Arctic Adventures
Page 10
lured us on.
As the sun rising in the heavens sent down his warm rays, we could seenumerous seals basking on the floes, or on some projecting point of aberg. Some of the boats were constantly engaged in shooting orharpooning the creatures, while others were kept in readiness to go inchase of the walruses which frequently made their appearance, though wedid not always succeed in getting near them, as, diving beneath a 'berg,they did not rise again until the opposite side was reached.
The mate and Croil were now perfectly recovered, and enabled to take apart in everything going forward. Their services were required, for, inconsequence of the hands we had lost, we all had work enough to do. Iwent in one of the boats, whenever I could get a chance. I was boundotherwise to remain on board and assist in managing the ship while theywere away. Frequently we had enough to do, as we floated among thebergs and floes, to escape those which came drifting towards us, drivenon by some under-current, more than by the wind. The broken state ofthe ice induced our captain to believe that we should as easily get outof it as we had made our way into its midst. He was more inclined tothis opinion, when we suddenly found ourselves in the open sea withscarcely a floe or berg in sight. Had we met with whales we might havecruised about in chase of them, and not proceeded further, but only afew appeared ahead to the northward, and those we failed to kill.
"Never fear, lads," said the captain as the boats returned on board, themen looking blank at their want of success. "We shall fall in withplenty more in the course of a day or so, or it may be in a few hours,and we may still get a full ship, and be south again before the summerdays begin to shorten."
The pack-ice, Captain Hudson told us, was this year much further norththan he had ever known it, but he thought that a good sign, and he hopedto find lanes through which we might make our way into ponds seldomreached by whalers, where we might kill the fish faster than we couldflense them.
Voyagers during the Arctic summer day require sleep as much as at othertimes, though often it has to be obtained at very unequal intervals.Having been awake for the best part of twenty hours, I had turned in--Idon't know whether to call it one night or one day--when I was arousedby a tremendous blow on the ship's bows, which made her quiver from stemto stern. I was rushing on deck with my clothes in my hands, notknowing what might happen, when I found that she was forcing her waythrough a stream of ice, and that ice surrounded her on every side. Astrongish breeze was blowing, and the canvas was being reduced toprevent another such encounter, which might produce seriousconsequences. Finding that nothing was really the matter, I quicklydived below again to put on my clothes, when I once more hurried ondeck. As I was looking round my eye was attracted by a dark object atsome distance on the starboard bow. I pointed it out to the captain,whose glass was directed towards it. "It is a vessel of some sort. ARussian or Norwegian sloop. She has been nipped probably, for she seemsto lie on the ice, out of the water; but whether her crew are still onboard, or have made their escape in their boats, it is hard to say."
"We must go and ascertain," exclaimed Andrew; "our brother David wastaken off by a vessel of that description, and for what we can tell, hemay be on board."
"It will be impossible to reach her," answered the captain; "there is nolane leading in that direction. If you attempt to cross the ice it mayopen at any moment, giving you little chance of escaping with yourlives."
Still Andrew entreated that he might go, and proposed making anexpedition, three or four of us joining ourselves together by a longrope. We consulted the boatswain, who at once volunteered to form oneof the party, as did Ewen and Croil. The captain, after ascending tothe crow's nest to examine the ice, gave us leave, and allowed us totake one of the boats which would carry us part of the way, charging us,however, not to delay a moment longer than was necessary. Quicklyprocuring a long rope, we jumped into the boat and pulled ahead of theship, along a lane which opened out to the eastward. Our furtherprogress was soon stopped. Having fastened ourselves together at thedistance of four or five fathoms, each provided with a long pole, weleapt on the ice, Sandy taking the lead, we three lighter ones followed,and my brother brought up the rear. We had some hummocks to climb over,but generally the surface was level, and we made rapid progress, butstill the sloop appeared much farther off than I had supposed. I sawSandy try the ice when he was doubtful of its consistency, as he wentalong; but, satisfied that it would bear him and consequently any of us,he pushed forward.
I eagerly looked out expecting to see some people appear on the deck ofthe sloop. As we drew nearer I uttered a loud shout in which mycompanions joined, but no one replied. Could all those on board bedead, or had she, as the captain supposed, been deserted? I askedmyself; and the dread seized me that we should find David frozen orstarved to death. Such things had too often occurred before, and mighthave happened in this instance. In my eagerness I could not helpshouting to Sandy to go on faster.
"More speed the less chance we shall have of getting there, my boy," heanswered, stopping to strike the ice in front of him with his pole. Hedrove it through. "There, you and I should probably have had a coldbath," he observed as he turned aside to find more secure footing.
We had to make a considerable round to a sort of bridge, where two floeshad overlapped. We crossed safely, and now the sloop appeared not aquarter of a mile ahead, her dark hull partly heeling over, and hershattered mast standing out sharply against the white back-ground. Thedistance was soon passed over. Once more we shouted out before we beganto clamber on her deck. Sandy and I, being the first up, eagerly lookeddown into her after cabin. It was half full of water. No one could beseen; so hurrying on to the other hatchways, we peered down them. Itwas tolerably evident that no one, alive or dead, was there. So far,then, our worst fears were not realised.
"Look here!" said Sandy to me, "the crew may have made their escape intheir boats and have been picked up by another craft. See, the sailsare unbent and all the ropes carried off. If it was worth while gettinga wetting we should find that nothing remains of value below, eitherfore or aft."
That such was the case, a further examination fully convinced us. StillAndrew and I would have been thankful if we could have discovered sometraces of our brother, should this have been the sloop he had got onboard. The boatswain, however, remarked that numbers of vessels of thesame description came northward during the summer, that it was just aslikely he had never set foot on her deck, and that we might find he hadgot home safe before us.
According to our promise, the instant our inspection was over, wecommenced our return journey. As the ice was becoming firm, we cast offthe ropes and separated from one another, each man taking his owncourse. I thus got to a considerable distance from my companions. Iwas still some way off the edge of the floe, though in sight of theship, and could make out the boat approaching to take us off, when upstarted from behind a hummock a huge polar bear, which probably mistookme for a walrus or seal, and therefore its lawful prey. My firstimpulse was to run, instead of Standing still and facing my enemy as Iought to have done. I had very nearly gained the edge when what was myhorror to see that the bear was within twenty paces of me. A glanceround showed me the boat, still some way off, while my companions wereat too great a distance to afford me assistance. I now did what Ishould have done at first, stopped and rammed a bullet into my rifle.The bear stopped also, sitting up on its haunches, to examine me moreparticularly. Could I have got off my shaggy coat, I would have thrownit at him, to attract his attention, for I guessed his next movementwould be to bound upon me and press me in his terrific embrace. All Icould do, however, was to throw my cap at him, when, dropping down onall fours, he began to smell at it. Now was my time to fire a shotwhich I hoped might kill him. Should I miss, I knew too well that I hadnot the remotest chance of escape. Mustering all my nerve, I levelledmy rifle and pulled the trigger. The bullet must have gone through hisbrain, for, without making another move, he rolled over and giving onestruggle was dead.
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bsp; I should have fallen on the ice and rendered thanks to heaven for mypreservation, but in reality I could not for some seconds move a muscle.I could scarcely persuade myself that the huge monster, which had justbefore appeared so terrible, was now a mass of flesh.
The shouts of my companions in the boat who had seen the occurrencearoused me, and, soon arriving, with the rest of the party, they hauledthe huge carcase on board the boat, and we returned in triumph to theship.
CHAPTER FIVE.
After visiting the unfortunate sloop, a fair lead appeared, with a poolof considerable size to the northward. Making all sail we stood on,hoping to find whales sporting within it. Before, however, we reachedthe pool the wind dropped, and the boats were sent ahead to tow theship. This mode of progression was, however, before long renderedimpossible, by the closing of the floes. We had continued to warp heralong by