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CHAPTER I.

"Fond men! if we believe that men do live
Under the zenith of both frozen poles,
Though none come thence advertisement to give,
Why bear we not the like faith of our souls ?"
SIR JOHN DAVIS's "Nosce te ipsum," 1596.

AN invitation from a friend, casually given, to join him in two days' time, at the Port of Hull, from whence he intended to sail on a summer cruise to the far north in his schooner-yacht, left but little time to make the necessary arrangements for an undertaking of this kind; but the desire to see for ourselves such wonders of the Arctic seas as fill all books of Arctic enterprise so far out of the beaten track of modern travel,—made peculiarly interesting at the present time, when the question of Arctic exploration is uppermost in the minds of men all over Europe, now that the question has been rendered doubly important by the general inquiry respecting the action and influence of the Gulf Stream in the higher latitudes,—overcame all our scruples on the score of shortness of notice, and we accepted the offer without much hesitation. All our

available time was, therefore, devoted to the selection. of a suitable outfit, such as our then limited knowledge of these seas suggested. We calculated on a journey of some months' duration, with a lurking apprehension of a possibility of having to winter somewhere in the— by all accounts-inhospitable region, where, if people are once "beset," they must prepare to endure unspeakable privations. We laid in, on this account, many sea stores, which in our haste seemed to us absolutely essential for such a contingency, and others besides, that, had we more time at our disposal, might fairly have been dispensed with.

We hastened to say good-bye to such of our friends as we considered might take some slight interest in our welfare, and from them we received in turn hearty assurance of good wishes, with predictions that the voyage we were about to enter upon could not fail to be full of pleasurable enjoyment of every kind.

We were at Hull at the time appointed, and there we found the splendid schooner-yacht, in the care of the worthy harbour-master of that busy place, at whose hands our good ship was receiving the last finishing touches previous to starting on her voyage. To him. had been confided the overlooking of all the manifold requirements of the undertaking, and Captain Wells, an old whaling captain, who had gathered experience

OLD WHALING CAPTAINS.

55

in many Arctic voyages, seemed to take a special pride in the work he was busy upon. At one time he actually determined to resign his official post for a season, and come with us; the Trinity Board, entering fully into the spirit that actuated him, agreed to keep his office, by deputy, during his absence. But the fates ruled otherwise; he has given hostages to fortune, and his wife and family held him back. We were the losers by this resolve, for his great experience in the navigation of the northern seas, coupled with his knowledge of the curious and ever-changing phenomena of the Arctic weather in relation to the movements of the ice in the far north (a knowledge to be gained only by long experience and the keenest interest in the subject) would have been to us of the greatest possible value ; for it is needless to say, that there is no book existing, except, perhaps, the valuable contributions of Scoresby, from whose pages we could hope to draw the requisite instructions to guide us in moments of difficulty or danger, much less to direct us in the course we should pursue when in doubt. These old whaling captains alone possess the requisite knowledge at the present time, and men of science have but little opportunity of formulating the valuable observations in daily use amongst these hardy explorers, won by long acquaintance with the dangers to which they are daily exposed ;

the more intelligent passing unscathed, while the less observant are compelled to struggle on in hopeless mazes, which too often render their venture fruitless, if no worse fate attends them, as we will have occasion to mention further on.

It may be well to mention that our friend had in the previous year sailed to the north of Spitzbergen, and in lat. 81° 24′ had seen open water and islands to the north-east of Spitzbergen; but his intention was, on the present occasion, if the season would admit of it, to advance still further north, and on his return voyage, if possible, to coast along the east side of Spitzbergen, and after rounding the north-east point to circumnavigate the island, a feat which had never yet been accomplished except by Barentz, two hundred and seventy-five years ago. It must be remembered that in those days navigators had not in use such instruments for observation as we now possess, to enable them to navigate a ship and determine the position of the land, which, as far as the east coast is concerned, is but poorly dealt with by the chart-makers. For many years the whaling captains who continue to contribute fresh faets respecting the land, have only added to our ignorance by suggesting corrections which make confusion worse confounded, by reporting their views upon the actual position of the places they have visited, on their

return home.

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The main object of our voyage however, the principal, and to our idea the most essential to modern science, was the following up of the observations commenced by our friend in the preceding year. He had noticed in the course of some deepsca sounding experiments, that the water is of a high temperature at a depth of 400 fathoms, showing a difference of 9° at that depth when compared with the temperature at the surface; a fact so extraordinary as to lead scientific men to assume that this, our assertion, is so contrary to the laws laid down by modern savans, that they do not hesitate to declare that the statement we made was impossible to be received. To confirm these observations, then, was the main purpose of our journey this year (1872).

One word respecting our schooner: rigged with the usual foresail, topsail, and top-gallant sail, three jibs, fore-trysail and mainsail, she differed at first sight in no way from an ordinary pleasure yacht; but a second glance at her heavy spars, her massive bows supported with stout iron bands firmly bolted to her stem, and extending round the bluff of her bows to about twelve feet aft, evidently to protect her in encounters with the ice, her false gripe, to give her plenty of fore-reach, convinced us that the work cut out for her was no child's play. Looking closer, we found her frame was coated

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