CHAPTER X
DANGEROUS NAVIGATION
Shandon, Dr. Clawbonny, Johnson, Foker, and Strong, the cook, wenton shore in the small boat. The governor, his wife, and five children,all of the Esquimaux race, came politely to meet the visitors. Thedoctor knew enough Danish to enable him to establish a very agreeableacquaintance with them; besides, Foker, who was interpreter of theexpedition, as well as ice-master, knew about twenty words of theGreenland language, and if not ambitious, twenty words will carryyou far. The governor was born on the island, and had never left hisnative country. He did the honours of the town, which is composedof three wooden huts, for himself and the Lutheran minister, of aschool, and magazines stored with the produce of wrecks. The remainderconsists of snow-huts, the entrance to which is attained by creepingthrough a hole.
The greater part of the population came down to greet the _Forward_,and more than one native advanced as far as the middle of the bayin his kayak, fifteen feet long and scarcely two wide. The doctorknew that the word Esquimaux signified raw-fish-eater, and helikewise knew that the name was considered an insult in the country,for which reason he did not fail to address them by the title ofGreenlanders, and nevertheless only by the look of their oily sealskinclothing, their boots of the same material, and all their greasytainted appearance, it was easy to discover their accustomed food.Like all Ichthyophagans, they were half-eaten up with leprosy; andyet, for all that, were in no worse health.
The Lutheran minister and his wife, with whom the doctor promisedhimself a private chat, were on a journey towards Proven on the southof Uppernawik; he was therefore reduced to getting information outof the governor. This chief magistrate did not seem to be very learned;a little less and he would have been an ass, a little more and hewould have known how to read. The doctor, however, questioned himupon the commercial affairs, the customs and manners of the Esquimaux,and learnt by signs that seals were worth about 40 pounds deliveredin Copenhagen, a bearskin forty Danish dollars, a blue foxskin four,and a white one two or three dollars. The doctor also wished, withan eye to completing his personal education, to visit one of theEsquimaux huts; it is almost impossible to imagine of what a learnedman who is desirous of knowledge is capable. Happily the opening ofthose hovels was too narrow, and the enthusiastic fellow was not ableto crawl in; it was very lucky for him, for there is nothing morerepulsive than that accumulation of things living and dead, seal fleshor Esquimaux flesh, rotten fish and infectious wearing apparel, whichconstitute a Greenland hovel; no window to revive the unbreathableair, only a hole at the top of the hut, which gives free passage tothe smoke, but does not allow the stench to go out.
Foker gave these details to the doctor, who did not curse hiscorpulence the less for that. He wished to judge for himself aboutthese emanations, _sui generis_.
"I am sure," said he, "one gets used to it in the long run."
_In the long run_ depicts Dr. Clawbonny in a single phrase. Duringthe ethnographical studies of the worthy doctor, Shandon, accordingto his instructions, was occupied in procuring means of transportto cross the ice. He had to pay 4 pounds for a sledge and six dogs,and even then he had great difficulty in persuading the natives topart with them. Shandon wanted also to engage Hans Christian, theclever dog-driver, who made one of the party of Captain McClintock'sexpedition; but, unfortunately, Hans was at that time in SouthernGreenland. Then came the grand question, the topic of the day, wasthere in Uppernawik a European waiting for the passage of the_Forward_? Did the governor know if any foreigner, an Englishmanprobably, had settled in those countries? To what epoch could he tracehis last relations with whale or other ships? To these questions thegovernor replied that not one single foreigner had landed on thatside of the coast for more than ten months.
Shandon asked for the names of the last whalers seen there; he knewnone of them. He was in despair.
"You must acknowledge, doctor, that all this is quite inconceivable.Nothing at Cape Farewell, nothing at Disko Island, nothing atUppernawik."
"If when we get there you repeat 'Nothing in Melville Bay,' I shallgreet you as the only captain of the _Forward_."
The small boat came back to the brig towards evening, bringing backthe visitors. Strong, in order to change the food a little, hadprocured several dozens of eider-duck eggs, twice as big as hens'eggs, and of greenish colour. It was not much, but the change wasrefreshing to a crew fed on salted meat. The wind became favourablethe next day, but, however, Shandon did not command them to get undersail; he still wished to stay another day, and for conscience' saketo give any human being time to join the _Forward_. He even causedthe 16-pounder to be fired from hour to hour; it thundered out witha great crash amidst the icebergs, but the noise only frightened theswarms of molly-mokes and rotches. During the night several rocketswere sent up, but in vain. And thus they were obliged to set sail.
On the 8th of May, at six o'clock in the morning, the _Forward_ underher topsails, foresails, and topgallant, lost sight of the Uppernawiksettlement, and the hideous stakes to which were hung seal-guts anddeer-paunches. The wind was blowing from the south-east, and thetemperature went up to thirty-two degrees. The sun pierced throughthe fog, and the ice was getting a little loosened under its dissolvingaction. But the reflection of the white rays produced a sad effecton the eyesight of several of the crew. Wolsten, the gunsmith, Gripper,Clifton, and Bell were struck with snow blindness, a kind of weaknessin the eyes very frequent in spring, and which determines, amongstthe Esquimaux, numerous cases of blindness. The doctor advised thosewho were so afflicted and their companions in general to cover theirfaces with green gauze, and he was the first to put his ownprescription into execution.
The dogs bought by Shandon at Uppernawik were of a rather savage nature,but in the end they became accustomed to the ship; the captain didnot take the arrival of these new comrades too much to heart, andhe seemed to know their habits. Clifton was not the last to remarkthe fact that the captain must already have been in communicationwith his Greenland brethren, as on land they were always famishedand reduced by incomplete nourishment; they only thought ofrecruiting themselves by the diet on board.
On the 9th of May the _Forward_ touched within a few cables' lengththe most westerly of the Baffin Isles. The doctor noticed severalrocks in the bay between the islands and the continent, those calledCrimson Cliffs; they were covered over with snow as red as carmine,to which Dr. Kane gives a purely vegetable origin. Clawbonny wantedto consider this phenomenon nearer, but the ice prevented themapproaching the coast; although the temperature had a tendency torise, it was easy enough to see that the icebergs and ice-streamswere accumulating to the north of Baffin's Sea. The land offered avery different aspect from that of Uppernawik; immense glaciers wereoutlined on the horizon against a greyish sky. On the 10th the_Forward_ left Hingston Bay on the right, near to the seventy-fourthdegree of latitude. Several hundred miles westward the LancasterChannel opened out into the sea.
But afterwards that immense extent of water disappeared underenormous fields of ice, upon which hummocks rose up as regularly asa crystallisation of the same substance. Shandon had the steam puton, and up to the 11th of May the _Forward_ wound amongst the sinuousrocks, leaving the print of a track on the sky, caused by the blacksmoke from her funnels. But new obstacles were soon encountered; thepaths were getting closed up in consequence of the incessantdisplacement of the floating masses; at every minute a failure ofwater in front of the _Forward's_ prow became imminent, and if shehad been nipped it would have been difficult to extricate her. Theyall knew it, and thought about it.
On board this vessel, without aim or known destination, foolishlyseeking to advance towards the north, some symptoms of hesitationwere manifested amongst those men, accustomed to an existence ofdanger; many, forgetting the advantages offered, regretted havingventured so far, and already a certain demoralisation prevailed intheir minds, still more increased by Clifton's fears, and the idletalk of two or three of the leaders, such as Pen, Gripper, Warren,and Wolston.
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To the uneasiness of the crew were joined overwhelming fatigues, foron the 12th of May the brig was closed in on every side; her steamwas powerless, and it was necessary to force a road through theice-fields. The working of the saws was very difficult in the floes,which measured from six to seven feet in thickness. When two parallelgrooves divided the ice for the length of a hundred feet, they hadto break the interior part with hatchets or handspikes; then tookplace the elongation of the anchors, fixed in a hole by means of athick auger; afterwards the working of the capstan began, and in thisway the vessel was hauled over. The greatest difficulty consistedin driving the smashed pieces under the floes in order to open upa free passage for the ship, and to thrust them away they werecompelled to use long iron-spiked poles.
At last, what with the working of the saws, the hauling, the capstanand poles, incessant, dangerous, and forced work, in the midst offogs or thick snow, the temperature relatively low, ophthalmicsuffering and moral uneasiness, all contributed to discourage thecrew, and react on the men's imagination. When sailors have anenergetic, audacious, and convinced man to do with, who knows whathe wants, where he is bound for, and what end he has in view, confidencesustains them in spite of everything. They make one with their chief,feeling strong in his strength, and quiet in his tranquillity; buton the brig it was felt that the commander was not sure of himself,that he hesitated before his unknown end and destination. In spiteof his energetic nature, his weakness showed itself in his changingorders, incomplete manoeuvres, stormy reflections, and a thousanddetails which could not escape the notice of the crew.
Besides, Shandon was not captain of the ship, a sufficient reasonfor argument about his orders; from argument to a refusal to obeythe step is easy. The discontented soon added to their number thefirst engineer, who up to now had remained a slave to his duty.
On May 16th, six days after the _Forward's_ arrival at the icebergs,Shandon had not gained two miles northward, and the ice threatenedto freeze in the brig till the following season. This was becomingdangerous. Towards eight in the evening Shandon and the doctor,accompanied by Garry, went on a voyage of discovery in the midst ofthe immense plains; they took care not to go too far away from thevessel, as it was difficult to fix any landmarks in those whitesolitudes, the aspects of which changed constantly.
The refraction produced strange effects; they still astonished thedoctor; where he thought he had only one foot to leap he found itwas five or six, or the contrary; and in both cases the result wasa fall, if not dangerous, at least painful, on the frozen ice as hardas glass.
Shandon and his two companions went in search of a practicable passage.Three miles from the ship they succeeded, not without trouble, inclimbing the iceberg, which was perhaps three hundred feet high.
From this point their view extended over that desolated mass whichlooked like the ruins of a gigantic town with its beaten-down obelisks,its overthrown steeples and palaces turned upside down all in alump--in fact, a genuine chaos. The sun threw long oblique rays ofa light without warmth, as if heat-absorbing substances were placedbetween it and that gloomy country. The sea seemed to be frozen tothe remotest limits of view.
"How shall we get through?" exclaimed the doctor.
"I have not the least idea," replied Shandon; "but we will get through,even if we are obliged to employ powder to blow up those mountains,for I certainly won't let that ice shut me up till next spring."
"Nevertheless, such was the fate of the _Fox_, almost in these samequarters. Never mind," continued the doctor, "we shall get throughwith a little philosophy. Believe me, that is worth all the enginesin the world."
"You must acknowledge," replied Shandon, "that the year doesn't beginunder very favourable auspices."
"That is incontestable, and I notice that Baffin's Sea has a tendencyto return to the same state in which it was before 1817."
"Then you think, doctor, that the present state of things has notalways existed?"
"Yes; from time to time there are vast breakings up which scientificmen can scarcely explain; thus, up to 1817 this sea was constantlyobstructed, when suddenly an immense cataclysm took place which droveback these icebergs into the ocean, the great part of which werestranded on Newfoundland Bank. From that time Baffin's Bay has beenalmost free, and has become the haunt of numerous whalers."
"Then, since that epoch, voyages to the north have been easier?"
"Incomparably so; but for the last few years it has been observedthat the bay has a tendency to be closed up again, and according toinvestigations made by navigators, it may probably be so for a longtime--a still greater reason for us to go on as far as possible. Justnow we look like people who get into unknown galleries, the doorsof which are always shut behind them."
"Do you advise me to back out?" asked Shandon, endeavouring to readthe answer in the doctor's eyes.
"I! I have never known how to take a step backward, and should wenever return, I say 'Go ahead.' However, I should like to make knownto you that if we do anything imprudent, we know very well what weare exposed to."
"Well, Garry, what do you think about it?" asked Shandon of the sailor.
"I? Commander, I should go on; I'm of the same opinion as Mr.Clawbonny; but you do as you please; command, and we will obey."
"They don't all speak like you, Garry," replied Shandon. "They aren'tall in an obedient humour! Suppose they were to refuse to executemy orders?"
"Commander," replied Garry coldly, "I have given you my advice becauseyou asked me for it; but you are not obliged to act upon it."
Shandon did not reply; he attentively examined the horizon, anddescended with his two companions on to the ice-field.