Part 12 (2/2)
When all was ready for the march to begin, the detachments set out, after hearty farewells from those who remained behind, and who watched them slowly pa.s.s out of sight over the ice and into the cold mysteries of the white region lying towards the north.
The camp at Teplitz Bay was strangely quiet after their departure, the absence of the dogs, no less than the absence of the men, rendering the place lonely and deserted. It was not expected that the auxiliary detachment would be back again for some days, and it was with very great surprise that the Duke of Abruzzi, while walking near the hut one day, heard the sounds of dogs barking near at hand. He hastened in the direction whence the sounds came, and was astounded to see Lieutenant Querini coming towards him. Immediately he came to the conclusion that disaster had overtaken the expedition soon after starting, and that the lieutenant was the bearer of ill news, if not the only survivor of the detachments. The facts were, however, not quite so bad as this. What had happened was that the cold had become so intense, after leaving Cape Fligely, that not only the men, but the dogs also, suffered severely, and were almost incapacitated. The experience of a few days revealed many points where improvement could be made in the arrangement of the sledges and their loading, and the commander, realising that only valuable time would be lost, and perhaps the entire expedition jeopardised, by pus.h.i.+ng on under the circ.u.mstances, decided to return to the main camp, so as to overhaul the arrangements, and reorganise the detachments in the light of their experiences.
By the time the detachments were again ready to start, February had pa.s.sed and March 10 had arrived. The loss of time, consequent on their return, necessitated an alteration in the programme of all the parties, and when they set out the second time the order of march was for the first detachment to return after twelve days' march, the second in twenty-four, and the third in thirty-six. The detachments were also varied, so that the main detachment should number four instead of three men. A Norwegian, the engineer of the s.h.i.+p, was included in the first detachment at his earnest request.
The second start was made on Sunday, March 11, and this time there was no turning back. On March 28 the Duke of Abruzzi went, with the watch party, to Cape Fligely, and constructed a shelter wherein to remain in readiness to greet the first detachment on their return, the date of which was expected to be April 4. On that date, and for some days before, an anxious watch was kept from the lookout point towards the north, but no signs were seen of the returning explorers. For a day or so this did not cause any grave anxiety, as it was quite possible that there might be a brief delay, but as the days went by without a sign, and the days grew into weeks, there was serious uneasiness at the continued non-appearance of the men. The time arrived when the second detachment was due, and still the watchers saw no signs of the returning men. Uneasiness gave place to grave anxiety, and the few who remained at the camp were beginning to wonder whether they alone would return home, with the summer, with only a tale of loss and disaster to bear to their country, when a man of the second party reached the camp in a state of great exhaustion. His story was that his detachment, the second, had parted with the third on March 31, and had successfully negotiated the return journey up to April 15, when an open channel in the ice near the island had stopped their forward march. For days they had sought a way round it, but, failing, the leader had despatched the man in the kayak to reach the watch party, and summon a.s.sistance of a boat to convey the remainder over the channel. The man had attempted to land at a point where the ice was some fifteen feet high, but while he was testing it to see if he could clamber up, the kayak slipped away from him and left him clinging, with no hope of escape if he slipped into the water below. He was one of the Alpine guides, and, with his ice-axe, he managed to cut a way up the ice to the summit, though the struggle was a terrible strain on his strength and skill. When, at last, he reached the summit, he was met with a new difficulty. He did not know where he was, nor in which direction the camp lay. He was without food, or refreshment, but he made his way to a higher point, from whence he was, fortunately, able to see the top of the s.h.i.+p's masts showing over the ice. This gave him the direction of the camp at Teplitz Bay, and he made his way thither, with as much speed as he could. When he arrived, he had been battling his way for over twenty-four hours, from the time he lost his kayak, a feat of very great endurance.
In answer to anxious questions as to the first detachment, he said he and all the rest believed the first detachment was in the camp, for it had left the main body in time to reach Cape Fligely by April 2. At the time it started back, owing to the drift of the ice, the island could be distinctly seen, so that there could be no difficulty as to the men knowing which way to go. Moreover, a change had been made in the command, and the first detachment had left under the command of Lieutenant Querini, Dr. Cavalli having been placed at the head of the second detachment owing to his showing greater staying powers on the march than the lieutenant.
As soon as the rest of the detachment had been conveyed from the ice pack to the camp, Dr. Cavalli corroborated the story and shared, with the rest of the expedition, the anxiety at the non-arrival of the little band. His detachment, he said, had parted with the main party on 31st March, and had seen Captain Cagni and his companions continue their way to the north, with a train of six sledges and forty-eight dogs. The first detachment might, he suggested, have been carried away to the east, and, as they had no kayak with them, they might have been cut off by an open channel and so prevented from reaching the island. Relief parties were immediately sent out to search the ice in that direction, and also to see whether the men had taken refuge on the islands, further to the north-east, where Nansen and Johansen had pa.s.sed their winter.
The search was continued until May 10, when the parties returned, having searched far and wide but without finding any trace of the missing detachment. It was then hoped that they had made their way to Cape Flora, where there was an abundance of food and other necessaries, but when the _Stella Polare_ touched there, on her way home, no signs were found of the missing men, and it was then realised that they were lost.
How, or when, or where, they had met their end, no one could form any opinion. A break in the ice may have precipitated them into a channel; cold may have overcome them as they slept; moving hummocks may have overwhelmed them, or a sudden snow-storm may have caused them to lose their direction, and have led them into dangers they were not able to escape. When no trace could be found of them, and no vestige of their outfit discovered on the ice, or the islands, there was only one thing the survivors could realise, and that was that their comrades had gone out of the world in silence, in mystery, and in sacrifice to the knowledge of humanity.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SKETCH MAP
Showing Captain Cagni's farthest north 86 34', being 20' beyond the point reached by Nansen.]
As the month of May gradually pa.s.sed, the members of the expedition gathered at Cape Fligely so as to maintain a steady watch for the return of the main detachment. In addition to the watch party there was also a party at Teplitz Bay, and word was sent from one place to the other as the days went by, while short journeys were constantly being taken along the sh.o.r.es on the lookout for the return of Captain Cagni and his companions. The provisions they had with them were only calculated to last until May 26, but the leader had expressed his intention, if he had not succeeded in reaching far enough to the north, of proceeding on reduced rations so as to attain as high a lat.i.tude as possible before returning. On the reduced scale they would be able to subsist until June 10, but when that date arrived and still there was no sign of them, the remainder of the expedition became alarmed. The silent disappearance of Lieutenant Querini and his companions did not tend to alleviate their anxiety. A week pa.s.sed without any sign; June 20th came and went, and the next two days saw the little community depressed and sad at what they regarded as the fatal silence. On the 23rd they barely exchanged words with one another, lest they should add to each other's sorrow by expressing the almost hopeless fear that every one felt. On the evening of that day the watch party at Cape Fligely had retired to their shelter when they heard the barking of dogs. Hastily going outside, they saw a man, with a sledge, advancing from the direction of Teplitz Bay. They waited in silence for him to come up, fearing he brought news of disaster. But their fears were turned to joy when he shouted the news that the third detachment had safely returned to camp, having penetrated as far as 86 34' N., and so established the ”farthest north” record of any expedition yet despatched to the Arctic.
The story Captain Cagni had to tell was one of persistent courage and determination. The straits to which he and his companions were reduced were shown by the condition of their equipment. They had a single sledge in a very damaged state, a bottomless saucepan, a broken cooking lamp, and a ragged tent. Their dogs were reduced to seven, the others having been killed to feed the survivors as well as the men. On the return journey the drift of the ice had carried them to the west, so that when they reached the lat.i.tude of Teplitz Bay they were many miles to the west of it. The condition of the ice had compelled them to go still further away before they were able to turn and head direct for the camp.
From March 11 to April 24 they marched steadily towards the north, and covered something like six hundred miles in ninety-five days. For the whole period of 104 days they marched 753 miles. During the first stage of the journey they maintained a speed of five miles a day, but during the second stage they doubled that, and covered, on an average, ten miles a day. From their experience they argued it was impossible to reach the Pole from any such base as that at Teplitz Bay while dog sledges were the only available means of transport.
With the return of this detachment the work of the expedition was at an end. The vessel was freed from the ice after a little difficulty, and, proving to be seaworthy, steamed out of the bay on August 14. They arrived at Hammerfest without mishap on September 5.
CHAPTER XIII
THE ANTARCTIC REGION
The Mystery of the South Pole--Ignored by Early Navigators--An Accidental Dutch Discovery--Captain Cook Sets Sail--Discouraged by the Ice--Turns Back in Despair--A Second Accidental Discovery--Weddell breaks the Barrier--Antarctic Land revealed--British resume the Search.
While the desire to penetrate into the mysteries of the North held the mind of mankind from the earliest times, the very existence of a similar world of ice, at the opposite pole, was undreamed of until a few centuries back. At the time when the world was generally held to be a flat disc, this is not to be wondered at, seeing that there could only be one other side possible under that belief, and that side the ”under world,” into which it was not desirable that human beings should ever penetrate. But the time came when the world was demonstrated to be a sphere, and the more thoughtful of men realised the necessity of having some theory wherewith to explain what form the world would take at the opposite pole to the North. The theory which found most general acceptance was that which contended for a similar distribution of sea and land at the South as was currently supposed to exist at the North Pole. It was argued that only by such a distribution could the balance of the earth be maintained. Nor did the theorists stop there. The ancient geographers delighted their hearts by imagining a southern division of land and sea inhabited by identical animals, covered with the same kind of verdure and plants, and occupied by similar races of men to the North. In the absence of any evidence to contradict it, this theory held for many years.
In the Middle Ages, when the Portuguese and Spaniards were sailing from sea to sea, and later, when their successors, the Dutch, roamed the ocean, carrying their flags to the East and the West, none seem to have penetrated into the ice-bound regions of the South. The Cape of Good Hope was doubled. Cape Horn was sailed round. Australia was located, and even the south of Tasmania was visited. But further south the world was still unknown.
An explanation of this may be found in the fact that in southern lat.i.tudes the drift of ice is very much further away from the Pole than is the case in the north. In the northern hemisphere ma.s.sive ice-floes are not encountered until the 70th parallel of lat.i.tude has been pa.s.sed, while it is not until the 75th parallel is pa.s.sed that the ice becomes so packed as to appear to be stationary. In the southern lat.i.tudes, on the other hand, drift ice is encountered in the 50th parallel, and by the time the 60th parallel is reached, the ice is found to be as close set as it is in the 80th parallel in the north. In the islands off Tierra del Fuego the mountains remain covered with snow down to the water's edge through all the summer months, though the lat.i.tude is only 54 S.
This may be due, in a large measure, to the small quant.i.ty of land existing in the south, as compared with the north. The heat of the sun does not radiate from the sea with the same intensity as it does from the earth, whence the ice, drifting from the south into the oceans nearer the equator, melts more slowly, and is consequently enabled to travel longer distances, thus lowering the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere and still further delaying the melting process.
At a comparatively recent period, the limit of the floes, in the southern oceans, was much nearer the equator than it is to-day, for the most southerly parts of Africa, Australia, and America all show unmistakable evidences of having, within recent times, been under a great ice covering.
It was not until 1600 that the first contact was made with the southern world of ice. Dirk Gerritz, a Dutch navigator, sailing with a squadron for the East Indies, was separated from his other s.h.i.+ps while pa.s.sing through the Straits of Magellan and was driven as far as 64 S. He discovered, in that lat.i.tude, a rocky coast line covered with snow. The discovery did not excite any great interest at the time, and, for a period of nearly two centuries, nothing was done to probe further into the mysteries of the South. In 1769 an expedition was sent out under Captain Kerguellen to explore the regions lying to the south of the Cape of Good Hope. He was successful in locating the group of islands, still known as Kerguellen Islands, and sailed thence to Australia, demonstrating that no land, other than these islands, existed between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia.
In 1772, Captain Cook, who had already done so much to reveal the southern hemisphere to the knowledge of man, left the Cape of Good Hope with two s.h.i.+ps, the _Resolution_ and the _Adventure_, in search of the continent believed to exist somewhere beyond the regions. .h.i.therto visited. In 48 41' S. lat.i.tude, and 18 24' E. longitude, a sudden fall in the temperature from 67 to 38 Fahr. was experienced. On the following day an iceberg, fifty feet in height and nearly half a mile in length, was sighted. The course was continued to the south, but the third day after sighting the first berg the sea had become so full of ice that no further progress to the south was possible, although the lat.i.tude was only 54 50' S., the corresponding lat.i.tude in the northern hemisphere being that of the city of Hull.
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