CHAPTER VIII.EXCURSION TO THE NORTH OF VICTORIA BAY.
The next morning, as soon as the sun appeared, Clawbonny ascended thewall of rock which rose above Doctor's House; it terminated suddenlyin a sort of truncated cone; the doctor reached the summit with somelittle difficulty, and from there his eye beheld a vast expanse ofterritory which looked as if it were the result of some volcanicconvulsion; a huge white canopy covered land and sea, rendering themundistinguishable the one from the other. The doctor, when he saw thatthis rock overlooked all the surrounding plain, had an idea,--a factwhich will not astonish those who are acquainted with him. This ideahe turned over, pondered, and made himself master of by the time hereturned to the house, and then he communicated it to his companions.
"The doctor reached the summit with some littledifficulty."]
"It has occurred to me," he said to them, "to build a lighthouse atthe top of the cone up there."
"A lighthouse?" they cried.
"Yes, a lighthouse; it will be of use to show us our way back at nightwhen we are returning from distant excursions, and to light up theneighborhood in the eight months of winter."
"Certainly," answered Altamont, "such an apparatus would be useful;but how will you build it?"
"With one of the _Porpoise's_ lanterns."
"Very good; but with what will you feed the lamp? With seal-oil?"
"No; it doesn't give a bright enough light; it could hardly pierce thefog."
"Do you think you can get hydrogen from our coal and make illuminatinggas?"
"Well, that light would not be bright enough, and it would be wrong touse up any of our fuel."
"Then," said Altamont, "I don't see--"
"As for me," answered Johnson, "since the bullet of mercury, the icelens, the building of Fort Providence, I believe Dr. Clawbonny iscapable of anything."
"Well," resumed Altamont, "will you tell us what sort of a light youare going to have?"
"It's very simple," answered the doctor; "an electric light."
"An electric light!"
"Certainly; didn't you have on board of the _Porpoise_ a Bunsen's pilein an uninjured state?"
"Yes," answered the American.
"Evidently, when you took it, you intended to make some experiments,for it is complete. You have the necessary acid, and the wiresisolated, hence it would be easy for us to get an electric light. Itwill be more brilliant, and will cost nothing."
"That is perfect," answered the boatswain, "and the less time welose--"
"Well, the materials are there," answered the doctor, "and in an hourwe shall have a column ten feet high, which will be enough."
The doctor went out; his companions followed him to the top of thecone; the column was promptly built and was soon surmounted by one ofthe _Porpoise's_ lanterns. Then the doctor arranged the conductingwires which were connected with the pile; this was placed in theparlor of the ice-house, and was preserved from the frost by the heatof the stoves. From there the wires ran to the lantern. All this wasquickly done, and they waited till sunset to judge of the effect. Atnight the two charcoal points, kept at a proper distance apart in thelantern, were brought together, and flashes of brilliant light, whichthe wind could neither make flicker nor extinguish, issued from thelighthouse. It was a noteworthy sight, these sparkling rays, rivallingthe brilliancy of the plains, and defining sharply the outlines of thesurrounding objects. Johnson could not help clapping his hands.
"Dr. Clawbonny," he said, "has made another sun!"
"One ought to do a little of everything," answered the doctor,modestly.
The cold put an end to the general admiration, and each man hastenedback to his coverings.
After this time life was regularly organized. During the followingdays, from the 15th to the 20th of April, the weather was veryuncertain; the temperature fell suddenly twenty degrees, and theatmosphere experienced severe changes, at times being full of snow andsqually, at other times cold and dry, so that no one could set footoutside without precautions. However, on Saturday, the wind began tofall; this circumstance made an expedition possible; they resolvedaccordingly to devote a day to hunting, in order to renew theirprovisions. In the morning, Altamont, the doctor, Bell, each onetaking a double-barrelled gun, a proper amount of food, a hatchet, asnow-knife in case they should have to dig a shelter, set out under acloudy sky. During their absence Hatteras was to explore the coast andtake their bearings. The doctor took care to start the light; its rayswere very bright; in fact, the electric light, being equal to that ofthree thousand candles or three hundred gas-jets, is the only onewhich at all approximates to the solar light.
The cold was sharp, dry, and still. The hunters set out towards CapeWashington, finding their way made easier over the hardened snow. Inabout half an hour they had made the three miles which separated thecape from Fort Providence. Duke was springing about them. The coastinclined to the east, and the lofty summits of Victoria Bay tended togrow lower toward the north. This made them believe that New Americawas perhaps only an island; but they did not have then to concernthemselves with its shape. The hunters took the route by the sea andwent forward rapidly. There was no sign of life, no trace of anybuilding; they were walking over a virgin soil. They thus made aboutfifteen miles in the first three hours, eating without stopping torest; but they seemed likely to find no sport. They saw very fewtraces of hare, fox, or wolf. Still, a few snow-birds flew here andthere, announcing the return of spring and the arctic animals. Thethree companions had been compelled to go inland to get around somedeep ravines and some pointed rocks which ran down from Bell Mountain;but after a few delays they succeeded in regaining the shore; the icehad not yet separated. Far from it. The sea remained fast; still a fewtraces of seals announced the beginning of their visit, and that theywere already come to breathe at the surface of the ice-field. It wasevident from the large marks, the fresh breaking of the ice, that manyhad very recently been on the land. These animals are very anxious forthe rays of the sun, and they like to bask on the shore in the sun'sheat. The doctor called his companions' attention to these facts.
"Let us notice this place," he said. "It is very possible that insummer we shall find hundreds of seals here; they can be approachedand caught without difficulty, if they are unfamiliar with men. But wemust take care not to frighten them, or they will disappear as if bymagic and never return; in that way, careless hunters, instead ofkilling them one by one, have often attacked them in a crowd, withnoisy cries, and have thereby driven them away."
"Are they only killed for their skin and oil?" asked Bell.
"By Europeans, yes, but the Esquimaux eat them; they live on them, andpieces of seal's flesh, which they mix with blood and fat, are not atall unappetizing. After all, it depends on the way it's treated, and Ishall give you some delicate cutlets if you don't mind their darkcolor."
"We shall see you at work," answered Bell; "I'll gladly eat it,Doctor."
"My good Bell, as much as you please. But, however much you eat, youwill never equal a Greenlander, who eats ten or fifteen pounds of it aday."
"Fifteen pounds!" said Bell. "What stomachs!"
"Real polar stomachs," answered the doctor; "prodigious stomachs whichcan be dilated at will, and, I ought to add, can be contracted in thesame way, so that they support starving as well as gorging. At thebeginning of his dinner, the Esquimaux is thin; at the end, he is fat,and not to be recognized! It is true that his dinner often lasts awhole day."
"Evidently," said Altamont, "this voracity is peculiar to theinhabitants of cold countries!"
"I think so," answered the doctor; "in the arctic regions one has toeat a great deal; it is a condition not only of strength, but ofexistence. Hence the Hudson's Bay Company gives each man eight poundsof meat a day, or twelve pounds of fish, or two pounds of pemmican."
"That's a generous supply," said the carpenter.
"But not so much as you imagine, my friend; and an Indian crammed inthat way does no better work than an Englishman with his
pound of beefand his pint of beer a day."
"Then, Doctor, all is for the best."
"True, but still an Esquimaux meal may well astonish us. Whilewintering at Boothia Land, Sir John Ross was always surprised at thevoracity of his guides; he says somewhere that two men--two, youunderstand--ate in one morning a whole quarter of a musk-ox; they tearthe meat into long shreds, which they place in their mouths; then eachone, cutting off at his lips what his mouth cannot hold, passes itover to his companion; or else the gluttons, letting the shreds hangdown to the ground, swallow them gradually, as a boa-constrictorswallows an animal, and like it stretched out at full length on theground."
"Ugh!" said Bell, "the disgusting brutes!"
"Every one eats in his own way," answered the American,philosophically.
"Fortunately!" replied the doctor.
"Well," said Altamont, "since the need of food is so great in theselatitudes, I'm no longer surprised that in accounts of arctic voyagesthere is always so much space given to describing the meals."
"You are right," answered the doctor; "and it is a remark which I haveoften made myself; it is not only that plenty of food is needed, butalso because it is often hard to get it. So one is always thinking ofit and consequently always talking of it!"
"Still," said Altamont, "if my memory serves me right, in Norway, inthe coldest countries, the peasants need no such enormous supply: alittle milk, eggs, birch-bark bread, sometimes salmon, never any meat;and yet they are hardy men."
"It's a matter of organization," answered the doctor, "and one which Ican't explain. Still, I fancy that the second or third generation ofNorwegians, carried to Greenland, would end by feeding themselves inthe Greenland way. And we too, my friends, if we were to remain inthis lovely country, would get to live like the Esquimaux, not to saylike gluttons."
"Dr. Clawbonny," said Bell, "it makes me hungry to talk in this way."
"It doesn't make me," answered Altamont; "it disgusts me rather, andmakes me dislike seal's flesh. But I fancy we shall have anopportunity to try the experiment. If I'm not mistaken, I see someliving body down there on the ice."
"It's a walrus," shouted the doctor; "forward silently!"
Indeed, the animal was within two hundred feet of the hunters; he wasstretching and rolling at his ease in the pale rays of the sun. Thethree men separated so as to surround him and cut off his retreat; andthey approached within a few fathoms' lengths of him, hiding behindthe hummocks, and then fired. The walrus rolled over, still full ofstrength; he crushed the ice in his attempts to get away; but Altamontattacked him with his hatchet, and succeeded in cutting his dorsalfins. The walrus made a desperate resistance; new shots finished him,and he remained stretched lifeless on the ice-field stained with hisblood. He was a good-sized animal, being nearly fifteen feet long fromhis muzzle to the end of his tail, and he would certainly furnish manybarrels of oil. The doctor cut out the most savory parts of the flesh,and he left the corpse to the mercies of a few crows, which, at thisseason of the year, were floating through the air. The night began tofall. They thought of returning to Fort Providence; the sky had becomeperfectly clear, and while waiting for the moon to rise, the splendorof the stars was magnificent.
"Come, push on," said the doctor, "it's growing late; to be sure,we've had poor luck; but as long as we have enough for supper, there'sno need of complaining. Only let's take the shortest way and try notto get lost; the stars will help us."
But yet in countries where the North Star shines directly above thetraveller's head, it is hard to walk by it; in fact, when the north isdirectly in the zenith, it is hard to determine the other cardinalpoints; fortunately the moon and great constellations aided the doctorin determining the route. In order to shorten their way, he resolvedto avoid the sinuosities of the coast, and to go directly across theland; it was more direct, but less certain; so, after walking for afew hours, the little band had completely lost its way. They thoughtof spending the night in an ice-house and waiting till the next day tofind out where they were, even if they should have to return along theshore; but the doctor, fearing that Hatteras and Johnson might beanxious, insisted on their going on.
"Duke is showing us the way," he said, "and he can't be wrong; he hasan instinct which is surer than needle or star. Let us follow him."
Duke went forward, and they all followed confidently. And they werejustified in so doing. Soon a distant light appeared on the horizon;it was not to be confounded with a star in the low clouds.
"There's our light!" cried the doctor.
"Do you think so, Doctor!" asked the carpenter.
"I'm sure of it. Let us push on."
As they approached the light grew brighter, and soon they enjoyed itsfull brilliancy; they advanced in full illumination, and their sharplycut shadows ran out behind them over the snow. They hastened theirgait, and in about half an hour they were climbing up the steps ofFort Providence.
"They advanced in full illumination, and their sharplycut shadows ran out behind them over the snow."]