Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Resting-time during the Sledge Journey.

159 called it, though it was usually early in the morning, selecting the largest surface of ice we happened to be near for hauling the boats on, in order to avoid the danger of its breaking up by coming in contact with other masses, and also to prevent drift as much as possible. The boats were placed close alongside each other, with their sterns to the wind, the snow or wet cleared out of them, and the sails, supported by the bamboo masts and three paddles, placed over them as awnings, an entrance being left at the bow.

66

[ocr errors]

Every man then immediately put on dry stockings and fur boots, after which we set about the necessary repairs of boats, sledges, or clothes, and after serving the provisions for the succeeding day, we went to supper. Most of the officers and men then smoked their pipes, which served to dry the boats and awnings very much, and usually raised the temperature of our lodgings ten or fifteen degrees. This part of the twenty-four hours was often a time-and the only one-of real enjoyment to us: the men told their stories, and fought all their battles o'er again;' and the labours of the day, unsuccessful as they too often were, were forgotten. A regular watch was set during our resting-time, to look out for bears or for the ice breaking up around us, as well as to attend to the drying of the clothes, each man alternately taking this duty for one hour. We then concluded our day with prayers; and having put on our fur dresses, lay down to sleep with a degree of comfort which perhaps few persons would imagine possible under such circumstances; our chief inconvenience being, that we were somewhat pinched for room, and therefore obliged to stow rather closer than was quite agreeable. After we had slept seven hours, the man appointed to boil the cocoa roused us when it was ready, by the sound of a bugle, when we commenced our day in the manner before described."

On the 19th of July, the wind, which had till then blown steadily from the south, shifted to the opposite quarter, and precipitated the failure of the enterprise. Still they struggled manfully onward. They had not much hope of reaching the Pole when they left the ship, and now the eighty-third parallel became the goal for which they strove against the increasing difficulties of their undertaking. On the 22nd, the latitude was found to be 82° 40′. Two seals and a bird were seen that day; but no living creature was met with beyond that latitude. The hardy seamen toiled on contentedly, but thought the last half-degree was a long one. It was no wonder; the ice was moving southward, under the influence of the north wind, and they were losing more ground than they gained. This fact was at first concealed from them, though known to the officers; but on the 25th, when they were four miles farther south than they had been on the 22nd, Parry resolved to return.

They were now a hundred and seventy-two miles from the ship, and the sole result of the expedition was the fact that they had penetrated farther northward than any of their predecessors. "To accomplish this distance," says Parry, "we had traversed, by our reckoning, two hundred and ninety-two miles, of which about a hundred had been performed by water, previously to our entering the ice. As we travelled by far the greater part of our distance on the ice three, and not unfrequently five times over, we may safely multiply the length of the road by two and a half; so that our whole distance, on a very moderate calculation, amounted to five hundred and eighty geographical, or six hundred and sixty-eight statute miles, being nearly sufficient to have reached the Pole in a direct line." Soundings taken at various points on the route had shown depths varying from two hundred to five hundred fathoms.

Parry's Return Journey over the Ice. 161

The return journey was more unpleasant than the advance, owing to the softness of the snow and the slushy state of the ice; but it was facilitated by the southwardly drift, and accomplished in six days' less time. Several bears were seen, and one was shot, and furnished the adventurers with a welcome supply of fresh meat. The seamen complained afterwards of indigestion, a result which Parry thought was due to the quantity of bear consumed by them, and not to its quality. On the 11th of August, the sea was heard beating against the southern edge of the ice-field, and before night the boats were in open water. They had left a store of biscuit on Table Island, the most northern land then known; but, on arriving at that barren rock, the bears were found to have discovered it, and devoured the whole. Another deposit, on Walden Island, was safe. The ship was reached on the 21st, and, a few days afterwards, they sailed for England.

[graphic][merged small]
[graphic][merged small]

CAPTAIN Ross's SEARCH FOR THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE-EXPLORATION OF BOOTHIA-DISCOVERY OF THE MAGNETIC POLE-WINTER IN FELIX HARBOUR-ABANDONMENT OF THE VESSELSECOND WINTER AMONG THE ICE-BOAT VOYAGE TO BARROW STRAITRESCUE BY A WHALER.

FTER the unfortunate voyages of Parry and Lyon in 1824, no further attempt to discover the north-west passage was made until Sir Felix Booth fitted out, at his own cost, the expedition conducted by Captain Ross. Regent Inlet was selected as the quarter in which the search was to be made, and the commander was not sorry to have again an opportunity which he had turned back from eleven years before, and the prospect of emulating the fame since acquired by his then subordinate, now Sir Edward Parry. For the first time in the history of Arctic exploration steam was called to the aid of sails, so that the vessel might be navigated in calms and contrary winds, and also be more capable of pushing through loose ice.

Captain Ross steamed from the Thames on the 23rd of May, 1829, and directed his course towards Davis Strait. A severe gale, from which the spars of his vessel received considerable damage, forced him to enter the harbour of Holsteinborg, on the west coast of Greenland, and just within the Arctic Circle; but no delay was occasioned by ice, the past winter having been one of the mildest ever known in those regions. Lan

« AnteriorContinuar »