest economy, we have only
enough for three weeks!"
"Yes," resumed the doctor, "that is the real danger, for we are now
only at the beginning of November, and February is the coldest month
in the frigid zone; still, if we can't get bear's grease, there's no
lack of seal's grease."
"But not for a very long time, Doctor," answered Johnson; "they will
soon leave us; whether from cold or fright, soon they won't come upon
the ice any more."
"Then," continued the doctor, "we shall have to fall back on the bear,
and I confess the bear is the most useful animal to be found in these
countries, for he furnishes food, clothing, light, and fuel to men. Do
you hear, Duke?" he said, patting the dog's head, "we want some bears,
my friend, bears! bears!"
Duke, who was sniffing at the ice at that time, aroused by the voices,
and caresses of the doctor, started off suddenly with the speed of an
arrow. He barked violently and, far off as he was, his loud barks
reached the hunters' ears.
The extreme distance to which sound is carried when the temperature is
low is an astonishing fact; it is only equalled by the brilliancy of
the constellations in the northern skies; the waves of light and sound
are transmitted to great distances, especially in the dry cold of the
nights.
The hunters, guided by his distant barking, hastened after him; they
had to run a mile, and they got there all out of breath, which happens
very soon in such an atmosphere. Duke stood pointing about fifty feet
from an enormous mass which was rolling about on the top of a small
iceberg.
"Just what we wanted!" shouted the doctor, cocking his gun.
"A fine bear!" said Bell, following the doctor's example.
"A curious bear!" said Johnson, who intended to fire after his
companions.
Duke barked furiously. Bell advanced about twenty feet, and fired; but
the animal seemed untouched, for he continued rolling his head slowly.
Johnson came forward, and, after taking careful aim, he pulled the
trigger.
"Good!" said the doctor; "nothing yet! Ah, this cursed refraction! We
are too far off; we shall never get used to it! That bear is more than
a mile away."
"Come on!" answered Bell.
The three companions hastened toward the animal, which had not been
alarmed by the firing; he seemed to be very large, but, without
weighing the danger, they gave themselves up already to the joy of
victory. Having got within a reasonable distance, they fired; the bear
leaped into the air and fell, mortally wounded, on the level ice
below.
[Illustration]
Duke rushed towards him.
"That's a bear," said the doctor, "which was easily conquered."
"Only three shots," said Bell with some scorn, "and he's down!"
"That's odd," remarked Johnson.
"Unless we got here just as he was going to die of old age," continued
the doctor, laughing.
"Well, young or old," added Bell, "he's a good capture."
Talking in this way they reached the small iceberg, and, to their
great surprise, they found Duke growling over the body of a white fox.
[Illustration]
"Upon my word," said Bell, "that's too much!"
"Well," said the doctor, "we've fired at a bear, and killed a fox!"
Johnson did not know what to say.
"Well," said the doctor with a burst of laughter in which there was a
trace of disappointment, "that refraction again! It's always deceiving
us."
"What do you mean, Doctor?" asked the carpenter.
"Yes, my friend; it deceived us with respect to its size as well as
the distance! It made us see a bear in a fox's skin! Such a mistake is
not uncommon under similar circumstances! Well, our imagination alone
was wrong!"
"At any rate," answered Johnson, "bear or fox, he's good eating. Let's
carry him off."
But as the boatswain was lifting him to his shoulders:--
"That's odd," he said.
"What is it?" asked the doctor.
"See there, Doctor, he's got a collar around his neck."
"A collar?" asked the doctor again, examining the fox.
In fact, a half-worn-out copper collar appeared under his white fur;
the doctor thought he saw letters engraved upon it; he unfastened it
from the animal's neck, about which it seemed to have been for a long
time.
"What does that mean?" asked Johnson.
"That means," said the doctor, "that we have just killed a fox more
than twelve years old,--a fox who was caught by James Ross in 1848."
"Is it possible?" said Bell.
"There's no doubt about it. I'm sorry we killed him! While he was in
winter-quarters, James Ross thought of trapping a large number of
white foxes; he fastened on their necks copper collars on which was
engraved the position of his ships, the _Enterprise_ and
_Investigator_, as well as where the supplies were left. These animals
run over immense distances in search of food, and James Ross hoped
that one of them might fall into the hands of one of the men of the
Franklin expedition. That's the simple explanation; and this poor
beast, who might have saved the life of two crews, has fallen
uselessly beneath our guns."
"Well, we won't eat it," said Johnson, "especially if it's twelve
years old. But we shall keep the skin as a memento."
Johnson raised it to his shoulders. The hunters made their way to the
ship, guiding themselves by the stars; their expedition was not wholly
without result; they were able to bring back several ptarmigans.
An hour before reaching the _Forward_, there was a singular phenomenon
which greatly interested the doctor. It was a real shower of
shooting-stars; they could be counted by thousands, flying over the
heavens like rockets; they dimmed the light of the moon. For hours
they could have stood gazing at this beautiful sight. A similar
phenomenon was observed in Greenland in 1799, by the Moravians. It
looked like an exhibition of fireworks. The doctor after his return to
the ship spent the whole night gazing at the sight, which lasted till
seven o'clock in the morning, while the air was perfectly silent.
[Illustration]