CHAPTER XIV.SUNRISE OF 1874.

NOON ON DECEMBER 21, 1873.

5. On the 21st of December, the middle of the second long Polar night—which lasted in all 125 days—was reached; and although we knew where the south lay, every trace of twilight had disappeared, and for six weeks we were enveloped in unbroken darkness. The figure of a man could not be discerned at a very short distance. In order to be able to sketch the ship, I had to illuminate it by torches. Those who made expeditions afoot were struck, as it were, with blindness. If they approached what seemed to be a lofty chain of mountains, over the ridge of which the planet Jupiter hung like a glowing point, they came at once on a dark wall of ice; and when they ascended the apparently far distant ridge, the planet stood almost in the zenith. There was something approaching to twilight only when the crescent moon shone in her first quarter. On the 7th of December the sun was 12°, and on the 21st 14½°, below the horizon. We should not have seen the sun, could we have ascended the pinnacle of the Alps, which Pliny imagined to be 120,000 feet high, or even from that summit of the Caucasus which Aristotle reckoned at 230,000 feet.

6. Distrusting the quiescent state of the ice, we had again stretched a tent over one-half of the ship’s deck, while the other portion was covered with snow trodden down as hard as a skating-rink. The space for free movement was narrowed still further by the long-boat placed between the two masts, by the stores of provisions kept in readiness for the possible disaster which might compel us to leave the ship, by the stand of rifles, by dog-kennels, and other inevitable impediments. In bad weather the dogs sheltered themselves under the tent, and sometimes showed ill-temper if their feet were trod on. There were places on deck where only their particular friends were safe from being bitten; Sumbu especially had a badhabit of lying behind a cask and springing out on every one that passed by. Here under its friendly shelter the men waited the summons to their meals. Hither came Carlsen to enjoy the opportunity of talking Norwegian with some one or other. The deck light shone feebly on all this, shedding its rays on the fine snow which fell through the tent-roof. In the second half of the winter, when the deck was less frequented, the lantern became, like the crew—more sleepy; and its dull light fell on hard-frozen sailcloth, boards covered with snow, and on empty tin cases. Here, too, walked, of course, the deck-watch, enveloped in clothes from head to foot, with only their eyes uncovered, looking more like moving figures than men. The deck-watch had also to keep open the water-hole in the ice, to look out for bears, and to assist in reading off the thermometers exposed on the ice. They were on duty for two hours, and the moment they were relieved, they shot down into their quarters, as quickly as a harpooned whale dives under the waves. He, too, whose duty it was to fetch the snow to be converted into water was often to be seen on deck. Although the store of snow in which we lived was inexhaustible, yet, in order to be exempt from this duty in bad weather, it was the practice of those who were told off for this service to lay up a supply of blocks of frozen snow under the tent. Some of the crew showed the scrupulosity of chemists in their work. Before they proceeded to build up their pile, they brought specimens to the cook, in order to learn his opinion as to the residuum of salt in the ice.

7. With December a new era began for the dogs. A large snow house was built for them outside the ship, in which were placed their kennels, well filled with straw. The name of each dog was written on his house. And here let me remark, that the winter quarters of the dogs should always be on the ice. To keep them under the deck-tent is unhealthy and inconvenient, and would be an impossibility if their numbers were great. Every morning Haller opened the door of the snow house, and out rushed the dogs, with their tails in the air, to begin forthwith a general fight. No shouts, no blows, not even the discharge of a rifle could separate the combatants. Pouring water over them at a temperature of -35° F., though a somewhat barbarous way of producing peace, was successfulonly with the younger dogs. When the fight was over, the next object was to find out their special patron, and the instant they recognised him they rushed upon him, tugged at his clothes, and thrust their noses inquiringly into his pockets. Each then made his morning round, visiting the places where he had hid in the snow a piece of bread or covered up a bit of seal. When they had satisfied their appetite, it was curious to observe how they would make it smooth over the hole in which they deposited their treasure, all the time cunningly turning their eyes right and left to see whether they were observed.

PEKEL, SUMBU, AND JUBINAL.

8. Their violence and eagerness having somewhat abated, we may observe the members of our pack one by one. The red giant there, who offers his paw as huge as a bear’s, is named after a god of the heathen days of Lapland, “Jubinal;” and not a few legends surrounded the accounts of his early life. A Siberian Israelite, so it was said, brought him from the north of Asia over the Ural. He was the victor in all fights, the leader of the sledge team, and could drag four men on a hard level path without any effort. The day before we sailed from Bremerhaven he tore a sheep to pieces. Every summer when he changed his coat, the sailors clad him in a canvas dress. Bop was his inferior in strength, but his superior in wisdom; Matoschkin surpassed him in gravity. The latter used to sit for hours in a moody manner on a pile of chests looking at the ice world. Bop and Matoschkin were Newfoundlands; the first died of cold in our first winter, the latter, as our readers may remember, was carried off by a bear and torn to pieces. We had also two Newfoundland bitches, who were called respectively “Novaya” and “Zemlya;” the former died in the first year, the latter, though she was of little use in sledging from her laziness, may claim indisputably the merit of being the mother of her hopeful son, “Torossy,” who grew to a considerable size, and was the pride of the whole crew. He knew no other world than the frozen ocean, and no other destiny than to draw a sledge; and to this work he had devoted himself zealously since the commencement of winter. In the happy courage of ignorance he wagged his tail all day on deck; wagged his tail as he followed us on the ice; wagged it, even when Sumbu stolehis dinner; wagged it, even before the jaws of a bear. Gillis, the fifth Newfoundland, was incessantly quarrelling, and was the irreconcilable enemy of Jubinal; he was a favourite with no one, chiefly because he had killed the two cats which we brought from Tromsoe as pets for the dogs. His body was covered with scars, and half his time was spent under the medical treatment of the Tyrolese. He was not wanting in docility, but he was essentially an eye-pleaser; all his efforts in the sledge were mere sham. Pekel, the Lapp, was the smallest of all the dogs. In his early days he had tended the reindeer at the North Cape and on the plains of Tana Elf, and his ways did not fit him for life amid the ice, but for the brown herd which roamed at the foot of Kilpis. Hence he was quarrelsome, and showed special enmity to Sumbu, the mere sight of whom was enough to stir up the most hostile feelings. He was therefore banished with his house to a high ice-cliff, but the thaw destroying its supports, house and dog fell plump into an ice-lake. Among all the dogs there was no such desperate hypocrite as Sumbu, the most demonstrative in his friendship, but withal the most greedy and dissatisfied. He was the first to slink away with tail between his legs and find out the most secluded nook, when he saw the other dogs being harnessed in the sledges; and, when pulled out and put in a team, at once laid himself down on the sledge, not to draw, but to be drawn. When at last he was set in motion, he was no longer the same dog. He was then full of action, unsurpassed in speed and agility, and his sportiveness was as great as his cunning. From the carpenter he would carry off a hoop,or a bag of nails from the stoker, or he lay flat on his belly and thrust out his long nose in the snow. His agility stood him in good stead, for it enabled him to catch all the mice that ventured on deck. Neither the stores of provisions for the dogs nor the depôt of food for the crew were safe from his depredations. He hated bears so fiercely, that he began to howl like a wolf when we turned out to hunt them. Boldly he followed up their trail, even when at a distance from the hunters and close to the heels of the bear. The dogs were fed once a day with bear’s flesh or blubber, or dried horse-flesh, as long as it lasted.[24]They well knew the hour of feeding, and gathered together before it arrived. At night they were shut up in their house, and when the snow drifted they all lay huddled in a heap before the door. The dog-house was about eight feet high, but after a few weeks we could scarcely discern it from the accumulation of snow-drifts. For some time we kept up communication with it by means of a shaft dug in the snow; but one day in February a fissure in the ice was formed right across where the house stood, which compelled us to remove it.

9. The end of December came, and with it the season of those festivals which animate the Christian world—Christmas-tide and the New Year. In order to celebrate them in common, we built a snow house, decorated its interior with flags, and placed in it a Christmas tree, which, however, more resembled a wooden hedgehog or acheval de frise. About six o’clock in the evening all our preparations were made, and the ship’s bell, sounding mournfully in the dark and misty atmosphere, summoned us to our snow house on the ice. Here lots were drawn, and cigars, watches, knives, pipes or rum fell to the fortunate drawers. For all these presents we had to thank friends in Vienna, or Pola, or Hamburg. Then came the Christmas dinner, but no one’s heart was in the matter. Our bodies, indeed, were present, but our thoughts were far away with those we loved at home. New Year’s Eve passed off somewhat more cheerfully. Better grounded seemed our expectations that 1874 would at last bring us our long-desired activity and a not inglorious return to Europe. Scarcely had the new year begun than the crew knocked at our cabindoors with their congratulations, and such salutations continued to be the order of the day. On the whole this second winter both before and after the new year (1874), passed away without the fearful events of the preceding. Although floes lay close to us on every side, and we had no harbour in which to pass the winter with comfort—like a bear in its winter sleep—the quiescent state of the ice allowed us to hope that our floe would remain in the position it had hitherto maintained. This hope, indeed, lay at the mercy of the winds; for if north winds should set in, it was extremely probable that the ice would break up and drift asunder.

10. The life we now led below in the ship had ceased to be in any way disagreeable, and cheerful and entertaining reading seemed to be healthier than bodily exercise. We did not suffer from any want of the necessaries of life; the temperature of our living-rooms generally admitted of our sitting for hours even without our overcoats. The long night of this Polar winter was gloomy and oppressive only to those who had time and leisure to weigh the burden of the hours. There were, of course, even in this second winter, some of those discomforts and dangers of which the reader has heard enough, and which lead him when he reads of life in the frozen regions to think of ice-floes rather than of a room in which comfort is quite possible. We had, indeed, the usual inconveniences. As early as the middle of October the skylight was so covered with frost that we could scarcely read even at noon. On the 20th of that month we were obliged to keep the lamps constantly burning, and to close in the skylight, which brought night into the mess-room before the night of Nature had arrived. By the middle of November the condensation of moisture was perceptible, and our bed-clothes were frequently frozen to the wall, and had to be torn from it before we could go to rest. Yet what signified all this? We all slept soundly notwithstanding, and during the day had to complain rather of warmth than of cold. The condition of the crew, however, was not so happy. We could not follow the example set by Hayes and others of removing the contents of the hold to the land, and so transforming it into quarters for the men. On board theTegetthoffwe suffered some of the evils of over-population, and the moisture was somuch increased from it, that some of the berths were completely saturated. The employment of hammocks would perhaps avert this evil.

IN THE MESS-ROOM.

11. The number of those afflicted with scurvy decreased with the approach of spring. Their gums recovered their fresh and natural appearance, and the general weakness, the pains in the joints, the leaden weight of the feet, the depression of spirits—symptoms of this terrible malady—abated, and the scorbutic marks disappeared from their bodies. Pachtusow, when he wintered in Novaya Zemlya, so abundant in supplies of drift-wood, caused his people to use the bath once a week in a log house constructed on the land, as a preservative against scurvy, and had their inner clothing washed twice a week, but even these steps were insufficient to avert the malady. In our case baths so added to the moisture that we were obliged to put a stop to them, and our under-garments could be changed only as our stock of thempermitted. Hence we could hope to prevent the spread of scurvy only by the improvement of our diet. Several hundred-weight of potatoes and a large supply of preserved meat had been kept in store for the second winter. These now came into use, and were the more welcome as our supply of lemon-juice—the most important preservative against scurvy—was diminishing. By the advice of our physician, Dr. Kepes, we departed from the maxim, so generally adhered to in Arctic expeditions, of avoiding spirituous liquors. From the beginning of October our men daily received rations of brandy. When I compare the sanitary condition of the crew of theTegetthoffwith the better state of that of theGermania, I attribute this to the lesser power of resistance to disease in some of our people on board theTegetthoffand to the moral depression so easily explained by our disasters in this ship.

12. The Arctic voyager is exposed to no disease so much as to scurvy. Its appearance among a crew exercises a most untoward influence. Its causes are still but little known; the means, however, of combating it are numerous. It is no longer the scourge it was in the days of Barentz, when he and all his men were attacked with it on the short summer excursion of 1595, or when in Munk’s expedition of 1619 all died but two. In Behring’s expedition of 1741, out of seventy-six men, forty-two were attacked and thirty died. In Tschirikoff’s summer expedition during that same year (1741), out of seventy men, twenty died. Rossmyslow, who passed the winter of 1768-69 in “Matoschkin-Schar,” lost seven out of thirteen men. When the disease gains the mastery, the utter incapacity of the expedition for further exploration follows as a necessary consequence. Lassinius, who was sent out to explore Novaya Zemlya in 1819, had to return in the height of summer, all his men having fallen down with the scurvy. This disease has been a frightful enemy to expeditions which have wintered in that region, and carried off numerous victims. All these, it is true, were miserably equipped, and depended on the medicinal virtues of the “Löffel-kraut” of that country for remedies against the disease. In 1832-33 Pachtusow, wintering in the south of the island, out of ten men lost three; in 1834-35, two more died of the same disease. In the expedition of Ziwolka and Mojsejew, 1838-39, the scurvy gainedsuch mastery that at the end of February half of the crew were attacked, and Ziwolka himself with eight men died. Parry regarded damp, especially damp bedding, as the principal cause of the malady. During his wintering at Melville Island he found sorrel an effective remedy or palliative. He attributed the greatest anti-scorbutic effect to beer; and according to him and to most of the English expeditions, beer and wine take the place of brandy. The disease generally has a fatal issue when there has been excessive loss of blood, or when dropsy supervenes. Most of Ross’s second expedition suffered more or less from it, and the experience of that expedition showed that vegetable nourishment alone was not competent to make head against it. Ross regarded the addition of fish or seals to the ordinary diet as an effective preservative, and did not disdain the use of blubber for the same purpose. Lemon-juice, uncooked potatoes, fruit with much acidity, fresh vegetables and fresh meat, wine and yeast, exercise in the open air, and cheerfulness, have always proved sufficient to prevent its appearance, or at any rate to render it improbable. But however valuable these may be as preventives, they almost cease to have any effect when the disease has once broken out. The lime-juice must be fresh, and, like vinegar, be taken in as concentrated a form as possible. It is decomposed and useless by being kept too long, and also by the action of frost. This was the case with the lemon-juice which Sir John Ross found among the stores of theFury. An anti-scorbutic effect has been attributed also—and with justice—to the chewing of tobacco. It appears that liability to scurvy is very different among different races, and that neither vegetable nor animal food is an absolute preservative. The Eskimos, and even the Lapps, who seldom or never use vegetables, are almost exempt from it, and McClure’s men fell down with it in their second winter, although they had fresh meat three times a week. Steller relates that in Kamschatka scurvy attacks strangers only, but not the natives, who live largely on vegetables; he states also, that the scurvy when it does appear among strangers and visitors there, is cured by a diet of the fresh fish of spring.

1. An unbroken sleep for the whole winter would, undoubtedly, be a blessing to the Arctic navigator, and the most energetic among us resigned himself to slumber for a few hours in the afternoon—the profane time of the day for all zones of the earth—especially after the coming in of the New Year, when the long unbroken night is intensely felt. The darkness diminished very gradually, and as the weather was frequently cloudy and dull, it was little lessened by the full moon, which we had at the beginning of January and February. December 26, we were able to read only the title ofNew Free Press, at the distance of a few inches, but not a word of Vogt’sGeology. January 11, the word Geology on the title of that book was discernible in clear weather, but only when the book was held up to the light of the midday twilight. On the following day it was as dark at nine o’clock in the morning as at noon on December 1st. The moon returned again on the 24th of January, and after it was four days old we could distinguish the common print of the “Press” by its light, and for the first time read off the degrees of the thermometer without artificial means. During the whole of the month we had alternations of high temperatures and snow-drifting, and at the end of it the wind dropped and the cold became exceedingly great, causing the ice to break up to the south of our position. It would be difficult to give in an illustration any notion of the wonderful forms produced by the twilight, and its glowing colour-effects, and quite impossible to describe the blaze of themeridian heavens, while deep shadows still lay over the ice-plains and a dark ridge fringed and closed the horizon.

2. At noon on the 23rd of February the rolling mists glowed with a red light, announcing the reappearance of the sun. The next day the sun himself, raised and distorted into an oval shape, appeared above the horizon about 10 A.M. Again there was spread over the snow that magical rosy hue, those bright azure shadows, which impart a poetical character even to the landscape of the frozen north. The return of the sun was this year the deliverance from our long night of 125 days.[25]Anxiously had we waited his return, and joyously we greeted it, but not with the frenzied feelings of the previous year. Then the reappearance of the sun was tantamount almost to a deliverance from hell itself; but now the sun was nothing to us but as a means to an end: would it enable us to begin our sledge-journeys to explore the Kaiser Franz-Josef Land? The mere thought of the possibility of making new discoveries threw us into a feverish impatience, and our fears became intense lest the ship with its floe should drift away and frustrate the execution of our plans just as they seemed feasible.

3. On that same day Lieutenant Weyprecht and I resolved to abandon the ship after the termination of our projected sledge-journeys of discovery, and to attempt to return to Europe by means of the boats and sledges. No arguments were needed to convince every one of the ship’s company of the absolute necessity of this resolution. Our ship lay on its icy elevation, beyond the power of man to liberate her, and the provisions would not be sufficient to sustain us for another year. But fear lest the state of our health should greatly deteriorate in a third winter spoke more forcibly than anything else in favour of our decision. When we looked at our medical stores, once so ample, now so reduced, at the few bottles of lemon-juice we could count on, all saw the impossibility of our remaining longer in these latitudes. The melancholy issue of Franklin’s expedition forced itself on ourmind as an instructive example and warning. In all likelihood that ill-fated expedition had delayed its return a year longer than it should have done, and began it in so weakened a condition, that it was next to an impossibility that they should have succeeded in their purpose. We began to be pinched also in many of our stores, in spite of the greatest economy in their use. To add to our perils, the doctor drew a sad picture of the sanitary condition of our crew. Of nineteen men, several had fallen sick: Krisch still suffered from scurvy and consumption; Marola from the first scorbutic symptoms; Fallesich from its consequences; Vecerina from the utter inability to move his lower extremities produced by the same malady; Palmich from a constant tendency to it and the contraction of his lower extremities; Pospischill from lung disease; and Haller from a rheumatic affection of his extremities which almost incapacitated him for any exertion.

1. The Northern lights had shone for these two winters with incomparable splendour, not, indeed, with the quiet diverging beams, sometimes observed in our northern latitudes, and different also from the phenomena which have been seen and noted in recent years, even in Central Europe; they resembled rather those we saw in East Greenland, save that the brilliancy and intensity of their colours were far greater.

2. It is very difficult to characterize the forms of this phenomenon, not only because they are manifold, but because they are constantly changing. Sometimes the Aurora appears like flaming arches with glowing balls of light; sometimes in irregular meridians painted on the heavens, sometimes in brilliant bands and patches of light on the sky. Each of these forms was frequently developed from a different one, but towards morning the last-named appearance was the most general.

3. The movement of the waves of light gave the impression that they were the sport of winds, and their sudden and rapid rise resembled the uprising of whirling vapours, such as the Geysers might send forth, which generally assumed the form of enormous flames, except that they were transparent and mist-like. In many cases the Aurora much resembled a flash of summer lightning conceived as permanent. It appeared almost always in the south, and was visible from September till March, during which period it was to us the only external excitement which we had. The illuminating power of the Aurora, when its colours were most brilliant and intense, was inferior to the illuminating power of the full moon.Some rare cases excepted, this was either so small or so transitory, that it had no influence on the darkness of our long winter nights. Like a stream, or in brilliant convolutions, the light rushed over the firmament, as well from east to west as from west to east. The formation of the corona (or the convergence of the streamers in the direction of the inclination needle) was sudden, and short in its duration, and frequently happened more than once in the course of a night. Its greatest intensity was from eight till ten o’clock at night. It was never accompanied with sound.[26]The sketch we have given represents one of its most characteristic forms. The inner parts of the flames are usually whitish green, and their edge on the upper side red, on the lower green.

4. Brilliant auroras were generally succeeded by bad weather. Those on the other hand which did not rise to any great height in the sky, or which did not show any special mobility, were regarded as the precursors of calms. None of the theories which have been ventilated are in exact accordance with all the manifestations of these northern lights. The undulating motion of their waves of light, their rolling forth like pillars of smoke driven by winds, has hitherto remained unexplained. Although electrical processes, still unknown, seem to be the main causes of the Aurora, atmospheric vapours may, however, have a considerable part in producing the phenomenon; and nothing so much favours this supposition as the indefinite form in which it often appears. Its occurrence during the day,i.e.light clouds with its characteristic movement, has been rather imagined than actually observed. The transition of white clouds into auroral forms at night has never at least been satisfactorily proved. Falling stars pass through the northern lights without producing any perceptible effect, or undergoing any change. A dirty sulphur yellow was characteristic of all auroras when the sky was overcast with mists or when they were seen by moonlight. In clear weather they were colourless.

THE AURORA DURING THE ICE PRESSURE.

5. Their influence on the magnetic needle was very variable. While the quiescent and regular arches had little or no effect, the quicker and more fitful streamers, especially when accompanied with prismatic colours, produced great disturbance in it. Sir John Ross remarked, that the aurora when tinged with deep red colour had a great effect on it, although he completely stultifies his observation by his supposition, that the phenomenon was produced by rays of the sun reflected on the vast fields of snow and ice surrounding the Pole. Parry in 1820 could discover no effect from it either on the magnetic needle or on the electrometer. During the winter of 1872-3, the character of the northern lights was much altered, though their colour remained constant. At first they consisted chiefly of bands of light, running from the south-northwards. At a later period of that winter they assumed for the most part the appearance of coronæ, and then their direction was from the north southwards. During the voyage of theTegetthoffthe observations of the behaviour of these lights and of the magnetic constants were taken by Weyprecht, Brosch, and Orel by means of a magnetic theodolite, a dipping needle, and three variation instruments. The extraordinary disturbances of the needle rendered the determination of exact mean values for the magnetic constants impossible. The diminution of their intensity was considerable during the continuance of auroras. In 79° 51′ N. Lat. and 58° 56′ E. Long. the declination amounted to 19½° E. and the inclination to 82° 22′. The ice-pressures which occurred in December, 1873together with the tedious preliminaries in fixing the magnetic instruments, prevented these officers from carrying out their labours regularly till the next month. The following are the principal results of these observations: (1) The magnetic disturbances were of extraordinary magnitude and frequency. (2) They were closely connected with the aurora; and they were greater as the motion of the rays was more rapid and fitful, and the prismatic colours more intense. Quiescent and regular arches, without changing rays or streamers, exercise almost no influence on the needle. (3) In all the disturbances the declination needle moved towards the east, and the horizontal intensity decreased while the inclination increased.

6. In spite of the extreme difficulty of describing the appearances of those fitful and changing lights, I believe that the following description of Lieutenant Weyprecht will be found equally faithful and effective:—

“There in the south, low on the horizon, stands a faint arch of light. It looks as it were the upper limit of a dark segment of a circle; but the stars which shine through it in undiminished brilliancy convince us that the darkness of the segment is a delusion produced by contrast. Gradually the arch of light grows in intensity and rises to the zenith. It is perfectly regular; its two ends almost touch the horizon and advance to the east and west in proportion as the arch rises. No beams are to be discovered in it, but the whole consists of an almost uniform light of a delicious tender colour. It is transparent white with a shade of light green, not unlike the pale green of a young plant which germinates in the dark. The light of the moon appears yellow, contrasted with this tender colour so pleasing to the eye, and so indescribable in words, a colour which nature appears to have given only to the Polar regions by way of compensation. The arch is broad, thrice the breadth, perhaps, of the rainbow, and its distinctly marked edges are strongly defined on the profound darkness of the Arctic heavens. The stars shine through it with undiminished brilliancy. The arch mounts higher and higher. An air of repose seems spread over the whole phenomenon; here and there only a wave of light rolls slowly from one side to the other. It begins to grow clear over the ice; some of its groups are discernible. The arch is still distant from the zenith; a second detaches itself from the dark segment, and this is gradually succeeded by others. All now rise towards the zenith; the first passes beyond it, then sinks slowly towards the northern horizon and as it sinks loses its intensity. Arches of light are now stretched over the whole heavens; seven are apparent at the same time on the sky, though of inferior intensity. The lower they sink towards the north, the paler they grow, till at last they utterly fade away. Often they all return over the zenith, and become extinct, just as they came.

“It is seldom, however, that an aurora runs a course so calm and so regular. The typical dark segment which wesee in treatises on the subject, in most cases does not exist. A thin bank of clouds lies on the horizon. The upper edge is illuminated; out of it is developed a band of light, which expands, increases in intensity of colour, and rises to the zenith. The colour is the same as in the arch, but the intensity of the colour is stronger. The colours of the band change in a never-ceasing play, but place and form remain unaltered. The band is broad and its intense pale green stands out with wonderful beauty on the dark background. Now the band is twisted into many convolutions, but the innermost folds are still to be seen distinctly through the others. Waves of light continually undulate rapidly through its whole extent, sometimes from right to left, sometimes from left to right. Then again it rolls itself up in graceful folds. It seems almost as if breezes high in the air played and sported with the broad flaming streamers, the ends of which are lost far off on the horizon. The light grows in intensity, the waves of light follow each other more rapidly, prismatic colours appear on the upper and lower edge of the band, the brilliant white of the centre is inclosed between narrow stripes of red and green. Out of one band have now grown two. The upper continually approaches the zenith, rays begin to shoot forth from it towards a point near the zenith, to which the south pole of the magnetic needle, freely suspended, points. The band has nearly reached it, and now begins a brilliant play of rays lasting for a short time, the central point of which is the magnetic pole—a sign of the intimate connection of the whole phenomenon with the magnetic forces of the earth. Round the magnetic pole short rays flash and flare on all sides; prismatic colours are discernible on all their edges; longer and shorter rays alternate with each other; waves of light roll round it as a centre. What we see is the auroral corona; and it is almost always seen when a band passes over the magnetic pole. This peculiar phenomenon lasts but a short time—the band now lies on the northern side of the firmament; gradually it sinks, and pales as it sinks; it returns again to the south to change and play as before. So it goes on for hours; the aurora incessantly changes place, form, and intensity. It often entirely disappears for a short time only to appear again suddenly, without the observersclearly perceiving how it came and where it went: simply—it is there.

“But the band is often seen in a perfectly different form. Frequently it consists of single rays, which, standing close together, point in an almost parallel direction towards the magnetic pole. These become more intensely bright with each successive wave of light; hence each ray appears to flash and dart continually, and their green and red edges dance up and down as the waves of light run through them. Often again the rays extend through the whole length of the band and reach almost up to the magnetic pole. These are sharply marked but lighter in colour than the band itself, and in this particular form they are at some distance from each other. Their colour is yellow, and it seems as if thousands of slender threads of gold were stretched across the firmament. A glorious veil of transparent light is spread over the starry heavens; the threads of light with which this veil is woven are distinctly marked on the dark background; its lower border is a broad, intensely white band, edged with green and red, which twists and turns in constant motion. A violet-coloured auroral vapour is often seen simultaneously on different parts of the sky.

“Or again, there has been tempestuous weather, and it is now—let us suppose—passing away. Below on the ice the wind has fallen, but the clouds are still driving rapidly across the sky, so that in the upper regions its force is not yet laid. Over the ice it becomes somewhat clear; behind the clouds appears an aurora amid the darkness of the night. Stars twinkle here and there; through the openings of the clouds we see the dark firmament and the rays of the aurora chasing one another towards the zenith. The heavy clouds disperse; mist-like masses drive on before the wind. Fragments of the northern lights are strewn on every side; it seems, as if the storm had torn the aurora bands to tatters and was driving them hither and thither across the sky. These threads change form and place with incredible rapidity. Here is one! lo, it is gone! scarcely has it vanished before it appears again in another place. Through these fragments drive the waves of light; one moment they are scarcely visible, in the next they shine with intense brilliancy. Buttheir light is no longer that glorious pale green, it is a dull yellow. It is often difficult to distinguish what is aurora and what is vapour—the illuminated mists as they fly past are scarcely distinguishable from the auroral vapour which comes and goes on every side.

“But, again another form. Bands of every possible form and intensity have been driving over the heavens. It is now eight o’clock at night, the hour of the greatest intensity of the northern lights. For a moment some bundles of rays only are to be seen in the sky. In the south, a faint scarcely-observable band lies close to the horizon. All at once it rises rapidly and spreads east and west. The waves of light begin to dart and shoot; some rays mount towards the zenith. For a short time it remains stationary, then suddenly springs to life. The waves of light drive violently from east to west; the edges assume a deep red and green colour, and dance up and down. The rays shoot up more rapidly; they become shorter; all rise together and approach nearer and nearer to the magnetic pole. It looks as if there were a race among the rays, and that each aspired to reach the pole first. And now the point is reached, and they shoot out on every side, to the north and the south, to the east and the west. Do the rays shoot from above downwards, or from below upwards? Who can distinguish? From the centre issues a sea of flames; is that sea red, white, or green? Who can say?—it is all three colours at the same moment! The rays reach almost to the horizon; the whole sky is in flames. Nature displays before us such an exhibition of fireworks as transcends the powers of imagination to conceive. Involuntarily we listen; such a spectacle must, we think, be accompanied with sound. But unbroken stillness prevails, not the least sound strikes on the ear. Once more it becomes clear over the ice, and the whole phenomenon has disappeared with the same inconceivable rapidity with which it came, and gloomy night has again stretched her dark veil over everything. This was the aurora of the coming storm—the aurora in its fullest splendour. No pencil can draw it, no colours can paint it, and no words can describe it in all its magnificence. And here below stand we poor men, and speak of knowledge and progress, andpride ourselves on the understanding with which we extort from Nature her mysteries. We stand and gaze on the mystery which Nature has written for us in flaming letters on the dark vault of night, and ultimately we can only wonder and confess that, in truth, we know nothing of it.”

THE SLEDGE JOURNEYS.

Transcriber’s Note: The map is clickable for a larger version, if the device you’re reading this on supports that.ORIGINAL MAPof theKAISER FRANZ JOSEF LANDsurveyed byJULIUS PAYER.

Transcriber’s Note: The map is clickable for a larger version, if the device you’re reading this on supports that.

ORIGINAL MAPof theKAISER FRANZ JOSEF LANDsurveyed byJULIUS PAYER.

1. The necessity of returning home admitted of no question; but the exploration of the Land of which we had seen hardly anything, beyond the cliffs that lay in our immediate neighbourhood, was also felt to be a necessity. That land, which we were all predisposed to imagine as stretching far beyond this wall of rocks,—of what did it consist? Was it an island or a group of islands? And those white masses lying on these lofty ranges, were they glaciers? To these questions no one as yet could give an answer. But of this there could be neither doubt nor question, that we could not count on our floe for a moment, and that those were lost who were not on board the ship if the floe with the ship began to drift. On the 1st of March the Tyrolese announced, that a fissure had appeared half-way between the ship and the shore, and the danger of being cut off became the chief subject of talk, both in the cabin of the officers and in the quarters of the men. When, however, we considered the importance of the venture, all hesitation disappeared, and there was not a man in the ship who would not have made his apprehensions subordinate to the necessity of exploration.

2. As the commander of the expedition on shore, I explained to the council we held on the 24th of February, my plan for the projected sledge-journeys, namely: that the sledge-parties count on the means of escape being left behind to supplement those they may have at their command, and that the depositing of these means be completed before the sledge-parties start; that the expeditions shall begin between the10th and 20th of March, be continued for six or seven weeks, and take, if possible, the following directions:—one along the coast towards the North, a second towards the West, and a third into the interior, and each to be concluded by the ascent of a dominating height; that in the event of the sledge-parties not finding the ship on their return, they should attempt to go back at once to Europe, and only under the most urgent circumstances pass a third winter in the ice, though the superfluous stores, which were to be transported to the land, would to a certain extent enable them to do this. I engaged also not to extend these journeys to a date which would prevent the men recruiting their strength before the return of the whole expedition to Europe.

3. The exploration of the strange land having been resolved on, the greatest activity reigned in the ship. There was not a man on board theTegetthoffwho was not eager to prepare for the sledge-journeys, though all knew that besides the two Tyrolese only four men were to accompany me. Every one longed to take part in the exploration of the unknown land, and the monotony of our life was now exchanged for a state of great excitement; a great venture had been resolved on, and expectations rose with the possibility of discoveries. The comparatively short period for which our stores had now to last enabled us to indulge in what, under the circumstances, might be called luxury. We could thus dispose of more than two hundred bottles of wine, which had been reserved for the sick in the event of a third winter being passed in the ice. Three-and-twenty men now in three months drank two hundred bottles of wine and smoked like chimneys the superfluous stores of cigars and tobacco. Potatoes, preserved vegetables and fruit, were daily on our table. Our allowance of rum was increased; lights were freely burnt in every corner, and the novel sensation of luxury was universal.

4. While we were all living as if the oppressive load under which we had lain so long had suddenly been removed, in these days of general hilarity and amid the excitement of new plans, our comrade Krisch drew toward his sad and melancholy end. From the beginning of February his malady had made great progress. His body was covered with scorbutic spots; but in spite of all this the hope of speedyrecovery constantly animated our afflicted companion, who set us a lofty example of the fulfilment of duty by his zealous activity. In the summer, though already under the influence of his mortal disease, he had been busy in the construction of new ice-saws and borers, in order that he might contribute something to the liberation of the ship, and when he heard of the projected expeditions to Franz-Josef Land, he gathered sufficient strength to extort from me the assurance that I would take him with me. But his end was surely though slowly drawing on; his nights were sleepless, and pain left him neither day nor night. At the beginning of March a state of unconsciousness supervened, and the action of his diseased lungs was now to be heard in an uninterrupted rattling in his throat. Moments of mental clearness became more infrequent in his delirium; help had become impossible; all the care of our physician and of the watchers, who never left him, was now directed merely to the alleviation of his sufferings. He lingered till we returned from our first sledge expedition on the 16th of March.

KRISCH, THE ENGINEER.

1. The sledge is pre-eminently the means of geographical exploration in high latitudes, and as discovery now forms the main purpose of Polar expeditions, it may be important to describe clearly and precisely the system we followed, that others may either adopt or improve on our methods. Thus I will enter into many details, not in order to dwell on the inconveniences incident to this mode of travelling, but to show how the greatest amount of safety and protection may be secured to the sledge-party.

2. Sledge-journeys presuppose that the ship is safe and secure in a winter harbour. A ship which has not yet completed its summer voyage should avoid them as exceedingly hazardous; and as a principle such expeditions are to be absolutely declined by a ship which is beset in the ice; the success which may have attended some must by no means stimulate others to imitate them. Their object is the exploration of lands still unknown or imperfectly known. They presuppose also the existence of ice, closely adhering to a coast, on which the journeys are performed, and this coast-line must run in a northerly direction, if the North Pole be the goal of discovery. Though sledge-parties follow the coast-line they actually travel on the frozen sea; for it is never safe to abandon that line and make for pack-ice at a distance from it. The crossing of glaciers, however small may be their inclination, is always attended with danger; and if the route be stopped by a stretch of land whose extent forbids dragging, it is of course impossible to proceed. The roughness of the land and its insufficient covering of snoweven in winter sufficiently explain this. A sledge cannot, for any considerable length of time, be dragged up an inclination exceeding two or three degrees.

3. The season of the year for sledging must depend on the climate of particular Arctic localities, and the capacity of the men to endure low temperatures during the night-camping, and driving snow during the march. It is advisable, when more than one year is to be spent in the ice, to begin the more extended sledge-journeys in the first year, because the capacities of Europeans to endure cold rather decrease than increase. Sir John Ross, for example, says that his people at the beginning of a third winter were incapable of bearing hardships, especially those of travelling on the ice. The best season for sledging must always be that time of the year when snow-storms are infrequent, for even a healthy and seasoned party will more easily confront a very low temperature than driving snow-storms. As a rule, these conditions are found most perfectly in autumn; and I do not understand the objection which Hayes makes to this season as being the most damp; whereas as a matter of fact it is the least so. Autumn journeys are preferable to those in spring, both with respect to climate and the state of the road; only they must be commenced early, on account of the rapidly decreasing length of the days.[27]The darkness of winter puts an end to all sledging, and the excessive cold of spring renders it difficult. Summer makes it impossible by breaking up the land-ice, or impedes it by transforming the snow into thaw-water and sludge. Next to autumn, therefore, the latter part of March, all April, and a part of May, are most adapted for this purpose. It must at the same time be remarked, that Captain Lyon (1822) and Dr. Kane regarded March as peculiarly dangerous on account of the prevalence of storms.

4. Next to the season, the state of the snow road, depending on the hardening action of wind and cold, has to be considered. The cold should not vary more than from -2° to -24° F., because greater frost transforms the smooth evaporating surface of snow into a rough plain, bestrewed with sharp pointed crystals, so that the sledge instead of gliding alongencounters the friction, as if of a sandstone surface, and stops at the least obstacle. Snow of an ivory-like smoothness rarely occurs; on the contrary, we find the snow in deep layers as fine as powder, into which we sink knee-deep, or among barriers of hummocks, miles in extent, which impose enormous détours in the transport of the baggage. During the journey from 2° to 13° below zero F. constitutes the pleasantest temperature, and even the nights, under this condition, are passed without inconvenience by a party inured to exposure. Snow-storms, however, in their mildest form—snow-drifting—are, at this moderate temperature, distressing and dangerous. In fact, among all the contingencies which may occur during a Polar expedition, there is no severer test of enduring perseverance than dragging a sledge in the face of drifting snow at a temperature from 13° to 35° below zero F.

5. The ship in its winter harbour is the only place of refuge, in all cases where a meeting with Eskimos cannot be counted on. Except for the accidents of hunting, on which no dependence should be placed, the country itself affords no kind of means of subsistence; hence all the necessaries of life must be carried in the sledges. The heavily laden sledge becomes in truth a ship of the icy wastes, and its loss involves the destruction of the whole party. In order to lighten its load and yet prolong the journey as much as possible, supplies of provisions are often deposited along the routes to be traversed. This may be done, either by previous shorter journeys, or by leaving behind a part of the provisions which have been taken from the ship, or by burying the product of the chase in the manner adopted by fur-hunters and Indians. The danger to such stores from the inroads of bears or the breaking up of the ice must be guarded against by a careful selection of localities; and the place being chosen, the provisions should either be buried four feet deep in snow between steep rocks, somewhat above the level of the sea, or the bags containing them should be suspended on the inaccessible faces of the rocks. The choice of an elevated point is some security against visits from bears. But it is never advisable to build confidently on finding the depôt, or to make the possibility of return dependent on this contingency. A small stock of the necessaries of life should always be kept in reserve, as aprudent precaution in case the depôt should be destroyed. If however the depôts remain untouched and uninjured, and their numbers be considerable, the duration of the journey, which can be prolonged for thirty or forty days only where provisions are carried in the sledges, may thus be doubled in extent. The depôts for journeys in the spring are often formed in the preceding autumn, though their preservation is of course exposed to great risk.

6. Sledges are dragged sometimes by men and dogs conjointly, sometimes by men without dogs, or by dogs alone. Reindeer are found to be unfit for sledge dragging; although Parry in former days, and Nordenskjöld more recently, frequently attempted to employ them in this service. Though a reindeer is able to make with a sledge as many as 120 miles in three days, it cannot continue such efforts without long periods of repose, nor drag the heavy loads which are requisite in longer journeys. Besides this, he who has had any experience in this mode of travelling, knows the unaccountable capriciousness of these animals, their stubbornness, and the difficulty of feeding them. Natives alone are able to manage them, while to strangers they refuse subjection. When the sledges are dragged by men alone, unexpected contingencies are less to be apprehended, but at the same time their rate of progress is diminished. In an expedition calculated to last a month, ten miles constitute the average day’s march, when circumstances are favourable. If the length of the journey be prolonged, this average will be considerably diminished. The combination of men and dogs in the work of dragging accelerates the speed. With regard to the men employed in this work, it is advisable to engage experienced mountaineers[28]of great bodily strength, such men being able to do work for which, it is admitted, sailors have neither training nor inclination.

7. No form of sledge travelling, when measured by results, can be compared with sledging by the help of dogs alone; for this method enables us to compass the greatest possible distance, and diminishes the dead-weight of the load in the sledge. Besides this, dogs are not only active but tractable;they show no fear; they can endure hunger longer than men, even while making great exertions; they neither drink nor smoke; neither fuel for the stove to liquefy the snow, nor tent, nor sleeping bag, need be taken for them; none, in fact, of those many little things which are indispensable for men. In extreme necessity they may be even used for food. And since a strong dog is able to drag, even for a long journey, double of what he needs for his own support, the surplus falls to the share of the man who accompanies him, and who is able, therefore, to prolong his absence from the ship. Without considering the forced marches which Englishmen, Americans, and Russians have frequently made on the ice with a number of dogs, the employment of a few dogs in sledge expeditions has such conspicuous advantage over teams of men, that I would earnestly recommend the following method of procedure: two teams of dogs, each of two or four strong Newfoundlands, should be employed, one to be driven by the leader of the expedition and the other by one of the most experienced and trustworthy of the party. Each sledge should carry at starting, a weight of from 4 to 7 cwt., i.e. provisions for thirty to fifty days, only needing a slight supplement from the products of the chase. Sixteen miles a day, on an average, may easily be thus accomplished, especially if the rest of the party attached to each sledge walk on before their respective teams. Distances varying from 500 to 800 miles may thus be reached, while 300 or at the most 500 miles are all that men alone in the same time can perform. Journeys of this kind require much experience, so that those men only are serviceable who have much practical acquaintance with life in the Arctic wastes, and not merely with life as it is in the ship, but who are inured to fatigues and skilled in the use of those precautions which distance from the ship imperatively demands during the prevalence of extreme cold. With regard to the route itself, whenever the object is the reaching of higher latitudes and the exploration of a still unknown country, it is advisable to choose one from four to eight miles distant from the land. The search for a route is greatly facilitated whenever we can ascend dominating heights to enable us to determine our position. Such a course not only saves us from the necessityof making détours, but affords the only possibility of being able to touch the land at desirable points and of ascertaining the character of the intervening districts. A survey may be made either by triangulation, the base being measured by those who remain behind in the ship and the summits of the mountains serving as the points of the triangles, or by the determination of the geographical latitude and longitude of the different spots. The combination of both methods is of course most desirable.

8. The following instruments may be employed in sledge journeys, according to the degree of exactness which is required: a small universal instrument, a sextant with an artificial horizon, a pocket chronometer, an azimuth compass, a boat compass of simple construction, an alcohol and mercurial thermometer, and two small aneroids.

1. The equipment of a sledge expedition on a large scale demands an amount of circumspection and precision which experience alone can give, and its safety and success may be endangered by the neglect of apparently trifling precautions. At a distance from the ship the most formidable dangers may arise, from allowing the matches to become damp, from the leaking or the loss of a vessel containing spirit, from the setting fire to a tent, which only too probably may happen from the carelessness of the cook, to say nothing of those yet greater perils,—the inability of some of the party to march, the destruction of depôts of provisions by bears, or the breaking in of the sea. The first principle in fitting out such an expedition should be the rejection of everything not absolutely necessary for the support of life, the instruments only excepted; and the second, that the whole of the travelling gear should be of the most perfect and convenient form. The departure from these rules contributed, among other things, to the melancholy issue of the Franklin expedition. McClintock speaks most emphatically of the evils of over-loading with things not absolutely necessary. The success of an undertaking may be defeated by the neglect even of things apparently insignificant. Mojsejew’s sledge expedition along the coast of Novaya Zemlya in 1839 was a proof and illustration of this. It was wrecked within a few days by the snow-blindness of the entire party, caused by their want of snow-spectacles. If we except the journeys of the Russian explorers of the Siberian coast, carried out, however, at the sacrifice of the whole nomad population, and ofall the dogs and reindeer of North Asia—from which to this day the exhausted country has not recovered—the merit of the organization of sledge expeditions belongs pre-eminently to the English. It was by Parry and James Ross that those experiments with sledges were begun, which have since been brought nearly to perfection by McClintock.[29]The method thus perfected serves to this day as a pattern to be imitated, as it enables a party of men, inured to hardships and fatigues, to pass many weeks without the help of those resources which only a ship in such icy wastes can afford. I will now endeavour to describe with sufficient detail the equipment of our sledges in the journeys we carried out.

2. The changeableness of the weather during the season for sledging, and the character of our expeditions, required the employment of three sledges of different sizes. The smallest of these was a dog-sledge, and the two others were larger and intended to be drawn by men. The runners were respectively 6, 8 and 11 feet long, and 1½, 2 and 2¾ inches broad[30]—gently curved at each end—and about one foot high, so as to raise the lading above the snow. The sledges were constructed of the best ash, and carried loads amounting to 7, 12, and 20 cwts. respectively. The two runners were fastened together by two strong front boards, and by four cross-pieces of wood firmly lashed to the upright standards of the sledge, which were themselves dovetailed into the runners. Screws were sparingly used, and chiefly in the fittings of the two horns of the sledge, and of the rail on which the rifles were suspended, and which also was used to push and guide the sledge. The rail was, therefore, of considerable strength, in order to withstand the pressure of a man’s force. The runners were shod with steel carefully riveted on. The accompanying sketch shows the manner in which a sledge is drawn by ateam of men and dogs combined. Those who take the longest steps in the march should precede, and the less active should be placed in the middle, so that any slackness may be easily detected; for in a sledge journey it is disgraceful to draw a weight less than the weight of what we can eat. The centre trace should never be grasped, as this diminishes the force of the pull.

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