Part 8 (1/2)
Contrary to the usual habits of the Greenland whale, this individual, instead of occasionally seeking the depths of ocean for its protection, especially on receiving a fresh and painful wound, reies, but yet little acted on by the exhausting influence of the _pressure_ of water, were consequently very little impaired; for the superficial wounds of harpoons produce no immediate effect upon life
Hence, the operation of lancing was yet to be effected, before there could be any chance of subduing the still existing dangerous vigour My Father, as was his wont, proceeded next to this venturous undertaking Again he plants his boat in parallelisame
Full of ardour and confidence in their leader, his boat's crew are ready for any effort or adventure which the daring or activity of man may accomplish The proper moment for the attack is waited for, and, when seen, instantly inal, towards the side of the whale The Co lance-six feet in the iron, and four feet in the handle-is darted, at ar carcass, up to the very socket; and, before the fling of fins or tail can reach, he has recovered a safe distance The effect of the wound in the vitals is speedily seen The previous white steaed with red; and nature's powers, as experience indicates, must soon decay Convulsive action in the th suspended, the favourable ain improved Another lance,-darted in as quickly as the stroke of the tiger's paw,-penetrates, for the second tients of the attack escape, as before, unscathed The deadly thrust is quickly repeated; and, as the capability of exerting instant violence is diminished, the deeply stricken lance is worked actively up and dohilst still within, so that every movement effects an additional wound, and the work of death is the more speedily and mercifully promoted Thick jets of blood now issue froh the wide space of disturbed waters, is tinged by the overflowing streams; whilst boats, oars, and uinous dye Lanced, now, on both sides at once, with these fories of this vast animal become soon overpowered, and it now yields itself passively to its inevitable fate One effort alone re vitality,-like the brilliant glea taper, is expended in a series of treiant captive is now thrown into strangely powerful action; fins and tail play with terrific violence, tossing up huge waves, and dashi+ng the sea, for a considerable circle round, into foam The prudent fisher on with the solemnised impression of a spectacle at once wonderful and subli nature to expend thee carcass, so recently perilous in the energies of life, rolls, by the gravitating tendency of its formation, on one side, and slowly the helpless fin rises to the surface of the water, and inherent power of aged in the capture, with the waving and ”striking” of the ”jacks”
displayed in the boats from which harpoons had been struck, announce to the shi+p the happy issue of the conflict; fro cheers are heard loudly responding[J]
We have re chapter, on the economy in Providence, by which the fiercest quadrupeds, under huence, becoain, we are led to reflect on the econoest_ of the animal creation, whether on earth or in the ocean, whereby all becoeous eies, or for purposes of utility as to the produce of their dead carcasses
The capture of the whale by man, when their relative proportions, as to physical power and mass, are considered, is a result truly wonderful An ani superiority in strength, inhabiting an ele to depths where no other creature can folloith the capabilities, too, of abiding there for an hour together, is attacked by round, not only in the tranquil Pacific, but in the boisterous north-western seas; not only in the open seas of the tropics, but aion is constrained to yield its life to his attacks, and its carcass a tribute to his marvellous enterprise
Why this result, with such disproportionate physical powers in conflict, should not only take place, but prevalently follow the attack, is satisfactorily explained on the simple principle of the Divine enactment
It was the appointment of the Creator that it should be so And this, besides e have already quoted froain, by the inspired Psalmist and elsewhere, declared Hence, as to the fact of the dominion of man over the inferior creation, Divinely yielded, we have the authority of this adoring appeal of God's inspired servant:-”What is man, that thou art mindful of him!” ”Thou madest him to have dos under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and _whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea_ O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy na psalm has direct reference to the world's Great and Divine Redeemer; but what herein is true of the ”Son of Man,” is also, in respect to the consideration of the Alhty for man and his appointed dominion, true of men as a species And so it follows, that the monsters of the deep, as well as the wild beasts of the earth, yield to this law of creation, that man should have the dominant power!
The whale, thus adventurously subdued, proved a large one of its kind, and a very valuable prize Its special dih not noted, athered from the record (always th of the largest of the laeneral averages, as given in the ”Account of the Arctic Regions,” (vol i pp 449-478,) this specith, and must have yielded about 20 tuns of oil, with about 22 cwt of whalebone The value of the capture (oil being _very low_ in price at the time) was about 500_l_; but the same capture, in the years 1801, 1813, or 1817, when prices were _high_, would have been worth no less than 1000_l_ to 1100_l_
SECTION VII-_Remarkable Enterprise-The nearest Approach to the North Pole_
The adventurous attempt to reach the _North Pole_, like that of the ”North-west Passage,” may be considered as an enterprise peculiarly British Of six voyages expressly undertaken for this object, up to the time, and inclusive of, Captain Buchan's, in 1818, there was no advance beyond the 81st parallel The highest latitude reached was by Captain Phipps, in 1773, who advanced to 80 48' Captain Buchan's farthest was about 80 34' And up to the present day we have no account which can be fully relied upon of any shi+p, discovery shi+p or whaler, having approached within forty geographical h northern latitude reached by my Father in the year 1806
The Honourable Daines Barrington, indeed, in his discussion of the question of the ”Probability of Reaching the North Pole,” adduces a great variety of instances of the advance of whalers to far higher positions of northern latitude; but for the reasons stated in the ”Account of the Arctic Regions,” (vol i p 42,) I consider the authorities froton derived his information as not satisfactory As to the defectiveness in authority of _mere recollections_, or even of the notes of ordinary observers, in respect of adventures of this kind, I have a curious exaen,” by a Greenland Surgeon, who sailed in the Resolution professionally, on the very voyage on which reatest advance northward The author, in respect to this advance, thus states from his journal:-”May 28 Latitude by observation 81 50' Sea alreat swell; weather serene Had our object been theto have prevented us froood way farther to the north; at least we did not perceive any large fields of ice in that direction”
Now this is hest latitude _observed_ was only 81 12' 42?, and the statements as to the nature and position of the ice, are equally diverse from what those circumstances actually were
My Father's notable enterprise in the attainhest latitude that had ever been reached by e of 1806 Occupying, young as I was, the responsible office of chief-mate in the shi+p, I have the records of the adventure preserved in my journal in all their essential or important details
The entrance into the ordinary fishi+ng-stations on the western side of Spitzbergen was, on this occasion, occupied by ice of extraordinary breadth and compactness We entered it on the 28th of April, in the latitude of 76 N, and, pressing northward at every available opening, we reached the latitude of 77 on the 7th of May Several shi+ps were then in sight On the 10th, a gale setting in froress through the encu ice, and soon left all our associate whalers fairly out of sight; and from that time until the 19th of June (after we had retraced ress southward) we never saw a sail
Up to the 13th of May, indeed, there was nothing unusual, as to the practice of my Father, in the nature of the adventure But on that day, being in latitude about 78 46', within sight of Charles Island, on the western coast of Spitzbergen, he entered upon a new and apparently dangerous enterprise,-the attempt to find, whilst the sea was apparently _filled_ with ice, in this high latitude, a navigable sea still nearer the Pole
The ice around was singularly compact, and, to ordinary apprehension, impenetrable Northward of us it consisted, as far as our view extended, of scattered masses of heavy drift-ice, closely cemented into a coe herein, if such were possible, must, in any case, be a ; but if the compact body were entered, and not successfully penetrated and passed beyond, it ht involve a risk, which a considerable fleet actually fell into, of the loss of the fishi+ng season by a helpless besetment There were indications, however, which my Father's experienced eye alone discerned,-of open water to the northward The bright reflection of the snow-covered ices in the sky, constituting the phenomenon of the ”ice blink,”of the navigation for a considerable way in advance; but, when elevated to the very top of the rey streak _below_ the ice-blink, parallel to and skirting the horizon, which he deemed a sure indication of ”clear water,” _beyond_ the proxiht not be of any great extent? Itobliterated on the first change of wind? Were such the nature of the opening, it erous trap, as its position was more advanced northward?
These considerations, of very serious in which the watchful navigator got sight of He discerned, for short intervals, occasionally, a very slight motion, as he conceived, of the water in contact with soe lumps of ice near the shi+p
His careful scrutiny of the th assured him that there _was_ a movement Experience then certified that the movement could only arise from a _swell_, and that the swell must proceed either frolacial lake, or what is technically called ”a sea of water,”
northward That it _did not_ come from the southern ocean, the distance to which he had penetrated, and the unhtness of the ice-blink in each of the southern quarters, convinced him; and that it _did_ come from the northward he was able to satisfy hi the points or places on the masses of ice where the alteration of level in the water was the greatest; for this scrutiny sufficed to show, that the axial position of the ice, which the motion pointed out, was in strict parallelis directly from the place of the ”water-sky”
to the northward
Encouraged by these indications, he deter a position recently attained, where the shi+p had so, at all risks, into the formidable body of consolidated ices still beyond him This arduous and adventurous purpose was commenced on the 13th of May, with a moderate breeze (favourable to our advance) froress was, indeed, then made; but laborious perseverance, rendered effective by a consummate application of all the means and resources available for our furtherance, ultiht add, deserved success During five successive days, a series of labours were carried on of the h the intervening ice,-which consisted, as we have intimated, of extensive sheets of bay-ice, with heavy lued by all the variety of aids that were known to be applicable These aids, beyond the available force of occasional favourable winds, consisted in the cutting of tracks or channels with ice-sahere the thickness was too great to be broken, or, where thinner, in breaking the ice under the bows by boats suspended beneath the bowsprit, whilst their crews rolled the canals, by well-laden boats being run across extensive planes of ice, where their weight, with that of their crews,surface; in ”warping” through encumbered channels, or a” with boats, or ”tracking” byany clear channels of water whichthe shi+p_, in aid of any of these resources, for widening the space in which she floated, so as to leave her free to ht exist in advance And here, I think it due toof the shi+p,-an oscillating or rollingof the crew, simultaneously, from side to side across the deck,-that the application of this inal with him, and, as far as I can remember, _now_ for the first time employed It is a process, I may add, which has subsequently been adopted by fishereneral, as a mean which may often be made effective when, _under all other ed-up or ice-bound shi+p has become utterly immoveable
The manner in which these various operations were carried on was laborious in an extreree Whilst the creere allowed but limited and distant periods for rest, my Father's exertions were such as, except under the pressure of circu the alternative of life or death, I think I never saw equalled Not only was he always at his post directing, instructing, sti eneral slept, or continuing his superintending toils, watch after watch, when portions of the crew had, alternately, their intervals of rest In that severe service, indeed, few our and strength of constitution enabled him to accoh capabilities, what
His exertions and talents, as we have indeed anticipated, had their due recompense in thean icy barrier of extraordinary tenaceousness and coion, in the 80th parallel, of incoreater openness than we could have anticipated,-”a sea of water,”-to which we could see no bounds, but the ice we had passed through on the south side, and the land to the eastward