TEAM OF SEVEN MEN AND THREE DOGS.
TEAM OF SEVEN MEN AND THREE DOGS.
THE COOKING APPARATUS.
THE COOKING APPARATUS.
3. The proper construction of the cooking apparatus is of the greatest importance, the great principle being to develop heat and prevent its escape as much as possible. The accompanying woodcut represents an apparatus which excellently well fulfils this condition. A, is the inner compartment; B, the holder containing about a bottle of spirit, with seven wicks; C, the covered pan for cooking; D, the outer case; and E, a pan filled with snow and fitted with a moveable handle, which, being placed over an opening in the outer case, utilizes the ascending heat, which would otherwise escape, to liquefy the snow. The apparatus should be made of sheet iron, each of its parts of one piece, and there should be no soldering, in order to diminish the risk of breakage and the setting fire to the tent by the escape of the spirit in a state of combustion. These cooking machines should be of different sizes, according to the number of men in the expedition. The largest of those used by us consumed ¾lb. of spirits of wineto convert snow, with a thermometer from 13° to 22° below zero F., into three gallons of boiling water. On account of the smaller consumption of alcohol, it is better to use ice than snow for the purpose of cooking.
4. Alcohol of the greatest purity and strength is the best fuel, and is most easily transported in vessels containing about ten gallons. Next to alcohol, stearine is most to be recommended, on account of its great heating powers; and then train-oil, though the smoke and dirt produced by it in the tent are almost unbearable evils. Petroleum ought not to be employed, on account of its dangerous character and its being prejudicial to health. Wood and coals generate too little heat in proportion to their bulk. Parry was the first who, in his journey of 1827, employed spirits of wine; he still used wood and coals in 1820 and Lyon in 1822.
5. The nights are passed either in snow huts, or in tents. If tents be used, the climate must determine their material, whether cotton or sailcloth. A mackintosh floor-cloth should always be spread over the ground of the tent. It is indispensable to make the walls of the snow huts two or three feet high, in order to allow room for movement, and the closed side,i.e.the side opposite the entrance, must be made double, as it is always exposed to the direction of the wind. The tent entrance must be carefully closed with hooks and rings, and should not reach to the ground. A tent formed by two poles, about eight feet long, crossed at each end, with another to rest on these supports, is the most simple and secure form of erection. During the journey, a small sail may be advantageously used, whenever the wind is favourable; one of the tent-poles may be used as a mast, and an “Alpine stock” may serve as a yard for the sail.
6. The sledge party passes the night in a common sleeping bag, in which there may be, under propitious circumstances, smaller separate bags for each. When the temperature is not below -13° F., the sleeping bag may be made out of a warm strong quilt; but when the cold is more intense, it must be made of buffalo-skin, and to prevent its being pulled off during the night it should be buttoned at the top in the middle. Sheep-skins cannot be recommended for this purpose, as they are far heavier than buffalo-skins; and as they more easily collectmoisture, so they freeze more quickly. The sleeping bag should always be wrapped up in the tent and packed with it on the sledge, so that it may come as little as possible in contact with the snow. If the temperature should fall below -35° F., the travelling party suffers greatly from the frost even in such a sleeping bag, and it would then be advisable to lay an inflated india-rubber mattress under the bag, so that only the legs of the sleepers should be exposed to the influence of the cold.
7. As for arms, it is enough to have three double-barrelled Lefaucheux rifles and one revolver; and even in districts where encounters with bears may be daily expected, three cartridges a day are a sufficient stock of ammunition. These should be explosive shells, with steel points. Small shot cartridges are indispensable on sledge expeditions, as birds are not unfrequently met with. When the cold is excessive, great caution must be used with the cock of the lock, as the brittleness of the metal then causes it to be easily broken; and from the same cause the hammer will often not stand at half-cock. The guns must not be oiled, as it sometimes happens that the hammer on full-cock will not go down where the lock is smeared with oil. Light woollen gloves should be worn for shooting, in order that the fingers may not be frozen in handling the guns.
8. A chest, fixed on the fore-part of the sledge, contains the instruments used in surveying and in the determination of localities; also a thermometer and an aneroid barometer, lucifer matches and cartridges, packed in tin boxes and carefully protected from damp; a supply of nails and screws, wind-screens for the travellers, sewing materials, the spoons of the party, extra soles of felt for shoes, medical stores, brushes, sketch-book, flags, and a supply of light cord. The pocket-chronometer must be worn in close contact with the body of the leader of the party, to guard it against the hurtful influences of the cold.
9. The provisions should be placed below everything, when the sledge is loaded. The daily allowance for each man ought to be increased by half a pound above the usual rations on board ship, so that about 2½ lbs. or 2¾ lbs. of solid food fall to the share of each man, and about an equal weightto each dog. McClintock allowed 2½ to 3 lbs. a head for the men; but only 1 lb. pemmican a day for the Eskimo dogs. Hayes calculates provisions for fourteen dogs for twelve days at 300 lbs.—almost 2 lbs. a day; and, on another occasion, for fifteen dogs for thirty-eight days, at 800 lbs; and considers 1½ lbs. for Eskimo dogs as too little, when great demands are made on their strength and endurance. From my own experience, I should say, that the least diminution of this quantity of nourishment reduces the capacity to endure great cold and excessive exertions, and produces, after even a few days, a feeling of lassitude both in the men and the dogs, harder to endure than even the sensation of hunger. Parry, in his sledge and boat expedition of 1827, found that 10 oz. of biscuit and 9 oz. of pemmican were hardly sufficient to sustain a man’s strength. “It may be useful,” he observes,[31]“to remark, as the result of absolute experience, that our daily allowance of provisions, although previously tried for some days on board the ship, and then considered to be enough, proved by no means sufficient to support the strength of men living constantly in the open air, exposed to wet and cold for at least twelve hours a day, seldom enjoying the luxury of a warm meal, and having to perform the kind of labour to which our people were subject. I have before remarked, that, previously to our return to the ship, our strength was considerably impaired, and, indeed, there is reason to believe, very soon after entering upon the ice the physical energies of the men were gradually diminishing, although for the first few weeks they did not appear to labour under any specific complaint. This diminishing of strength, which we considered to be owing to the want of sufficient sustenance, became apparent, even after a fortnight, in the lifting of the bread bags; and I have no doubt that, in spite of every care on the part of the officers, some of the men, who had begun to fail before we quitted the ice, would, in a week or two longer, have suffered very severely, and become a serious incumbrance, instead of an assistance, to our party; and we were of opinion, that in order to maintain the strength of men thus employed, for several weeks together, an additionwould be requisite of at least one-third more to the provisions we daily issued.”
10. To facilitate inspection, it is advisable to portion off the stock of provisions for each week in separate sacks, and never to open a fresh sack till the previous one has been emptied. The contents of the sacks for the latter weeks should be increased a fifth-part at least above the normal weight; because hunger with its accompanying loss of strength generally grows in a distressing manner. The provisions should consist of boiled beef, hard bread, extract of meat, chocolate, grits, pea-sausages, sugar, rice, condensed milk, and coffee. Tea and the two last mentioned articles of food have an indescribably reviving effect, especially in the morning, and enable the party to make long forced marches, warding off the great enemy of such expeditions—thirst. Pemmican and fatty substances, however, when the temperature is very low, must be used in moderation, inasmuch as they tend to promote this evil. The fact that we require more carbon in our food in winter than in summer, and that the colder a country is, the more of this element should be found in its nourishment, may, indeed, be true for life in settled abodes or on board an Arctic ship, but does not hold good of sledge journeys. As fresh meat affords, under all circumstances, the strongest nourishment, the business of hunting must not be left to chance. In order to diminish the weight, all preserved foods—with the exception of milk—are turned out of their tin cases, and kept in small bags. Wherever there is a certainty of finding drift-wood, I would recommend, as Back does, vermicelli or macaroni, which can then be properly prepared. Good strong tea is of the greatest importance, though at first we set little store by it. A small ration of rum daily is almost indispensable in sledge journeys, especially when the temperature is very low. Franklin (1819) and John Ross (1829) both pronounce in favour of the moderate use of this spirit, though they were of opinion that rum, when the crews were leading an inactive life on board ship, promoted scurvy. The provisions we have specified do not altogether correspond with the views of earlier Polar navigators. Pachtussow and Ziwolka provided themselves in their sledge journeys (1835) with the following stores:—Salted meat, barley-meal, grits,biscuit, butter, tea and sugar; and Parry’s provisions, in 1827, consisted of pemmican, wheat-meal, sweet cocoa-powder, biscuit, and 300 lbs. of concentrated rum.[32]Hayes preferred dried meat, beef-soup, and potatoes to the usual pemmican.
11. The equipment should be supplemented by the following articles:—A small cask of strong rum, a funnel, an india-rubber bottle to measure out the daily allowance of spirit, a snow-shovel, and a stand for surveying purposes. The sketch given below exhibits a sledge laden and packed for a long journey.
THE SLEDGE WITH ITS LOAD.a, Spirit-can.f, Axe, Thermometer.h, Dog-sledge.i, Cooking-machine.k, Box of instruments.m, Tent and sleeping-bags.nandz, Surveying-stand and tent-pole.o, Sledge-sailr, Sacks of provisions.s, India-rubber bottle.t, Funnel.u, Shovel.
THE SLEDGE WITH ITS LOAD.
12. To obviate the danger of being cut off from the ship by the breaking up of the ice, or to enable the party to push on further, boats have frequently been taken in sledge expeditions. For such purposes, boats of thin metal or of wood are not to be commended; those made of leather, india-rubber, or waterproof sailcloth, are preferable. But even when their wooden frame-work is made as light as possible, their weight is not less than 300 or 400 lbs. The addition of this weight, and the difficulty of lading them, are so much felt on such journeys, that the boat is usually left behind at a little distance from the ship, as was the case in Kane and Hayes’ journeys up Smith’s Sound. The case is different, however, in journeys which have to be carried out partly on the ice andpartly—and, indeed, chiefly—on the sea. In such cases, boats of sufficient size to carry both the crews and the baggage are requisite. The whale boat of the Norwegian whalers, carrying seven or eight men, is best adapted for this purpose; although, in long reaches of deep snow, they have their inconveniences, as almost double the number of men is then needed to drag them along. The boats in such expeditions are transported over the ice when the snow road is good, or only passably good, by means of the largest of the sledges we have described; but, if the snow be very deep, it would be advisable to use sledges with three runners underneath, boarded over, so as to prevent the load from sinking into the snow.[33]
13. As the sledge party has to endure for several weeks all the horrors of Arctic weather, the article of clothing demands special care and consideration. Abundance of woollen under-garments and light furs best answer this purpose. The woollen under-garments should not fit too closely, so as to hinder the circulation of the blood; and the fur coat should be wide, and reach half-way down the leg. It would be a great mistake to take the clothing of the northern nomad as our pattern. Our powers of enduring the severities of Arctic climate are inferior to theirs, so that we cannot attempt to imitate their hardihood; but our own industries enable us to surpass all their resources. During the march, a long garment of lamb’s-wool, to which a belly-band is sewn, two stout linen shirts, one or two pairs of woollen drawers, strong cloth trousers, a pair of common mittens, and a light hood, are sufficient for all temperatures. Wind, especially if it be accompanied with drifting snow, necessitates fur coats, with hoods attached, two pairs of woollen gloves, and a band of flannel to protect the nose, buttoned on to the hood. Wind-guards, made of strong leather serving to protect the face against wind and frost, must not be neglected. Flannel masks, with holes cut for nose and mouth, are of little use, as they are completely frozen in a few hours. A shawl wrapped round the mouth is, after all, the best protection against cold wind, and the least hindrance to respiration. As the shortest beard is converted at onceinto a glacier by the freezing of the breath, it is necessary to cut it off. The accompanying figure exhibits the Arctic sledger prepared for the eventualities of cold. It need scarcely, however, be remarked, that no absolutely general rules can be laid down in the matter of clothing, which depends on the different capacities of resistance in individuals, and also on the variations of the weather. When the temperature is not more than 2° or 13° below zero F., some diminution of the garments enumerated above may safely be allowed. Knitted woollen hoods are sufficient protection for the head in almost all cases. Gloves, not intended to be used in drawing and in handling the instruments, should be made of lamb’s-wool, and the fingers lined with flannel. The stockings also should be strengthened with flannel at the heels and toes, and should be kept as dry as possible; because wet feet are inevitably frozen when the cold is excessive. Hence, also, the stockings must be changed at night and dried, by being laid on the chest during sleep.
THE DRESS OF THE ARCTIC SLEDGER.
THE DRESS OF THE ARCTIC SLEDGER.
14. In the matter of furs, no better can be selected than buffalo-skin, or wash-leather made of bear’s hide; though nocovering can surpass that which is made from the skins of birds—Eider-ducks, for example—which is equally good for either summer or winter, during the march, or even during sleep, and which need be exchanged for furs only when the temperature during a night-camping falls 35° to 58° below zero F. Sheep-skin and wolf-skin are too heavy; and the reindeer-skin, though so light and warm, is not suitable, as it at once loses the hair when exposed to damp, and does not last a winter with constant use; but of these, the best are those of the young reindeer killed in autumn. Some Arctic travellers, in the absence of furs, have used an extra covering of light sailcloth, as a protection against the drifting snow, which penetrates the clothes and stiffens them. We have tried this experiment, but were not convinced of its success. In Parry’s second expedition, his people are said to have worn their furs next to their bodies, and to have found this warmer than the wearing of woollens next the skin; but this I am inclined to regard as a mistake. When furs are worn during the march, their congelation and consequent increase of weight are diminished by wearing the furs sometimes inside and sometimes outside. The inhabitants of Lapland and Kamschatka constantly wear the fur outside; and some Eskimo tribes wear double furs—one turned inside, the other outside. If cloth clothes are worn, their surface should be smooth, so as not to harbour the driving snow; and all buttons should be of a large size, as frozen fingers find it easier to manage them.
15. The covering for the feet of a sledge-party should be sailcloth boots, lined with flannel, and soled with stout felt; and it is not advisable to strengthen the soles by plaiting them with string, as the boot thereby loses that perfect pliability which is indispensable to preserve the foot from the danger of frost-bite. Hence also any covering of india-rubber is objectionable. Leather boots must not be used in sledging; because they become utterly unpliable at a low temperature, and make frost-bites inevitable; and when once put on they cannot be pulled off without being cut to pieces. All boots should be so large and their legs so wide, that they may be put on conveniently over the trousers; and sailcloth boots especially, because of theirshrinking from frost, should be so wide, that they can be put on easily over three pairs of strong woollen stockings. The Eskimo, the inhabitants of Lapland, Kamschatka, and other northern nomad tribes, wear the dried grass ofCyperacitesas their foot-coverings; and this might be recommended, if it did not also involve the use of skin-coverings for the feet, in which no European can make long marches, without their being inflamed. Because, in the Arctic regions, the condensation of moisture in the shape of ice is an enemy constantly to be guarded against, all stuffs are to be avoided which tend to harbour moisture, especially the linings of coats, pockets, and so forth, made of cotton instead of pure wool. India-rubber garments must never be used, as they prevent evaporation from the body.
16. If dogs are used to draw the large sledges along with men, they ought to be harnessed in the way which the sketch on a preceding page represents. The dog-sledge should be laid across the hinder part of the principal sledge, and made fast to it. If, however, dogs alone are employed, and at walking-pace, they are harnessed in pairs, one pair behind the other. Each dog should draw by a single trace, as we can only thus avoid the constant entangling of the rope-traces. If more than four dogs be employed, they cannot well go in pairs one before the other, but must be harnessed to the sledge in a row, side by side, and the traces must be long, so as to enable the most powerful and best-trained dogs, which are placed in the middle, to be somewhat in advance of the others. The dogs should be selected according to the special purpose for which they are to be employed; for, while an Eskimo dog will run, but shirks the effort of drawing heavy loads, a Newfoundland submits to its load, but, goes at a foot’s-pace. In the Hudson’s Bay territory a cross between a wolf and a dog is regarded as the best animal for draught, because it surpasses the dog proper in strength and courage. Newfoundlands of pure breed are, on the whole, most to be recommended, and next to them, the Eskimo dog, which has a good deal of the character of the wolf, though he is difficult to hold. These dogs, too, although they are indescribably, thievish, voracious, and ill-tempered, in consequence of their harsh treatment and bad feeding, have this furtherdistinguishing quality, that they will stick to a retreating bear with wonderful pertinacity till the hunter comes up to kill it. European dogs are only to be taken when an expedition has not the opportunity of procuring dogs of the kinds we have mentioned; but, if they be employed, they should be strong and hardy, with long hair and thick coat. The purity of their breed is of less consequence than their being good-tempered, as fights between large dogs end in the destruction of the weaker. The Ostjaks, in the neighbourhood of Obdorsk, are the nomad tribes nearest Europe who use dogs for sledges; and their breed of dogs is far superior to any other, either in Lapland or Northern Russia. The dogs of Russia in Europe were employed in the expedition (1839) of Ziwolka and Mojsejew to Novaya Zemlya; but it does not appear that they answered the expectations which had been formed. In sledge-expeditions the dogs are allowed to sleep in the open air; but they must be fastened to stakes, lest the scenting some animal should tempt them to run off. We ourselves, however, allowed a small tent, weighing little, for the few dogs which accompanied us. Dogs whose paws have not been early hardened by long marches on the ice, easily hurt their feet, which do not heal during the journey; and wounds can only be prevented from getting worse by a daily application of collodion and brandy, and by a protection of flannel; and this is the treatment we pursued to Jubinal in the journey we are about to describe. Whenever a dog is exhausted by dragging, it is generally blooded in the tail or ear after the fashion followed by the Siberian tribes.
TOROSSY IN HARNESS.
TOROSSY IN HARNESS.
1. From the preceding remarks on the equipment of a sledge, the reader will, perhaps, have gained a pretty clear notion of the procedure by which we are enabled to travel for weeks in Arctic wastes. This description will have shown him the various and manifold contingencies against which a leader has to provide, if he is to conduct an expedition safely and successfully, especially if he commands a body of men, who are neither so careful nor so observant as those who accompanied me in the sledge journeys I am about to describe.
2. I now pass to the first of these, the object of which was to determine the position and general relations of the new Land, which still remained a mystery to us, to reconnoitre a route for its exploration towards the north, and to ascertain what we could of the character of the intervening regions. I regarded the ascent of the high mountain—Cape Tegetthoff—which we had seen before us for months, as the preliminary step towards the attainment of these ends. Its great distance from the ship had rendered abortive all the attempts to reach it which had been made at the end of last autumn. With the beginning of March (1874) the sledging was now to commence in reality. Though the sun had returned on the 24th of February, it was seldom visible in the remaining days of that month; a heavy water-sky overspread the southern heavens, and the only cheerful precursors of spring were the birds which once more appeared in our neighbourhood. The snow had been distressingly soft, but the north-east winds which prevailed during the first days of March hardened it. When these winds fell, the temperature alsofell, and although the beginning of March is regarded as a time little favourable for sledge travelling on account of the excessive cold, our impatience for action overcame all doubts and fears, and on the 9th one of our larger sledges stood ready, laden and packed for an expedition, equipped for a week. It carried an extra quantity of provisions, which were intended to form depôts. From the general store we took 39 lbs. of hard bread, 5 lbs. of pemmican, 16 lbs. of boiled beef, 6½ lbs. of lard, 1 lb. of pea-sausage, ½ lb. of salt and pepper, 6 lbs. of rice, 2 lbs. of grits, 5 lbs. of chocolate, 5 gallons of rum, 1 lb. of extract of meat, 2 lbs. of condensed milk, and 8 gallons of alcohol. The rest of the baggage consisted of such articles as we have described above. We had besides 3 breech-loaders and 100 cartridges, of which 40 were fired away.
3. I selected for my party six men and three dogs, Gillis, Torossy and Sumbu. As I reserved the picked men of our crew for the contemplated longer journey towards the north, some of the above were not altogether adequate to the work. My two Tyrolese, however, Haller and Klotz, possessed great endurance, Lukinovich and Cattarinch in a lesser degree; as for Pospischill and Lettis, they would have done credit to Falstaff’s corps. As Pospischill suffered from lung disease, Lukinovich from palpitation of the heart, Haller from chronic rheumatism, and Lettis from a tendency to bronchial catarrh, it may be inferred how necessity alone enabled them to do what they did, when the temperature fell lower than we expected.
4. On the morning of the 10th of March we left the ship, and the “Flag of the sledge journeys,” which had hung for so long a time over my berth, now fluttered in the fresh breeze which blew from the north-west. So much had this “at last,” excited me, that I could not sleep a wink, and those who were starting on the expedition as well as those who remained behind were as much agitated, as if the conquest of Peru or Ophir were contemplated, and not the exploration of lands buried under snow and ice. With indescribable joy we began the mechanical drudgery of dragging the sledge, each of us at first wearing a mask, like the members of the “Vehmgericht,” until we became habituated to the witheringeffects of the wind. As we moved along the level surface of the land ice of the preceding autumn, after forcing our way through the hummocky ice, which had formed itself on the north of the ship, we saw behind us some black spots approaching at full speed. These were the dogs we had left behind, which insisted on travelling with us, and much craft and force, supplemented by the logic of a few shots, were needed to force them to return to the ship. My companions interpreted the conduct of the dogs refusing to remain with the ship as a sign foreboding the death of our engineer. As the lading of our sledge amounted to about 6 or 7 cwts. and the snow was favourable for sledging, we were able to advance at the unusual rate of 100 paces in a minute, and in two hours we passed the south-west Cape of Wilczek Island. Close to this Cape we saw an iceberg which had fallen on the ice and crushed it all round, and sheltering ourselves from the wind under the lee of another, we took our mid-day rest, with the thermometer at -15° F. As the sun at noon was so little above the horizon that we got uncertain results for the determination of the latitude, I preferred during this journey to begin the surveying and, at the same time, the determination of the localities of Franz-Josef Land, by a triangulation of elevated points, to which the measurement of a base was afterwards to be added. Hence the ascent of high mountains formed part of our programme.
5. We continued our march till the ship disappeared from our eyes, and the route now lost its level character and assumed the appearance of a very chaos of ice. In the evening we reached a high rocky promontory of Wilczek Island, near which rose some stranded icebergs, and against which the ice-sheet of the sea, impelled by the waves, was dashed and broken. Close in shore the ice was in violent motion, and as we passed over the “ice-foot,” to the amazement of all, three of our men fell into a fissure. All through the night we heard in our tent, which we erected on the land, the cracking and crashing sounds emitted by the ice. Next day—March 11th—making a very early start, the thermometer at -14° F., we saw a water-sky to the south, and, after ascending a height, close before us lay the sea, covered with young ice. Heavy mists were ascending from fissures,and the level surface of the young ice glowed with the colours of the morning. Immediately under the coast of the island lay a narrow band of piled-up ice, with traces of recent pressures, and thinking that the interior was impassable to a laden sledge, we began our toilsome march along its rocky coasts.
6. We were in no mood to observe the picturesque character of our route, for our labours in dragging the sledge over the hummocky ice were excessive. We had frequently to unload the sledge or dig away an obstacle which could not be evaded. The conduct of the dogs was not quite faultless; and as for my companions, if one of them turned round, or if a bird flew past, this was enough to make the rest pause in their pulling, with the ready excuse of surprise at the circumstance. If in such cases Klotz failed to exert his strength, the sledge at once came to a standstill. We pressed on through icebergs on each side of us, shattered by the frost, and amid a constant noise of cracking and splitting produced by the increasing cold. At length, after several hours, we came out on an open level and crossed the gentle slope of a snow-covered spit of land. The rugged mountainous front of Hall Island, and the long glacier walls of M’Clintock Island, now rose before us. Our course lay clearly marked out: it ran in a north-westerly direction over a snow-covered level of old ice towards Cape Tegetthoff. Soon, however, the mist began to rise, and floated over the wide expanse of ice, and so obscured every object that we were able to continue our journey in the twilight only by means of the compass. We determined our course by the aid of small hummocks of ice, which rose above the general level surface, but so great was the difficulty of keeping a definite line in the mist, that we were compelled to halt every four hundred paces, and correct our route by the larger compass, which often showed that we had deviated 20° to 40° in azimuth from the true line, and in some cases the error amounted to even 90°. To add to all this, snow began to fall, so that we were almost blinded, and hence it was that a bear for some time followed our footsteps, unseen by any of the party. When we first sighted him, though he was at a little distance off, he looked enormously large in the mist. We quickly seized our rifles, and one of our men firingprecipitately, the bear disappeared, leaving no track of blood to show whether it had been wounded. But bears, even when severely wounded, often leave no such trace; hence doubtless the origin of the assertion, that a wounded bear can dress its own wound, using its paw to apply snow to the injured part.
7. It was our practice in this, as well as in the following expeditions, to rest at noon for an hour or two, and putting up the tent take a meal of hot boiled beef. But the inferiority of an untrained to a well-trained sledge party was seen even in such operations. Much time was wasted; in like manner and from the same cause, the coffee-making in the morning, the preparation for the march, the taking down of the tent, the loading of the sledge, occupied my party for hours, and the smallest snow-drifting sufficed to blow away all their moral force. As we left the tent, the bear stood again before us, but disappeared as suddenly when we seized our rifles. In the course of a few hours we passed some icebergs shaped like huge tables, and when the wind rose and lifted up the mist for a few moments, we saw the rocky heights of Cape Tegetthoff towering above us at no great distance. The snow began to drive directly in our faces, and meanwhile the bear had followed our steps, often hidden from our sight by the vehement gusts of snow, sometimes on our flank, sometimes in our rear, keeping at about 200 paces distance from us. By feigning unconcern we hoped to stimulate his courage to attack us, reckoning on converting him into food. Suddenly, however, he ran towards us, and our apparent indifference disappeared. In a moment we stood ready to receive him; the sledge was drawn across the line of his advance, and each casting off his drag-rope, knelt and aimed over the sledge. The directions were to aim at the lower part of the skull, and to fire only when he was quite close to us. The dogs were moved to the further side of the sledge, and covered with its sail. Of the other four men, two held the dogs, a third laid hold of a revolver, and the fourth provided himself with some cartridges ready for contingencies. After the completion of these preparations, no one either moved or spoke. The bear meanwhile, moved steadily towards us, stopping for a moment at the spot where a piece of bread hadintentionally been placed. Just as he stopped to examine it, three shots in rapid succession went off, and the bear, hit in the head and chest, lay dead on the ground. The dogs, being let loose, rushed on their fallen foe and began to tear his shaggy skin. While we were cutting the bear up, they sat down and watched us, occasionally dipping their tongues in the warm red blood and snapping up the morsels which were thrown to them. The bear we had shot was a female, six feet in length; and after cutting off the tongue and the best portions for meat, we continued our march in the teeth of the driving snow. One of our people had cut his finger badly in dressing the bear, and as the application of chloride of iron did not suffice to stop the violent bleeding, we were compelled to halt and erect our tent about six o’clock in the evening.
8. When we set out again on the morning of the 12th (the thermometer marking -26° F.) all round us was a red undulating waste, and the driving gusts of snow, which hid from our view the nearest rocky heights, pricked us as if with countless sharp-pointed darts. Such drifting snow, although it greatly impedes travelling, cannot be compared with the tremendous snow-storms I had experienced in Greenland. The same precursory signs were, however, common to both—extraordinary refractions, brilliant auroras, perfect calms, and a dull close atmosphere. In taking down the tent, which was covered with wreaths of snow, every article which fell in it was at once buried under its drifting waves. Of all the tests of endurance in Arctic journeys none exceeds that of continuing the march amid driving snow at a low temperature. Some of my company who had not been accustomed to walk in such tremendous weather, in attempting to button on their wind-screens and nose-bands and fasten up their coats after we had left the tent, at once had their fingers frozen. Our sail-cloth boots were as hard as stone, and every one took to stamping to preserve his feet from frost-bite. Under such circumstances the sledge is not packed with that precision which is the only preservative against the loss of the various articles of its contents. To watch against this contingency is the special business of the man who pushes the sledge from behind. Hurry and confusion were visible in the bag ofprovisions being left open. At last everything was ready: the march began, men and dogs, dragging the sledge along, all coated with snow and entirely covered except the eyes. In a momentary lull of the wind, we discovered that our march the day before had led us far too much to the south, and Cape Tegetthoff now lay before us directly north. Thither we now directed our steps, and as the wind still came from the north-west, we struck our sledge sail. As a consequence of this marching against the wind, which is most severely felt by the leaders of the team, all, even Klotz, had their noses frost-bitten. We had much difficulty in persuading him to rub his with snow, urging that his nose did not belong to himself alone, but that seven noses and fourteen feet were under the general supervision of the leader, and that each had a share in this general property.
9. As we came under the land, the violence of the snow-drifting somewhat abated, and in about two hours a calm set in. Close before us lay the plateau of Cape Tegetthoff, with its steep precipitous sides. From its summit a line of basalt rocks descended towards the east, ending in two columns, each about two hundred feet high. We reached them just before noon, and the weather being propitious we determined the latitude by observation and found it to be 80° 6′ N.L. The force of the tide not being able to raise or burst the bay-ice, the thaw-water of the spring collects itself on the coast-edge in small lakes. Close under one of these towers of dark-coloured basalt, we set up our tent; and while our cook was preparing our dinner of bear’s flesh we lay in the sun under the rocks in order to dry our clothes, which were coated all over with ice.
CAPE TEGETTHOFF.
CAPE TEGETTHOFF.
10. About one o’clock I set off with the Tyrolese to the plateau of Cape Tegetthoff. Those who remained behind spent their time in rubbing their feet with snow. Lettis had reserved for us the unpleasant surprise that his feet had been frost-bitten for three hours, and that he had lost all feeling in them. We marched for an hour on the snow, which lay in tender azure-blue shadow under the long line of basalt rocks, and after climbing for another hour over rosy-coloured masses of snow lying between crystallized rocks, we reached the highest point of the undulating plateau. No ascent could bemore interesting, made, as it was, in a country so utterly unknown. Haller and Klotz were born mountaineers, and during my surveys in Tyrol I had made a hundred ascents of mountains of 10,000 feet, without the tension of expectation I now experienced, as I mounted this summit. The ascent was not without difficulty, and it taxed the extraordinary dexterity of the two Tyrolese to climb up steep icy precipices in their sail-cloth boots. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon when we reached the summit; the temperature had fallen to -30° F. (in the tent the thermometer at the same time marked -24° F. and in the ship -20° F.). By a barometrical measurement we found the height to be 2,600 feet. Contrary to expectation the view from the top proved to be limited. In a northerly direction, the atmosphere, laden with innumerable ice crystals, possessed so little transparency that Cape Berghaus, at no distance off, appeared to be covered with a thick veil, and all distant objects were enveloped in a dense mist. Fogs lay over the interior to the west, and banks of reddish vapour covered the icy ocean to the south. Some narrow strips of open water sparkled in the sun. After making a sketch of all that could be distinctly seen, and determining the bearings of some points, we returned to the tent. Here we found Lettis and Cattarinch engaged in rubbing with snow the hands of Lukinovich, which had been frost-bitten, while he was occupied in rubbing the feet of Lettis.
11. Nothing except the wind makes men so sensitive to cold as the want of exercise. The fall of the temperature had been felt far more by those who remained behind, than by ourselves. Even the wonderful beauty of the snow-clad summit bathed in rosy light failed to modify their severe judgment of Franz-Josef Land. Instead of greeting us with supper ready at the appointed hour, which he ought to have prepared without the use of spirit, the bewildered cook was vainly endeavouring to roast bear’s flesh over smoky chips and sticks, and we got our supper only after I had served out a bottle of alcohol. We then went to rest in the common sleeping bag, but soon began to shake with cold, which threw Pospischill, who took oil twice a day for lung-disease, into a fever. When I left the tent to look at the thermometers, the mercury in one had gone down into the bulb and was frozen, and the spirits of wine in the other showed 41° below zero (C.). Some hot grog, for which a whole bottle of strong rum was used, put us all right, raising the temperature of our bodies by one or two degrees. After this refreshment we all fell into a deep sleep, which was incommoded only by the increasing dampness of our clothes.
12. We started again about six o’clock on the morning of March 13. The sun had not risen, the spirit of wine thermometer indicated nearly 44° (C.) below zero, and a piercingly cold breeze met us from the land. Even on board the ship the temperature at the same time marked 37° (C.) below zero, a difference to be ascribed to the influence of the land in lowering the temperature. In Greenland we observed still greater deviations of this nature, which seem to show that climatical influences are subject to great variations, even in places which are in close proximity. Cape Berghaus was our goal. From its summit a general view of the distribution of the land under 80° N. lat. was reasonably to be expected. Long before the rise of the sun, the hard snowy plains were tinted with a pale green reflected light, and the icebergs wore a dull silvery hue, while their outlines constantly changed and undulated. Our road was formed from millions of glittering snow crystals, so hard that the sledge glided over them with difficulty and with a creaking noise, and after three hours, the exertion of dragging had so exhausted us that we determined to unload the sledge,and, after melting some snow, to wet its runners with water. A layer of ice was immediately formed on them, which greatly facilitated the labour of dragging, till it was rubbed off. A broad inlet surrounded by picturesque mountains—Nordenskjöld Fiord—had opened out on our left, and as a large glacier formed the background of this fiord, we took a westerly direction in order to study the ice-formation. The heights surrounding this fiord seemed equally as well fitted as Cape Berghaus for the object we had in view. The further we penetrated into it, the deeper became the layer of fine powdery snow which the wind had deposited in this hollow. At noon we reached the high precipitous termination of Sonklar-Glacier, and pitched our tent by an iceberg.
MELTING SNOW DURING A HALT NEAR CAPE BERGHAUS.
MELTING SNOW DURING A HALT NEAR CAPE BERGHAUS.
13. In the afternoon, accompanied by the Tyrolese, I ascended a mountain—Cape Littrow—whose height, by means of an aneroid barometer, we ascertained to be 2,500 feet. From its summit we had a view of the mountains of Hall Island, and of the islands which lay to the east. Not a breath of wind was stirring, and the atmosphere was clearer than usual, so that, without suffering in the least degree from cold, I could work for three hours, first in sketching our surroundings and then in taking observations. From south-westto north-east the peaks of distant mountains rose above the summits of those in the foreground. This view, while it assured us that the land we had named after our monarch must be of great extent, stimulated our impatience to know its extent, and the nature and relation of its constituent parts. The Wüllersdorf Mountains were the extreme limits of what could be known for the present, and their three peaks glowed in the setting sun above the dark edges of the terraces of the Sonklar-Glacier, whose broad terminal front over-hung the frozen bay of Nordenskjöld Fiord. It was eight o’clock in the evening when we returned to our tent, not, however, before we had made suitable preparations for the observation of the movement of the glacier. Sumbu and Torossy were our companions; but we had to tie them with a rope both in going up and coming down, and we ourselves only mastered the great steepness of the cone of the mountain by steps which Klotz, who went on before, hewed with incomparable dexterity and precision in the ice. During the night the temperature fell to 46° below zero (C.) (-47° F. in the ship), and I do not believe that we could have passed through it without the help of grog. We drank it as we lay close together muffled up in our sleeping bag. It was boiling hot, and so strong, that under other circumstances it must have made us incapable of work, yet in spite of the grog, we suffered much all through the night from cold and our frozen clothes.
1. THE coldest day we had during this expedition was the 14th of March. By six o’clock on the morning of that day the Tyrolese and I stood on the summit of the precipitous face of the Sonklar-Glacier. The others remained behind to clear the tent of snow, and to bury a small depôt of provisions in an iceberg which was close at hand. The sun had not yet risen, though a golden gleam behind the glaciers of Salm Island indicated his near approach. At last the sun himself appeared, blood-red, glowing with indistinct outline through the mists, and surrounded with parhelia, which generally occur when the cold is great. The tops of the high snowy mountains were first touched with rosy light, which gradually descended and spread over the icy plains, and the sun like a ball of fire shone at length clearly through the frosty mist, and everything around seemed on fire. As the sun even at noon was but a few degrees above the horizon, this wonderful colouring lasted throughout the day, and the mountains, whose steepest sides were covered with a frosty efflorescence, shone like glass in this radiant light. The alcohol thermometer soon after we came on the glacier fell to 59° 1′ (F.) below zero,[34]and a light breeze blowing from the interior, which would have been pleasant enough on a March day in Europe, exposed me, while engaged in the indispensable work of drawing and measuring, to such danger, that though I worked under the shelter of my Tyrolese companions as a protection against the cold, I was constantly compelled to rubmy stiffened and benumbed hands with snow. We had taken some rum with us, and as each took his share, he knelt down and allowed another to shake it into his mouth, without bringing the metal cup in contact with his lips. This rum, though it was strong, seemed to have lost all its strength and fluidity. It tasted like innocent milk, and its consistence was that of oil. The bread was frozen so hard that we feared to break our teeth in biting it, and it brought blood as we ate it. The attempt to smoke a cigar was a punishment rather than an enjoyment, because the icicles on our beards always put them out, and when we took them out of our mouths they were frozen. Even the shortest pipes met the same fate. The instruments I used in surveying seemed to burn when I touched them, and the medals which my companions wore on their breasts felt like hot iron.