Part 7 (1/2)
Chapter XI
From the Sandwich Islands to the Polar Circle
The Halbrane, singularly favoured by the weather, sighted the New South Orkneys group in six days after she had sailed froo was discovered by Pallishman, jointly, in 1821-22 Crossed by the sixtyfirst parallel, it is comprehended between the forty-fourth and the forty, seventh , ere enabled to observe contorted masses and steep cliffs on the north side, which becae lay enorether in formidable confusion; these, before two months should have expired, would be drifted towards the te shi+ps would appear to carry on the taking of the great blowing creatures, while some of their creould remain on the islands to capture seals and seaelephants
In order to avoid the strait, which was encumbered with islets and ice-floes, Captain Len Guy first cast anchor at the south-eastern extremity of Laurie Island, where he passed the day on the 24th; then, having rounded Cape Dundas, he sailed along the southern coast of Coronation Island, where the schooner anchored on the 25th Our close and careful researches produced no result as regarded the sailors of the Jane
The islands and islets were peopled by uins into account, those guano-covered rocks were crohite pigeons, a species of which I had already seen some specimens These birds have rather short, conical beaks, and red-rimmed eyelids; they can be knocked over with little difficulty As for the vegetable kingdorey lichen and soreat abundance all along the rocks; of these we procured an ample supply
The boatswain and hisseveral dozens of penguins with their sticks, not froitimate desire to procure fresh food
”Their flesh is just as good as chicken, Mr Jeorling,” said Hurliguerly ”Did you not eat penguin at the Kerguelens?”
”Yes, boatswain, but it was cooked by Arkins”
”Very well, then; it will be cooked by Endicott here, and you will not know the difference” forecastle, were regaled with penguin, and acknowledged the merits of our excellent sea-cook
The Halbrane sailed on the 26th of Nove south She reascended the forty-third ood observation This route it was that Weddell and then William Guy had followed, and, pro,vided the schooner did not deflect either to the east or the west, she must inevitably coation had to be taken into account, of course
The wind, continuing to blow steadily from the west, was in our favour, and if the present speed of the Halbrane could be est to Captain Len Guy, the voyage from the South Orkneys to the Polar Circle would be a short one Beyond, as I knee should have to force the gate of the thick barrier of icebergs, or to discover a breach in that ice-fortress
”So that, in less than a ested, tentatively
”In less than a month I hope to have found the iceless sea which Weddell and Arthur Pym describe so fully, beyond the ice-wall, and thenceforth we need only sail on under ordinary conditions to Bennet Island in the first place, and afterwards to Tsalal Island Once on that 'wide open sea,' what obstacle could arrest or even retard our progress?”
”I can foresee none, captain, so soon as we shall get to the back of the ice-wall The passage through is the difficult point; it must be our chief source of anxietys and if only the wind holds--”
”It will hold, Mr Jeorling All the navigators of the austral seas have been able to ascertain, as I myself have done, the permanence of this wind”
”That is true, and I rejoice in the assurance, captain Besides, I acknowledge, without shrinking fro to be superstitious”
”And why not, Mr Jeorling? What is there unreason able in ad the intervention of a supernatural power in the most ordinary circumstances of life? And ho sail the Halbrane, should we venture to doubt it? Recall to yourwith the unfortunate Patterson on our shi+p's course, the fragment of ice carried into the waters where ere, and dissolved immediately afterwards Were not these facts providential ? Nay, I go farther still, and auide us towards our compatriots, God will not abandon us--”
”I think as you think, captain No, His intervention is not to be denied, and I do not believe that chance plays the part assigned to it by superficial e of human life All the facts are united by a , whose first link, so far as we are concerned, is Patterson's ice-block, and whose last will be Tsalal Island Ah! My brother! my poor brother! Left there for eleven years, with his co able to entertain the hope that succour ever could reach them! And Patterson carried far away fro what had become of him! If my heart is sick when I think of these catastrophes, Mr Jeorling, at least it will not fail me unless it be at the moment when my brother throws hireed in our trust in Providence It had been made plain to us in a manifest fashi+on that God had entrusted us with a ht be humanly possible to accoht to mention, were animated by the like sentiinal seamen ere so devoted to their captain As for the new ones, they were probably indifferent to the result of the enterprise, provided it should secure the profits proement
At least, I was assured by the boatswain that such was the case, but with the exception of Hunt This man had apparently not been induced to take service by the bribe of high wages or prize money He was absolutely silent on that and every other subject
”If he does not speak to you, boatswain,” I said, ”neither does he speak to , what it is uerly”
”Well, then, I believe he has gone far, far into the southern seas, let him be as dumb as a fish about it Why he is du of a man has not been inside the Antarctic Circle and even the ice wall by a good dozen degrees, may the first sea we shi+p carry e, boatswain?”
”Fro, from his eyes No matter at what moment, let the shi+p's head be as it may, those eyes of his are always on the south, open, unwinking, fixed like guns in position”
Hurliguerly did not exaggerate, and I had already rear Poe's, Hunt had eyes like a falcon's
”When he is not on the watch,” resue leans all the time with his elbows on the side, as ht place would be at the end of our bohere he would do for a figurehead to the Halbrane, and a very ugly one at that! And then, when he is at the hel, just observe hih they were fastened to the wheel; he gazes at the binnacle as though thehis eyes I pridethe equal of Hunt, I'm not! With hi-line, however rough a lurch she o out in the night Hunt would not require to relight it The fire in his eyes would light up the dial and keep hiation went on in unbroken le incident, and under favourable conditions The spring season was advancing, and whales began to e numbers
In these waters a ould suffice for shi+ps of heavy tonnage to fill their casks with the precious oil Thus the new men of the crew, and especially the Aret for the captain's indifference in the presence of so old, and more abundant than they had ever seen whales at that period of the year The leading -master, to whom his coet the upper hand of the other sailors by his rough manner and the surly audacity that was expressed by his whole personality Hearne was an Aorousup on his double bohaling-boat brandishi+ng the harpoon, darting it into the flank of a whale, and paying out the rope He must have been fine to see Granted his passion for this business, I could not be surprised that his discontent showed itself upon occasion
In any case, however, our schooner was not fitted out for fishi+ng, and the i were not on board
One day, about three o'clock in the afternoon, I had gone forward to watch the gae seathe in disjointed phrases,-- ”There, look there! That's a fin-back! There's another, and another; three of theh Just see the no jumps Ah l if I had a harpoon, I bet my head that I could send it into one of the four yellow spots they have on their bodies But there's nothing to be done in this traffic-box; one cannot stretch one's arht to be at, not--”
Then, stopping short, he swore a few oaths, and cried out, ”And that other whale!”
”The one with a hump like a dromedary?” asked a sailor
”Yes It is a humpback,” replied Hearne ”Do youdorsal fin? They're not easy to take, those hu reaches of your lines Truly, we deserve that he should give us a switch of his tail on our side, since we don't send a harpoon into his”
”Look out! Look out!” shouted the boatswain This was not to warn us that ere in danger of receiving the for-side the schooner, and al water was ejected from its blow-hole with a noise like a distant roar of artillery The whole foredeck to the rowled Hearne, shrugging his shoulders, while his companions shook themselves and cursed the humpback
Besides these two kinds of cetacea we had observed several right-whales, and these are the most usually met with in the southern seas They have no fins, and their blubber is very thick The taking of these fat ht-whales are vigorously pursued in the southern seas, where the little shell fish called ”whales' food” abound The whales subsist entirely upon these sht-whales, th--that is to say, the animal was the equivalent of a hundred barrels of oil--was seen floating within three cables' lengths of the schooner
”Yes! that's a right-whale,” exclaiht tell it by its thick, short spout See, that one on the port side, like a coluht-whale! And all this is passing before our very noses--a dead loss! Why, it's like es into the sea not to fill one's barrels when one can A nice sort of captain, indeed, to let all thisto his crew!”
”Hearne,” said an io up to the maintop You will be more at your ease there to reckon the whales”
”But, sir--”
”No reply, or I'll keep you up there until to-ot the worst of an atte-master obeyed in silence