Part 18 (2/2)
Chapter XXI
Amid the Mists
So this was the sum of all our efforts, trials and disappointments! Not to speak of the destruction of the Halbrane, the expedition had already cost nine lives From thirty-two men who had embarked on the schooner, our nuure yet to fall?
Between the south pole and antarctic circle lay twenty degrees, and those would have to be cleared in abarrier would be re-for in that part of the antarctic circle, not a man of us could have survived it
Besides, we had lost all hope of rescuing the survivors of the Jane, and the sole desire of the creas to escape as quickly as possible from the awful solitudes of the south Our drift, which had been south, down to the pole, was now north, and, if that direction should continue, perhaps vle ood fortune as would make up for all the evil that had befallen us! In any case there was nothing for it but, in fao”
Thethe end, 3rd, and 4th of February, and it would have been difficult tosince it had passed the pole Captain Len Guy, however, and West, considered the it at two hundred and fifty miles
The current did not seeed its course It was now beyond a doubt that erebetween the two halves of a continent, one on the east, the other on the west, which forht it was round on one or the other side of this vast strait, whose surface would presently be solidified by the co of winter
When I expressed this sentiical answer: ”What would you have, Mr Jeorling? We are powerless There is nothing to be done, and the persistent fog is the worst part of our ill luck I no longer knohere we are It is impossible to take an observation, and this befalls us just as the sun is about to disappear for long months”
”Let me come back to the question of the boat,” said I, ”for the last time Could we not, with the boat--”
”Go on a discovery cruise? Can you think of such a thing? That would be an ih the creould allow : ”And what if your brother and your countrye on some spot of the land that undoubtedly lies about us?”
But I restrained rief? He, too, must have contemplated this eventuality, and he had not renounced his purpose of further search without being fully convinced of the folly of a last atteht of Dirk Peters, or rather he had made no attempt to approach, but had remained inflexibly at his post by the boat Martin Holt's questions respecting his brother Ned seemed to indicate that his secret was known--at least in part, and the half-breed held hi while the others watched, and watching in their ti confided in nance by his sad story If so, he wascould exceed the melancholyso thick that the wind could not lift its curtain The position of the iceberg could not be ascertained It ith the current at a like speed, and had it been motionless there would have been no appreciable difference for us, for the wind had fallen--at least, so we supposed--and not a breath was stirring The flame of a torch held up in the air did not flicker The silence of space was broken only by the clangour of the sea-birds, which ca atmosphere of vapour Petrels and albatross swept the top of the iceberg, where they kept a useless watch in their flight In what direction were those singed creatures--perhaps already driven towards the confines of the arctic region but the approach of winter--bound? We could not tell One day, the boatswain, as deterhis neck, came into such violent contact with a quebranta huesos--a sort of gigantic petrelon his back
”Curse the bird!” he said on his return to the ca the observation to me ”I have had a narrow escape! A thu I saved myself I don't kno, for I was all but over the side Those ice ledges, you know, slip through one's fingers like water I called out to the bird, 'Can't you even look before you, you fool?' But as the good of that? The big blunderer did not even beg my pardon!”
In the afternoon of the sa frouerly remarked that as there were no asses to treat us to the concert, it uins Hitherto these countless dwellers in the polar regions had not thought proper to acco island; we had not seen even one, either at tile foot of the iceberg or on the drifting packs There could be no doubt that they were there in thousands, for the music was unmistakably that of a multitude of perfores of the coasts of islands and continents in high latitudes, or the ice-fields in their neighbourhood Was not their presence an indication that land was near?
I asked Captain Len Guy what he thought of the presence of these birds
”I think what you think, Mr Jeorling,” he replied ”Since we have been drifting, none of the, and here they are now in crowds, if wecries From whence do they come? No doubt from land, which is probably near”
”Is this West's opinion?”
”Yes, Mr Jeorling, and you know he is not given to vain iinations”
”Certainly not”
”And then another thing has struck both him and me, which has apparently escaped your attention It is that the braying of the penguins isof cattle Listen and you will readily distinguish it”
I listened, and, sure enough, the orchestra wasplainly,” I said; ”there are, then, seals and walrus also in the sea at the base”
”That is certain, Mr Jeorling, and I conclude from the fact that those animals--both birds and mammals--very rare since we left Tsalal Island, frequent the waters into which the currents have carried us”
”Of course, captain, of course Oh! what a misfortune it is that we should be surrounded by this i down to the base of the iceberg! There, no doubt, we should discover whether there are seaweed drifts around us; if that be so, it would be another sign”
”Why not try, captain?”
”No, no, Mr Jeorling, that ht lead to falls, and I will not perine our iceberg will strike it before long”
”And if it does not?”
”If it does not, how are we to ht very well be used in the latter case But Captain Len Guy preferred to wait, and perhaps this was the wiser course under our circu the half-condensed h it The coh it were passing into a solid state It was not possible to discern whether the fog had any effect upon the coists, and that they believe they may safely affirm that the needle is not affected by this condition of the atmosphere I will add here that since we had left the South Pole behind no confidence could be placed in the indications of the conetic pole, to which ere no doubt on the way Nothing could be known, therefore, concerning the course of the iceberg
The sun did not set quite below the horizon at this period, yet the waters rapped in tolerably deep darkness at nine o'clock in the evening, when the muster of the crew took place
On this occasion each man as usual answered to his name except Dirk Peters
The call was repeated in the loudest of Hurliguerly's stentorian tones No reply
”Has nobody seen Dirk Peters during the day?” inquired the captain
”nobody,” answered the boatswain
”Can anything have happened to him?”
”Don't be afraid,” cried the boatswain ”Dirk Peters is in his ele as a polar bear He has got out of one bad scrape; he will get out of a second!”
I let Hurliguerly have his say, knohy the half-breed kept out of the way
That night none of us, I am sure, could sleep We were sen And ere all e sort of presentie, for better or worse, if indeed it could be worse
The night wore on without any alar each of us came out to breathe a ed, the density of the fog was extraordinary It was, however, found that the barometer had risen, too quickly, it is true, for the rise to be serious Presently other signs of change beca colder--a south wind since we had passed beyond the south pole--began to blow a full gale, and the noises froh the space swept by the at doffed its cap of vapour quite suddenly, producing an indescribable transformation scene which no fairy's wand could have accoreater success
In a few e of the horizon, and the sea reappeared, illumined by the oblique rays of the sun, which now rose only a few degrees above it A rolling swell of the waves bathed the base of our iceberg in white foareatmountains under the double action of wind and current, on a course inclining to the nor'-nor'-east ”Land!”
This cry caon the outermost block, his hand stretched towards the north
The half-breed was not mistaken The land this tihts, of a blackish hue, rose within three or four miles of us
86A 12aE south latitude
114A 17aE east longitude
The iceberg was nearly four degrees beyond the antarctic pole, and froitudes that our schooner had followed tracing the course of the Jane, we had passed into the eastern longitudes