Wild Adventures round the Pole
Page 32
oldSilas hasn't come across, from Baffin's Bay to Kamschatka, from lonelySpitzbergen in the north to Iceland in the south."
"And so you've been in Spitzbergen, have you?" said McBain.
"Why, bless you, yes," replied Silas. "It was there I was in at thedeath of the great white whale, and a sad day it was for us, I can tellyou. He was white with age. [Very old whales are sometimes found inthe far northern seas covered with a kind of parasite, which gives thema white or light-grey appearance.] I should think he couldn't have beenmuch under a hundred years old, and just as sly and wary as a hundredand forty foxes all rolled in to one. Many and many a boat had tried tocatch him, but he had a way of diving and doubling to avoid the harpoonsthat some believed was rather more than natural; then when you thoughthe was miles and miles away, pop! up he would come among the very midstof the boats, and a funny thing it would be if he didn't knock one o'them to smithereens with that tail o' his. We killed him though. Ourskipper himself speared him, but it was hours after that before he died.And before he died terrible was the revenge he took on his destroyers.Gentlemen, Silas Grig has no language in his vocabulary to describe thevicious wrath of that sea-demon. I think I see him now as he rose tothe surface, blowing blood and spray, snorting with fury, with fireseeming to flash out of his little evil eyes. We in the boats thoughtour last hour had come, as he ploughed down through us. But our heartsstood still with fear and dread when he dashed past us and made for theship itself. Onward with lightning speed went the brute, leaving a wakeastern such as a man-o'-war might have left.
"Our craft--a small brig--was lying with her foreyard aback. She lookedas if sleeping on the gently rippling water. No one spoke in the boats,every eye was fixed on our ship--our home, and on the fearful monsteradvancing to attack her. We could see that the people left on the brigknew the whole extent of their danger, for they seemed all on deck.There were wild shouts, and guns were fired, but nothing availed toavert the catastrophe. Then, oh! the sad, despairing cry that rose toheaven from that doomed ship! It seems to ring in my ears whenever Ithink of it. The whale struck her right amidships, and she went overand down at once. No soul was saved; and when we rode up to the spot,there was nothing to be seen, and nothing to be heard, save the body ofthe great white whale, dead, on his side, with the waves lap-lappingagainst it as it slowly rose and fell.
"For six long, cold, weary days we lived in the open boats, feeding onthe flesh of the seals we happened to kill, and quenching our thirstwith the snow we gathered from the ice. When we had almost despaired ofbeing saved, for we were far to the nor'ard and east of the usualfishing-grounds, a Norwegian walrus-hunter picked us up, and landed usat last, in midwinter, on a dreary shore in Lapland. But, gentlemen,that is nothing to what we, the survivors of the ill-fated _JonathanGrey_, suffered some years afterwards. The ship got `in the nips'coming out o' the pack. We were crushed just as you might crash anegg-shell between your fingers. Thirty of us embarked upon the veryiceberg that had caused our ruin, with two casks of biscuit, and hardlyclothes enough to cover us. Then it came on to blow, and, huddledtogether in the centre of the berg, we were blown out to sea, trying invain to keep each other warm, and defend ourselves from the cruel coldseas that dashed over us, heavier than lead, more remorseless than thegrave. Fifteen days were we on the berg, and every day some one droppedoff, ay, and the living seemed to envy the quiet, calm sleep of thedead. A sail in sight at last; and how many of us, think you, werealive to see it? Three I only three! It was a year after this before Iwas fit to brave the Arctic seas again, and meanwhile I had met myPeggy--my little wife that is. Some difference, you will allow,gentlemen, between Silas Grig afloat on a solitary iceberg in a troublednorthern sea, and Silas strolling on the top of a breezy cliff in thebright moonlight of midsummer, with Peggy on his arm, and just as happyas the sea-birds.
"Were these the only times that I was cast away? No--for I lost my shipby fire once in the northern ice of Western Greenland, and it was twowhole years before either myself or my messmates placed foot again onBritish soil. There wasn't a ship anywhere near us, and the nearestsettlement was a colony of transported Danes, that lived about threehundred miles south of us. We saved all we could from the burningbarque, and that was little enough; then we constructed rough sledges,and tied our food and chattels thereon, and set out upon our long,dreary march. It took us well-nigh two months to accomplish ourjourney, for the way was a rough one, and the region was wild anddesolate in the extreme. It was late in autumn, and the sun shone byday, but his beams were sadly shorn by the falling snow. Five suns inall we could count at times, though four, you know, were merely mirages.We did not all reach the colony; indeed, many succumbed to the fatigueof the march, to frost-bites, and to scurvy; and we laid them to rest inhastily-dug graves, and the snow was their only winding-sheet. It wasmore than a year before we found a passage back to our own country, andkind though the poor people all were to us, the governor included, wehad to rough it, I can tell you. But you see, sailors who choose theArctic Seas as their cruising-grounds must expect to suffer at times.
"Bears, did you say? Thousands! I've counted as many as fifty at onetime on the ice, and I've had a few encounters with them too, myself,though I've known those that have had more. I've known men fight themsingle-handed, and come off scot-free, leaving Bruin dead on the ice.Dickie McInlay fought a bear with a seal-club. You may be sure the duelwasn't of his own proposing; but coming across the ice one day allalone, he rounded the corner of a hummock, and lo! and behold! there wasa monstrous bear washing the blood off his chops after eating a seal.
"`Ho! ho!' roared the bear. `I have dined, but you'll come in handy fordessert. Oho! Waugh, O! oh!'
"Dick was a little bit of a fellow, but his biceps was as big, round,and just as hard as a hawser.
"`If you come an inch nearer me,' cried Dickie, quite undaunted, `it'llbe a dear day's work for ye, Mr Bruin.'
"The bear crouched for a spring. He never did spring, though; butDickie did; and he will tell you to this day that he never couldunderstand how he managed to clear the space betwixt himself and thebear so speedily. Then there was a dull thud; Bruin never lifted headagain, for the iron of Dickie's club was planted deep into his brain.
"The doctor here," continued Silas, "can tell you what a terribly sharpand deadly weapon of offence a large amputating knife would prove, inthe hands of a powerful man, against any animal that ever lived. Butthe doctor I don't think would care to attack a bear with one."
"Indeed, no," said Sandy; "I would rather be excused."
"But the surgeon of the _North Star_ did," said Silas. "I was witnessmyself to the awful encounter. But the poor surgeon was mad at thetime; he had given way to the rum-fever--rum-fiend it should be called.With his knife in his hand he wandered off and away all by himself overthe pack. I saw the fight between the bear and him commence, and sentmen at once to assist him. When they reached the scene of action theyfound the huge bear lying dead, stabbed in fifty places at least. Thesnow for yards around had been trampled down in the awful struggle, andwas yellow and red with blood. The doctor lay beside the bear,apparently asleep. I need not tell you that he slept the sleep thatknows no waking. The poor fellow's body was crushed to pulp.
"Charles Manning, a spectioneer of the _Good Resolve_, was lying on hisback on the sunny side of a hummock, snatching a five-minutes' rest, forit was sealing time, when a bear crept up behind him, more stealthilythan any cat could have done. He drew his paw upwards along the poorfellow's body. Only once, mind you, but he left him a mere emptyshell."
[The author is relating facts; names only are concealed.]
"Ah! but, gentlemen, you should have seen a two-mile run I had not fiveyears ago from a bear. Silas himself wouldn't have believed that Silascould have done the distance in double the time. He was coming home allby himself, when he burst his rifle firing at a seal, and just at thatmoment up popped a bear.
"`All alone, are you, Silas?' Bruin s
eemed to say.
"`Yes,' replied Silas, moving off; `and I don't want your companyeither. I know my way, thank you.'
"`Oh, I daresay you do!' says the bear. `But it will only be friendlylike if I see you home. Wait a bit.'
"`Never a wait!' said Silas; and so the race began.
"Of course they saw it from the ship, and sent men to meet me and settleBruin. Puffed? I should think I was! I lay on my face for fiveminutes, with no more breath in my old bellows than there is in a deadbadger?"
"You've seen the sea-lion, I suppose, Captain Grig?" said Allan.
"I have that!" replied Silas, "and the sea-bear, too, and I don't knowwhich of