Part 8 (2/2)
”I understand that, captain, and of course your experience of navigation in these waters must increase our chances of success”
”Undoubtedly Nevertheless, all that lies beyond the fixed icebergs is still the unknown for ators”
”The Unknown! No, not absolutely, captain, since we possess the important reports of Weddell, and, I must add, of Arthur Pym also”
”Yes, I know; they have spoken of the open sea”
”Do you not believe that such a sea exists?”
”Yes, I do believe that it exists, and for valid reasons In fact, it is perfectly s and icefields, could not be formed in the ocean itself It is the tree which detaches theh latitudes Then the currents carry thees are worn by the waves, while the terates their bases and their sides, which are subjected to thermometric influences”
”That seems very plain,” I replied ”Then these s1 They clash with the, soe through Again, we e the southern by the northern zone The conditions are not identical Cook has recorded that he never met the equivalent of the Antarctic ice her latitude”
”What is the reason?” I asked
”No doubt that the influence of the south winds is predoions Now, those winds do not reach the northern regions until they have been heated in their passage over America, Asia, and Europe, and they contribute to raise the te in the points of the Cape of Good Hope, Patagonia, and Tasmania, does not modify the atmospheric currents”
”That is an important observation, captain, and it justifies your opinion with regard to an open sea”
”Yes, open--at least, for ten degrees behind the icebergs Let us then only get through that obstacle, and our greatest difficulty will have been conquered You were right in saying that the existence of that open sea has been fornized by Weddell”
”And by Arthur Pym, captain”
”And by Arthur Pyation increased with the nu masses The wind, however, continued to be unifor no tendencyto veer to the south The breezefreshened nowand then, and we had to take in sail When this occurredthe sea foa the island, but without hindering their onward march
Our crew could not fail to be ih thesethem, at least, for the old hands had seen such manceuvres before But they soon becaranted
It was necessary to organize the look-out ahead with the greatest care West had a cask fixed at the head of the foremast--what is called a crow's-nest--and fro watch was kept
The 16th was a day of excessive fatigue to the men The packs and drifts were so close that only very narrow and winding passage-way between the of the shi+p was more than commonly laborious
Under these circuuished himself by his activity Indeed, he was admitted by Captain Len Guy and the crew to be an inco mysterious about him that excited the curiosity of them all
At this date the Halbrane could not be very far fros If she held on in her course in that direction she would certainly reach thee Hitherto, however, the look-out had not been able to s an unbroken crest of ice beyond the ice-fields
Constant and minute precautions were indispensable all day on the 16th, for the helm, which was loosened byunshi+pped
The sea reat numbers, and it was a fairy-like spectacle when several of them spouted simultaneously With fin-backs and hump-backs, porpoises of colossal size appeared, and these Hearne harpooned cleverly when they cae The flesh of these creatures was much relished on board, after Endicott had cooked it in his best eons, and corions of penguins, ranged along the edges of the icefields, watched the evolutions of the schooner These penguins are the real inhabitants of these dismal solitudes, and nature could not have created a type lacial zone
On the nalled the icebergs
Five or sixdentated crest upreared itself, plainly standing out against the fairly clear sky, and all along it drifted thousands of ice-packs This motionless barrier stretched before us fro along it the schooner would still gain sorees southwards
When the Halbrane ithin three s, she lay-to in the middle of a wide basin which allowed her complete freedoot into it, with the boatswain, four sailors at the oars, and one at the helm The boat was pulled in the direction of the enorh which the schooner could have slipped, and after three hours of this fatiguing reconnoitring, the men returned to the shi+p Then came a squall of rain and snohich caused the terees (2'22 C above zero), and shut out the view of the ice-ra the next twenty-four hours the schooner lay within fourher nearer would have been to get aht not have been possible to extricate her Not that Captain ien Guy did not long to do this, in his fear of passing so unperceived
”If I had a consort,” he said, ”I would sail closer along the icebergs, and it is a great advantage to be then one is on such an enterprise as this! But the Halbrane is alone, and if she were to fail us--”
Even though we approached no nearer to the icebergs than prudence perreat risk, and West was constantly obliged to change his trim in order to avoid the shock of an icefield
Fortunately, the wind blew from east to north-nor'-east without variation, and it did not freshen Had a tempest arisen I know not ould have becoh, I do know too well: she would have been lost and all on board of her In such a case the Halbrane could not have escaped; weon the base of the barrier
After a long exa a passage through the terrible wall ofice It remained only to endeavour to reach the south-east point of it At any rate, by following that course we lost nothing in latitude; and, in fact, on the 18th the observation taken made the seventy-third parallel the position of the Halbrane
I ation in the Antarctic seas will probably never be accomplished under more felicitous circumstances--the precocity of the summer season, the perrees at the lowest; all this was the best of good-fortune I need not add that we enjoyed perpetual light, and the whole twenty-four hours round the sun's rays reached us from every point of the horizon
Two or three tis It was impossible but that the vast mass must have been subjected to climatetic influences; ruptures must surely have taken place at some points
But his search had no result, and we had to fall back into the current fro all our search we never descried land or the appearance of land out at sea, as indicated on the charts of preceding navigators These maps are incomplete, no doubt, but sufficiently exact in their main lines I am aware that shi+ps have often passed over the indicated bearings of land This, however, was not admissible in the case of Tsalal If the Jane had been able to reach the islands, it was because that portion of the Antarctic sea was free, and in so ”early” a year, we need not fear any obstacle in that direction
At last, on the 19th, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, a shout from the crow's-nest was heard
”What is it?” roared West
”The iceberg wall is split on the south-east”
”What is beyond?” ”Nothing in sight”
It took West very little time to reach the point of observation, and we all waited belo iined What if the look-out were mistaken, if some optical delusion?--But West,at all events, would make no mistake
After ten interminable minutes his clear voice reached us on the deck
”Open sea!” he cried
Unanimous cheers made answer
The schooner's head was put to the south-east, hugging the wind as much as possible
Two hours later we had doubled the extremity of the ice-barrier, and there lay before our eyes a sparkling sea, entirely open
Chapter XIV