CHAPTER XVII.
ENLARGING THE BOAT.--WINGED SCAVENGERS.--NOTICE TO QUIT.
Orloff's final observation, at about ten o'clock on the night of the19th, judging by the position of the North Star, gave the wind as aboutwest-south-west, blowing pretty sharply, and closing the scattered packwell together. The following morning the wind still remained in the samequarter, and it was generally agreed that they must be somewhere inlatitude 48 deg.+ and longitude 63 deg.+, or say about forty miles north-west ofAmherst Island, the largest of the Magdalen group.
After a breakfast of stewed phalaropes, whose tender, plover-like fleshwas a pleasing change from the hitherto almost unvaried roast sea-fowldiet of the last week, the boat was drawn out upon the level platformnear the hut, and removing her side and covering boards, the party helda survey of their only resource in case of a breaking up of the ice.After being measured by Peter, who claimed that the upper joint of histhumb was just an inch in length, the following measurements were foundto be nearly correct: Length over all, sixteen feet; extreme breadth ofbeam, four feet; length of well, eight feet; breadth of well, threefeet; depth of boat, fifteen inches.
About eight feet, it will be seen, was decked, and a space of only eightfeet by three was all that was available for the reception of four menand the working of the boat. It was decided to remove three feet of therear half-deck, increasing the open space to eleven feet. This waseasily done, leaving the strong cross-timbers untouched, and also sixinches of weather-board on each side.
The after part of the combing of the old well was removed and set upfarther aft, and that of the sides was continued until the whole of theopen section of the boat was thus protected from the wash of the sea.The smaller seals had been skinned, as a stocking is turned off of thefoot, leaving but one aperture, that of the diameter of the neck. It wasa work of some trouble, but was at last accomplished, and these skins,after being deprived of their inner coating of blubber, were easilyformed into air-tight bags, and provided with narrow tube-like nozzlesby carefully removing the bones from one of the flippers. These wereduly inflated with air, and securely lashed on the inner side of theboat under the weather-boarding. Six of these were thus placed, two oneach side, forward and aft, and two cross-ways under the thwarts, thusforming a very fair life-boat.
In addition to these the bows and stern were raised about six inches bystrips of the sides of the broken float nailed to the gunwale, andstrengthened by cross-pieces of planking from the bottom. These weregiven considerable shear, so as to be lifted by a sea, instead ofcutting into it. Besides these, rue-raddies, or shoulder-belts of hide,with a strap attached to the sides of the boat, were adapted to theheight of each man, and each of the party was assigned a position in thecraft, from which there was to be no deviation.
Thus La Salle steered while Waring sat next on the port side. Peter,with his single strong arm, took the other starboard berth, and Regnarwas bow oar, or, rather, paddle, while Carlo's place was under thehalf-deck forward.
The three seal-skins first procured were already about half tanned, andwere formed into tarpaulins, being split in two lengthwise, sewedtogether at the ends, and again sewed to the edges of the combings withseal-sinews, forming a cover for the guns, and also by means of agathering cord of fishing-line looped through their edges, capable ofbeing drawn up and fastened at about the height of the waist of a manwhen kneeling, thus forming an additional protection against a breakingsea.
The oars, with one exception, were cut down into paddles by Peter, forthe paddle, in ice navigation, is incomparably superior to the oar,which requires open water for effectual use. One oar, however, was leftof its original length for a support to the McIntosh, which, being abouteight feet square, and furnished with brass eyelets, was easily fittedas a sail; and owing to its black hue, was especially suitable for asignal of distress among the ice-islands of the Gulf.
It was nearly six o'clock when these repairs were completed, and theparty sat down to dinner, for, except a lunch of cold roast duck, theyhad eaten nothing since morning. The salt water, concentrated byfreezing in the Russian manner, and left to boil down the night before,had produced about two pounds of good salt; and Peter, taking his knife,soon made a neat tub, like a miniature butter firkin, in which topreserve it.
After dinner it was proposed that a short walk over the intervening iceto the sealing-grounds should be undertaken, and headed by Peter, withan axe to try any suspicious ice, the adventurers reached the floe inabout fifteen minutes' walk. Climbing the higher shore of the berg, theyadvanced noiselessly, and without being observed by the seals, gazeddown upon the scene of yesterday's battle. None of the seals seemed tohave deserted the floe, but the ice was crowded with the young "calves"and the adult parents. Everywhere the mothers might be seen sucklingtheir helpless young, while the males lazily basked in the rays of thesetting sun, or occasionally indulged in a battle with some rival, whichwas not always a bloodless encounter.
Among the living lay the mangled corpses of yesterday's hunt, and overeach fought and feasted a host of gannets, sea-gulls, and cormorants.The bodies were hidden from view by the birds, which tore with beak andweak palmated talons, at the greasy, bloody carcasses, and above thesewheeled and fluttered a cloud of competitors for a share of the spoils.Occasionally a bird bolder than the rest would swoop at an unprotectedbaby-seal, whose mother was absent, or had possibly perished the daybefore; but at once the older amphibia would roar in hideous concert,and charge the birds, who seemed to understand that they must give upthe living prey, and confine themselves to their legitimate duties, asscavengers of this grand camping-ground of the genus _Phocae_.
Returning rather hastily, the party reached their quarters just at dusk,and lighting their lamp, made some weak, but very hot, coffee, thegreatest treat which their limited variety of comestibles afforded.Peter busied himself with cleaning and inflating a number of the largerentrails and membranous viscera of the hooded seal. These were forlife-preservers, and vessels for the preservation of water and oil intheir anticipated boat-voyage. Regnar cut out no less than three pairsof moccason-boots, choosing the thickest skins, and then prepared themwith the brain-paste for curing in the mild warmth of the air around thechimney. Waring cleansed the cooking utensils, and made up some bundlesof fir-twigs to cover the bottom of the boat, and La Salle wrote up hisdiary, sharpened an axe, fitted a strip of pine board for a sprit to theblanket sail, and as bedtime drew near, went out to take a last look atthe weather.
It was quite cold, and the wind, although light, was from thenorth-west, as near as could be judged without a compass. As Peter hadnoted a change of wind about midday, the pack had probably again changedits course of drift from east to south-east, or, perhaps, a pointfarther south, as the general course of the current in that part of theGulf ran from south-south-east to south.
Returning to his companions, he communicated these details, closing bysaying,--
"As I think, we are now about due west of the Magdalen group; and ifthis wind holds, we shall probably pass Amherst Island during the nexttwenty-four hours. If in sight, we must try to push through the ice toland, for the whole shore is inhabited. As many sealers should now be inthis part of the Gulf, we should always be upon the watch for them."
"I think," said Waring, "that we ought to keep one man as a lookout onthe highest ice in the vicinity."
"Pity the great iceberg so far off," added Regnar.
"Sposum wind hold north-west, and ice keep packed, why not go downto-morrow and look alound?" asked Peter, quietly.
"If these westerly winds hold, there will be no danger in so doing, if,as I guess, the pack extends from here to the shore of the Magdalens. Ifso, we are not likely to find any sealers to the eastward, unless theyhave got jammed in the pack; and probably that steamer we saw the otherday has passed to the south, and will make to westward before anothersoutherly gale comes to open the ice."
"You right, master," said Regnar. "We go to-morrow to berg; see greatways from there, if we
can get up. 'Nother thing we ought to do--moveoff this floe before next gale, else get house broken, and lose manythings."
"Pooh!" said Waring, carelessly; "this berg would last a month yet."
"I risk this _h_ice, more'n twenty, tirty feet tick. Sea no break thisup."
Orloff's eyes flashed, and he seemed about to make some angry reply, butwith a visible effort to restrain himself, signed to La Salle to followhim, and went out of the hut. La Salle found him on the summit of thelookout, gazing out over the star-lit sea.
"I was angry, and came near forgetting the part I play," said he,bitterly, in French; "but they know nothing of ice-lore, and I shouldnot be angry at them for believing that this heavy bit of ice, althoughnot as large as those around us, is equally as safe."
"And why is it not?" asked La Salle.
"Because," answered the lad, "this floe is of snow-ice, probably piercedby dozens of hidden cavities. I fancied the other night that I heard aripple of water beneath me, as I have heard it in winter when seekingthe hidden streams beneath the glaciers, but I did not hear it again,and may have been mistaken."
"Well, we are safe, I suppose, as long as we lie deep in the pack."
Regnar smiled pityingly.
"Do you see the kind of ice which surrounds us now--those heavy floes,hard, flinty, and widespread, and that berg, gigantic, and almost ashard as glass? Well, if we have a heavy blow from the north-west, weshall be jammed between the ice now resting on the Magdalens and thoseGreenland monsters yonder, and if there is a weak spot in our berg--"
"Well, what then, Regnie?"
"We shall be ground to powder, or, at least, our berg will; and in sucha break-up, we shall have little chance to save anything except ourlives."
"What, then, ought we to do?"
"We must be ready to move as soon as we crush in through this thin ice,"said Regnar, pointing to the new ice and broken fragments over whichthey had crossed at dark. "Let us put our guns and food in the boat, andhave her already for use; by morning we shall have a heavy nip, or ashift of wind, and in either case we ought to change our quarters."
As they turned to descend the hummock, a crack was heard, and a largepart of the berg fell with a terrible crash. Peter and Waring rushedfrom the hut with cries of terror, and Carlo, whining with fear, boundedup the slope, as if to seek protection from his master. Regnar was thefirst to recover his coolness.
"Let us see what damage is done now," said he; and descending, he seizedan oar and a rope, and went to the verge of the chasm. La Salle rushedinto the hut, lighted his lantern, and joined Regnar, who was fasteningthe rope around his waist. "I don't think there is much danger, but if Iget in, haul me out," said he, giving the coil into La Salle's keeping;and seizing the lantern, he leaped down upon the severed portion.
Fearlessly moving along the face of the berg, he surveyed it asthoroughly as possible by the light of his lantern, and at last,approaching the lowest part of the wall, called to them to pull sharplyon the rope, and with its help ascended the berg.
"You are all right just now," said he, "but when a strain does come uponus, the cleavage will be right through our hut. We had better get ourtools into the boat, and keep watch during the night, for, with thefirst nip, or heavy sea, we shall no longer have a house to cover us."
It may well be believed but few of the party slept much that night, andthat the first dawn was hailed as a welcome visitant. Regnar alone, whohad been the first to give the alarm, was the only one who could sleepsoundly through the hours not occupied on the watch, and he alone awokerefreshed and vigorous when the welcome sunrise flooded the east withrosy beams, and cast a magical flood of reflected light over every bergand pinnacle.