The English at the North Pole

  CHAPTER XXVI

  THE LAST LUMP OF COAL

  It seemed certain that no bears were to be had; several seals werekilled during the days of the 4th, 5th, and 6th of November; thenthe wind changed, and the thermometer went up several degrees; butthe snow-drifts began again with great violence. It became impossibleto leave the vessel, and the greatest precaution was needed to keepout the damp. At the end of the week there were several bushels ofice in the condensers. The weather changed again on the 15th ofNovember, and the thermometer, under the influence of certainatmospherical conditions, went down to 24 degrees below zero. It wasthe lowest temperature observed up till then. This cold would havebeen bearable in a quiet atmosphere, but there was a strong wind whichseemed to fill the atmosphere with sharp blades. The doctor was vexedat being kept prisoner, for the ground was covered with snow, madehard by the wind, and was easy to walk upon; he wanted to attemptsome long excursion.

  It is very difficult to work when it is so cold, because of theshortness of breath it causes. A man can only do a quarter of hisaccustomed work; iron implements become impossible to touch; if oneis taken up without precaution, it causes a pain as bad as a burn,and pieces of skin are left on it. The crew, confined to the ship,were obliged to walk for two hours on the covered deck, where theywere allowed to smoke, which was not allowed in the common room. There,directly the fire got low, the ice invaded the walls and the joinsin the flooring; every bolt, nail, or metal plate became immediatelycovered with a layer of ice. The doctor was amazed at the instantaneityof the phenomenon. The breath of the men condensed in the air, andpassing quickly from a fluid to a solid state, fell round them insnow. At a few feet only from the stoves the cold was intense, andthe men stood near the fire in a compact group. The doctor advisedthem to accustom their skin to the temperature, which would certainlyget worse, and he himself set the example; but most of them were tooidle or too benumbed to follow his advice, and preferred remainingin the unhealthy heat. However, according to the doctor, there wasno danger in the abrupt changes of temperature in going from the warmroom into the cold. It is only dangerous for people in perspiration;but the doctor's lessons were thrown away on the greater part of thecrew.

  As to Hatteras, he did not seem to feel the influence of thetemperature. He walked silently about at his ordinary pace. Had thecold no empire over his strong constitution, or did he possess ina supreme degree the natural heat he wished his sailors to have? Washe so armed in his one idea as to be insensible to exteriorimpressions? His men were profoundly astonished at seeing him facingthe 24 degrees below zero; he left the ship for hours, and came backwithout his face betraying the slightest mark of cold.

  "He is a strange man," said the doctor to Johnson; "he even astonishesme. He is one of the most powerful natures I have ever studied inmy life."

  "The fact is," answered Johnson, "that he comes and goes in the openair without clothing himself more warmly than in the month of June."

  "Oh! the question of clothes is not of much consequence," repliedthe doctor; "it is of no use clothing people who do not produce heatnaturally. It is the same as if we tried to warm a piece of ice bywrapping it up in a blanket! Hatteras does not want that; he isconstituted so, and I should not be surprised if being by his sidewere as good as being beside a stove."

  Johnson had the job of clearing the water-hole the next day, andremarked that the ice was more than ten feet thick. The doctor couldobserve magnificent aurora borealis almost every night; from fourtill eight p.m. the sky became slightly coloured in the north; thenthis colouring took the regular form of a pale yellow border, whoseextremities seemed to buttress on to the ice-field. Little by littlethe brilliant zone rose in the sky, following the magnetic meridian,and appeared striated with blackish bands; jets of some luminousmatter, augmenting and diminishing, shot out lengthways; the meteor,arrived at its zenith, was often composed of several bows, bathedin floods of red, yellow, or green light. It was a dazzling spectacle.Soon the different curves all joined in one point, and formed borealcrowns of a heavenly richness. At last the bows joined, the splendidaurora faded, the intense rays melted into pale, vague, undeterminedshades, and the marvellous phenomenon, feeble, and almostextinguished, fainted insensibly into the dark southern clouds.Nothing can equal the wonders of such a spectacle under the highlatitudes less than eight degrees from the Pole; the aurora borealisperceived in temperate regions gives no idea of them--not even afeeble one; it seems as if Providence wished to reserve its mostastonishing marvels for these climates.

  During the duration of the moon several images of her are seen inthe sky, increasing her brilliancy; often simple lunar halos surroundher, and she shines from the centre of her luminous circle with asplendid intensity.

  On the 26th of November there was a high tide, and the water escapedwith violence from the water-hole; the thick layer of ice was shakenby the rising of the sea, and sinister crackings announced thesubmarine struggle; happily the ship kept firm in her bed, and herchains only were disturbed. Hatteras had had them fastened inanticipation of the event. The following days were still colder; therewas a penetrating fog, and the wind scattered the piled-up snow; itbecame difficult to see whether the whirlwinds began in the air oron the ice-fields; confusion reigned.

  The crew were occupied in different works on board, the principalof which consisted in preparing the grease and oil produced by theseals; they had become blocks of ice, which had to be broken withaxes into little bits, and ten barrels were thus preserved.

  All sorts of vessels were useless, and the liquid they contained wouldonly have broken them when the temperature changed. On the 28th thethermometer went down to 32 degrees below zero; there was only coalenough left for ten days, and everyone looked forward to itsdisappearance with dread. Hatteras had the poop stove put out foreconomy's sake, and from that time Shandon, the doctor, and he stayedin the common room. Hatteras was thus brought into closer contactwith the men, who threw ferocious and stupefied looks at him. He heardtheir reproaches, their recriminations, and even their threats, andhe could not punish them. But he seemed to be deaf to everything.He did not claim the place nearest the fire, but stopped in a corner,his arms folded, never speaking.

  In spite of the doctor's recommendations, Pen and his friends refusedto take the least exercise; they passed whole days leaning againstthe stove or lying under the blankets of their hammocks. Their healthsoon began to suffer; they could not bear up against the fatalinfluence of the climate, and the terrible scurvy made its appearanceon board. The doctor had, however, begun, some time ago, to distributelimejuice and lime pastilles every morning; but these preservatives,generally so efficacious, had very little effect on the malady, whichsoon presented the most horrible symptoms. The sight of the poorfellows, whose nerves and muscles contracted with pain, was pitiable.Their legs swelled in an extraordinary fashion, and were covered withlarge blackish blue spots; their bloody gums and ulcerated lips onlygave passage to inarticulate sounds; the vitiated blood no longerwent to the extremities.

  Clifton was the first attacked; then Gripper, Brunton, and Strongtook to their hammocks. Those that the malady still spared could notlose sight of their sufferings; they were obliged to stay there, andit was soon transformed into a hospital, for out of eighteen sailorsof the _Forward_, thirteen were attacked in a few days. Pen seemeddestined to escape contagion; his vigorous nature preserved him fromit. Shandon felt the first symptoms, but they did not go further,and exercise kept the two in pretty good health.

  The doctor nursed the invalids with the greatest care, and it madehim miserable to see the sufferings he could not alleviate. He didall he could to keep his companions in good spirits; he talked tothem, read to them, and told them tales, which his astonishing memorymade it easy for him to do. He was often interrupted by the complaintsand groans of the invalids, and he stopped his talk to become oncemore the attentive and devoted doctor. His health kept up well; hedid not get thinner, and he used to say that it was a good thing forhim that he was dres
sed like a seal or a whale, who, thanks to itsthick layer of fat, easily supports the Arctic atmosphere. Hatterasfelt nothing, either physically or morally. Even the sufferings ofhis crew did not seem to touch him. Perhaps it was because he wouldnot let his face betray his emotions; but an attentive observer wouldhave remarked that a man's heart beat beneath the iron envelope. Thedoctor analysed him, studied him, but did not succeed in classifyingso strange an organisation, a temperament so supernatural. Thethermometer lowered again; the walk on deck was deserted; theEsquimaux dogs alone frequented it, howling lamentably.

  There was always one man on guard near the stove to keep up the fire;it was important not to let it go out. As soon as the fire got lower,the cold glided into the room; ice covered the walls, and the humidity,rapidly condensed, fell in snow on the unfortunate inhabitants ofthe brig. It was in the midst of these unutterable tortures that the8th of December was reached. That morning the doctor went as usualto consult the exterior thermometer. He found the mercury completelyfrozen.

  "Forty-four degrees below zero!" he cried with terror. And that daythey threw the last lump of coal into the stove.