Part 16 (1/2)
The old cook pulls his greasy cap over his bald head and thinks.
”Science!” ”De Nort Pole!” He don't get the meaning of these through his cap, and he ”tumbles up” the companion-ladder, and goes to the galley to enjoy his guernsey.
Dr. Hayes and Knorr went ash.o.r.e and climbed to the top of the cliffs, twelve hundred feet. The wind was fearfully breezy, and Knorr's cap left and went sailing like a feather out to sea. The view was full of arctic grandeur, but not flattering to the storm-bound navigators. Ice was evidently king a little farther north.
Soon after the explorer's return to the vessel the storm gathered fresh power, and the anchors began to drag. Soon one hawser parted, and away went the schooner, with fearful velocity, and brought up against a berg.
The crash was appalling, and the stern boat flew into splinters. The spars were either bent or carried away; and, as they attempted to hoist the mainsail, it went to pieces. The crippled craft was with difficulty worked back into the projecting covert of Cape Alexander. Her decks were covered with ice, and the dogs were peris.h.i.+ng with wet and cold, three having died.
Having repaired damages as well as they could, they again pushed into the pack of Smith's Sound, which lay between them and open water, visible far to the north. Entering a lead under full sail, they made good progress for awhile; but suddenly a solid floe shot across the channel, and the vessel, with full headway, struck it like a battering ram. The cut-water flew into splinters, and the iron sheathing of the bows was torn off as if it had been paper.
Pus.h.i.+ng off from the floe, and pa.s.sing through a narrow lead, they emerged into an area of open water. But the floe was on the alert. This began to close up, and, taking a hint of foul play, the explorers steered toward the sh.o.r.e. But the ice battalions moved with celerity, piled up across the vessel's bow, and closed in on every side. In an hour they held her as in a vice, while the reserve force was called up to crush her to atoms. The foe was jubilant, for the power at his command was kindred to that of the earthquake. An ice-field of millions of tons, moved by combined wind and current, rushed upon the solid ice-field which rested against the immovable rocks of the sh.o.r.e. Between these was the schooner--less than an egg-sh.e.l.l between colliding, heavily laden freight trains. As the pressure came steadily, in well a.s.sured strength, she groaned and shrieked like a thing of conscious pain, writhing and twisting as if striving to escape her pitiless adversary. Her deck timbers bowed, and the seams of the deck-planks opened, while her sides seemed ready to yield.
Thus far the closing forces were permitted to strike severely on the side of the helpless vessel, to show that they could crush her as rotten fruit is crushed in a strong man's hand. Then He, without whose permission no force in nature moves, and at whose word they are instantly stayed, directed the floe under the strongly timbered ”bilge”
of the hull, and, with a jerk which sent the men reeling about the deck, lifted the vessel out of the water. The floes now fought their battle out beneath her, as if they disdained, like the lion with the mouse in his paw, to crush so small a thing. Great ridges were piled up about her, and one underneath lifted her high into the air. Eight hours she remained in this situation, while the lives of all on board seemed suspended on the slenderest thread.
Then came the yielding and breaking up of the floes. Once, at the commencing of the giving way, an ice prop of the bows suddenly yielded, let the forward end of the vessel down while the stern was high in the air. But finally the battered craft settled squarely into the water.
She was leaking badly, and the pumps were kept moving with vigor. The rudder was split, and two of its bolts broken; the stern-post started, and fragments of the cut-water and keel were floating away. But, strange to say, no essential injury was done. She was slowly navigated into Hartstene or _Etah_ Bay, where we have been so often, anch.o.r.ed safely, and repairs immediately commenced.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE WINTER HOME.
ONE more effort, after the repairs were finished, was made to push through the ice-floe of Smith's Sound. This resulting in failure, it was plainly impossible to get farther north. The vessel was brought into Etah Bay again, a harbor found eight miles north-east of Cape Alexander, and eighty by the coast from the harbor of the ”Advance,” though only twenty in a straight line, and preparations were at once begun for winter. Peter, the Esquimo dog-driver, and Hans were appointed a hunting party. Sontag, the astronomer, with three a.s.sistants, was mainly engaged in scientific observations and experiments. There was work for all the rest. Some were engaged in unloading the cargo and lifting it by a derrick to a terrace on the sh.o.r.e, far above the highest tide, where a storehouse was made for it. The hold of the schooner was cleared, scrubbed, and white-washed, a stove set up, and made a home for the sailors. The sails and yards were ”sent down,” the upper deck roofed in, making a house eight feet high at the ridge, and six and a half at the sides.
The crew moved into their new quarters on the first of October. The event was celebrated by a holiday dinner. There was joy on s.h.i.+pboard; thankful for escapes granted by the great Protector, trustful for the future, and, greatly encouraged by present blessings, none were unhappy.
The hunters were very successful, bringing in every day game of the best kind, and in great abundance. A dozen reindeer were suspended from the shrouds, and cl.u.s.ters of rabbits and foxes were hung in the rigging; besides these, deposits of reindeer were made in various directions. The hard-working men ate heartily of the relis.h.i.+ng fresh food, and laughed to scorn the scurvy. They called the place of their winter quarters Port Foulke.
When the floe became frozen, the sledges were put in readiness for the dog-teams. The dogs having been well fed, were in fine condition.
Blocks of ice were used to make a wall about the vessel, from the floe to the deck, between which and her sides the snow was crowded, making a solid defense against the cold.
On the fifteenth of October the sun bade them farewell for four months, and they antic.i.p.ated the coming darkness under circ.u.mstances certainly much better than had been often granted to arctic sojourners.
As there was yet a long twilight, dog-trips were very exhilarating. Dr.
Hayes once rode behind his dogs twelve measured miles in an hour and one minute, without a moment's halt. Sontag and the captain raced their teams, the captain beating, as was becoming, by four minutes.
The dogs were made to know their masters--a knowledge quite necessary for the good of all. Jensen observed that one of his team was getting rebellious. ”You see dat beast,” he said. ”I takes a piece out of his ear.” The long lash unrolls, the sinewy snapper on its tip touches the tip of the dog's ear, and takes out a piece as neatly as a sharp knife would have done.
The same day Jensen's skill at dog driving was put to a severe test. A fox crossed their path. Up went their tails, curling over their backs, their short ears p.r.i.c.ked forward, and away they went in full chase. In such a case woe be to the driver who cannot take a piece of flesh out of any dog in the team at each snap of his merciless whip. Jensen was usually master of such a situation, but it so happened that a strong wind blew directly in the face of the team and carried the lash back before it reached its victim. Missing its terrible bite, the dogs became for a while unmanageable and raced after the fox at full speed. To make matters worse, treacherous ice lay just ahead. The dogs were already on the heels of the fox, and about to make a meal of him, when Jensen regained full control of his whip. It stung severely, now this one and then that. Their tails dropped, their ears drooped, and they paused and obeyed their master. But they were greatly provoked at the loss of the game, and at the harsh subjection, and, with characteristic amiability, they commenced to snap at and bite each other. Jensen jumped from the sledge and laid the whip-stock on them, knocking them to the right and left, until, it is presumed, made very loving by the process, they went about their a.s.signed business.
Parties of the explorers were out nearly every day, hunting, or pursuing the scientific inquiries.
Knorr, the secretary of the commander, was off with Hans. He had his adventure to talk about on his return. He wounded in the valley a reindeer, which hobbled on three legs up a steep hill. The young hunter followed, and, getting within easy range, brought it down by a well-aimed shot. The deer being in a line with Knorr, came sliding down the hill, and, knocking against him, both went tumbling down together.
Fortunately he carried no broken bones, but only bruises to the vessel as mementoes of his deer hunt.
Sontag, on the same day, had his perilous incident. He had climbed to the top of a glacier by cutting steps in the ice. Across the ice was a crack, bridged over with thin ice, but entirely concealed by it.