CHAPTER XVI.THE MAGNETIC POLE.
As Hatteras drew near this sound he felt his anxiety redoubling; infact, the success of his expedition was at stake; so far he had donenothing more than his predecessors, the most successful of whom,MacClintock, had consumed fifteen months in reaching this spot; butthat was little, indeed nothing, if he could not make Bellot Sound;being unable to return, he would be kept a prisoner until the nextyear.
Hence he took upon himself the care of examining the coast; he went upto the lookout, and on Saturday passed many hours there.
The crew were all acquainted with the situation of the ship; anunbroken silence reigned on board; the engine was slackened; the_Forward_ ran as near shore as possible; the coast was lined with icewhich the warmest summers could not melt; a practised eye was neededto make out an entrance through them.
Hatteras was comparing his charts with the coast-line. The sun havingappeared for a moment at noon, Shandon and Wall took an observation,the result of which was at once told him.
There was half a day of anxiety for all. But suddenly, at about twoo'clock, these words were shouted from aloft,--
"Head to the west, and put on all steam."
The brig obeyed at once, turning to the point directed; the screwchurned the water, and the _Forward_ plunged under a full head ofsteam between two swiftly running ice-streams.
The path was found; Hatteras came down to the quarter-deck, and theice-master went aloft.
"Well, Captain," said the doctor, "we have entered this famous soundat last!"
"Yes," answered Hatteras; "but entering is not all, we have got to getout of it too."
And with these words he went to his cabin.
"He is right," thought the doctor; "we are in a sort of trap, withoutmuch space to turn about in, and if we had to winter here!--well, weshouldn't be the first to do it, and where others lived through it,there is no reason why we should not!"
The doctor was right. It was at this very place, in a little shelteredharbor called Port Kennedy by MacClintock himself, that the _Fox_wintered in 1858. At that moment it was easy to recognize the loftygranite chains, and the steep beaches on each side.
Bellot Sound, a mile broad and seventeen long, with a current runningsix or seven knots, is enclosed by mountains of an estimated height ofsixteen hundred feet; it separates North Somerset from Boothia; it iseasy to see that there is not too much sailing room there. The_Forward_ advanced carefully, but still she advanced; tempests arefrequent in this narrow pass, and the brig did not escape their usualviolence; by Hatteras's orders, all the topsail-yards were lowered,and the topmasts also; in spite of everything the ship laboredfearfully; the heavy seas kept the deck continually deluged withwater; the smoke flew eastward with inconceivable rapidity; they wenton almost at haphazard through the floating ice; the barometer fell to29 degrees; it was hard to stay on deck, so most of the men were keptbelow to spare them unnecessary exposure.
Hatteras, Johnson, and Shandon remained on the quarter-deck, in spiteof the whirlwinds of snow and rain; and the doctor, who had just askedhimself what was the most disagreeable thing to be done at that time,soon joined them there; they could not hear, and hardly could theysee, one another; so he kept his thoughts to himself.
Hatteras tried to pierce the dense cloud of mist, for, according tohis calculation, they should be through the strait at six o'clock ofthe evening. At that time exit seemed closed, and Hatteras was obligedto stop and anchor to an iceberg; but steam was kept up all night.
The weather was terrible. Every moment the _Forward_ threatened tosnap her cables; there was danger, too, lest the mountain should bedriven by the wind and crush the brig. The officers kept on the alert,owing to their extreme anxiety; besides the snow, large lumps offrozen spray were blown about by the hurricane like sharp arrows.
The temperature arose strangely in that terrible night; thethermometer marked 57 degrees; and the doctor, to his great surprise,thought he noticed some flashes of lightning followed by distantthunder. This seemed to corroborate the testimony of Scoresby, whonoticed the same phenomenon above latitude 65 degrees. Captain Parryalso observed it in 1821.
Towards five o'clock in the morning the weather changed with singularrapidity; the temperature fell to the freezing-point; the wind shiftedto the north and grew quiet. The western opening of the strait couldbe seen, but it was entirely closed. Hatteras gazed anxiously at thecoast, asking himself if there really were any exit.
Nevertheless, the brig put out slowly into the ice-streams, while theice crushed noisily against her bows; the packs at this time were sixor seven feet thick; it was necessary carefully to avoid them, for ifthe ship should try to withstand them, it ran the risk of being liftedhalf out of the water and cast on her beam-ends.
At noon, for the first time, a magnificent solar phenomenon could beobserved, a halo with two parhelions; the doctor observed it, and tookits exact dimensions; the exterior arc was only visible for aboutthirty degrees each side of the horizontal diameter; the two images ofthe sun were remarkably clear; the colors within the luminous areawere, going toward the outside, red, yellow, green, faint blue, andlast of all white, gently fading away, without any sharp line oftermination.
The doctor remembered Thomas Young's ingenious theory about thesemeteors; he supposed that certain clouds composed of prisms of ice arehanging in the air; the sun's rays falling on these prisms arerefracted at angles of sixty and ninety degrees. The halos can only beformed in a clear sky. The doctor thought this an ingeniousexplanation.
Sailors, who are familiar with northern seas, consider this phenomenona forerunner of heavy snow. If this should be the case, the positionof the _Forward_ was very critical. Hence Hatteras resolved to pushon; during the rest of that day and the next night he took no rest,but examined the horizon through his glass, entering every inlet, andlosing no opportunity to get out of the strait.
But in the morning he was compelled to stop before the impenetrableice. The doctor joined him on the quarter-deck. Hatteras led him clearaft where they could talk without fear of being overheard.
"We are caught," said Hatteras. "It's impossible to go on."
"Impossible?" said the doctor.
"Impossible! All the powder on board the _Forward_ would not open aquarter of a mile to us."
"What are we to do?" asked the doctor.
"I don't know. Curse this unlucky year!"
"Well, Captain, if we must go into winter-quarters, we'll do it. Aswell here as anywhere else!"
"Of course," said Hatteras in a low voice, "but we ought not to begoing into winter-quarters, especially in the month of June. It isdemoralizing, and bad for the health. The spirits of the crew are sooncast down during this long rest among real sufferings. So I had madeup my mind to winter at a latitude nearer the Pole."
"Yes, but, unluckily, Baffin's Bay was closed."
"Any one else would have found it open," cried Hatteras; "thatAmerican, that--"
"Come, Hatteras," said the doctor, purposely interrupting him, "it'snow only the 5th of June; we should not despair; a path may openbefore us suddenly; you know the ice often breaks into separatepieces, even when the weather is calm, as if it were driven apart bysome force of repulsion; at any moment we may find the sea free."
"Well, if that happens, we shall take advantage of it. It is notimpossible that beyond Bellot Strait we might get northward throughPeel Sound or MacClintock Channel, and then--"
"Captain," said James Wall, approaching, "the ice threatens to tearaway the rudder."
"Well," answered Hatteras, "never mind; I sha'n't unship it; I want tobe ready at any hour, day or night. Take every precaution, Mr. Wall,and keep the ice off; but don't unship it, you understand."
"But--" began Wall.
"I don't care to hear any remarks, sir," said Hatteras, severely."Go!"
Wall returned to his post.
"Ah!" said Hatteras, angrily, "I would give five years of my life tobe farther north! I don't know any more dangerou
s place; and besides,we are so near the magnetic pole that the compass is of no use; theneedle is inactive, or always shifting its direction."
"I confess," said the doctor, "that it is not plain sailing; butstill, those who undertook it were prepared for such dangers, andthere is no need to be surprised."
"Ah, Doctor! the crew has changed very much, and you have seen thatthe officers have begun to make remarks. The high pay offered thesailors induced them to ship; but they have their bad side, for assoon as they are off they are anxious to get back. Doctor, I have noencouragement in my undertaking, and if I fail, it won't be the faultof such or such a sailor, but of the ill-will of certain officers. Ah,they'll pay dearly for it!"
"You are exaggerating, Hatteras."
"Not at all! Do you fancy the crew are sorry for the obstacles we aremeeting? On the contrary, they hope I shall be compelled to abandon myplans. So they do not murmur, and when the _Forward_ is headed for thesouth, it will be the same thing. Fools! They imagine they arereturning to England! But when I'm turned towards the north, you willsee a difference! I swear solemnly that no living being shall make meswerve from my course! Give me a passage, an opening through which mybrig can go, and I shall take it, if I have to leave half hersheathing behind!"
The desires of the captain were destined to be satisfied in a measure.As the doctor had foretold, there was a sudden change in the evening;under some influence of the wind, the ice-fields separated; the_Forward_ pushed on boldly, breaking the ice with her steel prow; allthe night they advanced, and towards six o'clock they were clear ofBellot Strait.
But great was Hatteras's anger at finding the way to the north closed!He was able to hide his despair; and as if the only open path were theone of his choice, he turned the _Forward_ towards Franklin Sound.Being unable to go up Peel Sound, he determined to go around Prince ofWales Land, to reach MacClintock Channel. But he knew that Shandon andWall could not be deceived, and were conscious of the failure of hishopes.
Nothing especial happened on the 6th of June; snow fell, and theprophecy of the halo came true.
For thirty-six hours the _Forward_ followed the sinuosities of thecoast of Boothia, without reaching Prince of Wales Land. Hatteras puton all steam, burning his coal extravagantly; he still intended to getfurther supplies on Beechey Island; on Thursday he arrived at FranklinSound, and he still found the way northward impassable.
His position was a desperate one; he could not return; the ice pushedhim onward, and he saw his path forever closing behind him, as ifthere were no open sea where he had passed but an hour before.
Hence, not only was the _Forward_ unable to go toward the north, butshe could not stop for a moment lest she should be imprisoned, and shefled before the ice like a ship before a storm.
Friday, June 7th, she arrived near the coast of Boothia, at theentrance of James Ross Sound, which had to be avoided because its onlyexit is to the west, close to the shore of America.
The observations taken at noon showed them to be in latitude 70degrees 5 minutes 17 seconds, and longitude 96 degrees 46 minutes 45seconds; when the doctor heard this he examined his chart, and foundthat they were at the magnetic pole, at the very point where JamesRoss, the nephew of Sir John, came to determine its situation.
The land was low near the coast, and it rose only about sixty feet atthe distance of a mile from the sea.
The boiler of the _Forward_ needed cleaning; the captain anchored hisship to a field of ice, and gave the doctor leave to go ashore withthe boatswain. For himself, being indifferent to everything outside ofhis own plans, he shut himself up in his cabin, and studied the chartof the Pole.
The doctor and his companion easily reached land; the first-namedcarried a compass for his experiments; he wanted to test the work ofJames Ross; he easily made out the mound of stones erected by him; heran towards it; an opening in the cairn let him see a tin box in whichJames Ross had placed an account of his discovery. No living being hadvisited this lonely spot for thirty years.
At this place a needle suspended as delicately as possible assumed anearly vertical position under the magnetic influence; hence thecentre of attraction was near, if not immediately beneath, the needle.
The doctor made the experiment with all care. But if James Ross, owingto the imperfection of his instruments, found a declination of only 89degrees 50 minutes, the real magnetic point is found within a minuteof this spot. Dr. Clawbonny was more fortunate, and at a littledistance from there he found a declination of 90 degrees.
"This is exactly the magnetic pole of the earth!" he cried, stampingon the ground.
"Just here?" asked Johnson.
"Precisely here, my friend!"
"Well, then," resumed the boatswain, "we must give up all the storiesof a magnetic mountain or large mass."
"Yes, Johnson," answered the doctor, laughing, "those are emptyhypotheses! As you see, there is no mountain capable of attractingships, of drawing their iron from them anchor after anchor, bolt afterbolt! and your shoes here are as light as anywhere in the world."
"But how do you explain--"
"There is no explanation, Johnson; we are not wise enough for that.But what is mathematically certain is that the magnetic pole is atthis very spot!"
"Ah, Dr. Clawbonny, how glad the captain would be to say as much ofthe North Pole!"
"He'll say it, Johnson; he'll say it!"
"God grant it!" was the answer.
The doctor and his companion raised a cairn at the spot where theytried their experiment, and the signal for their return being made,they returned to the ship at five o'clock of the evening.