Under the Sea to the North Pole (13 page)

She wept silently, but when she sobbed, Salvator understood that his mistress was in sorrow, and gently laid his fine intelligent head on her knees, and by little plaintive cries testified to the wealth of pity that filled his heart.

The girl saw the dog’s look, and forgetting herself for a moment, said to him,—

“We will go and look for them together, won’t we, good dog?”

Salvator could not answer yes. But he joyfully wagged his tail and gave a short bark to show his affection for her. Isabelle put her arms round him and kissed his forehead. Her grief was forgotten.

The island, which the explorers called Courbet Island, having been thoroughly examined, the
Polar Star
quitted the harbour which Lacrosse had called Long Creek, and went off to the west in search of the column.

The water continued very deep. However, on the 8th July, the look-outs reported a state of affairs which gave rise to much anxiety. The steamer was in the centre of a belt of about ten miles in diameter, consisting entirely of lofty palaeocrystic ice. The sea in this peculiar lake was of marvellous limpidity, arid its surface showed no sign of freezing.

The secret of this strange phenomenon was soon discovered. The soundings showed that the depth varied from twenty to thirty fathoms. The bottom had thus risen considerably, and they were on the summit of a sort of submarine mountain.

It was one of these shallows which rose like an insurmountable barrier in the way of these huge icebergs, throwing them off right and left, and probably reserving the centre for the formation of the annual ice. Captain Lacrosse’s perplexity could not but increase.

What was to be done? Every day the men in the tops had reported new masses of palaeocrystic ice. He must avoid being caught by their formidable invasion; their embrace would not only be dangerous for the ship, but their drift might take him hundreds of miles out of his course.

Besides, the three weeks of waiting had elapsed, and he had not found the land party. Was he to abandon them in these inhospitable regions and make sure of the safety of the survivors, by getting back as soon as he could to Cape Washington? This was the problem which puzzled the conscience and generosity of the captain and his officers.

This was not all. The men who were brave and resigned enough in face of their own difficulties, trembled at the thought of the dangers to-the two women, their companions. At the same time they dared not appeal to Isabelle, as they had the best of motives in sparing her filial feelings.

“Come,” said Captain Lacrosse, addressing his officers. “We should be rascals to abandon the game without trying everything to meet with our companions. Let us remain here as long as the fine weather lasts, and then we can think about a final decision.”

During the next fortnight they ploughed the sea east and west, passing and repassing before Courbet Island without abandoning this terrible eighty-fifth parallel which was the limit of their voyage, and the barrier imposed on their energies.

And every night was colder than the last. Scarcely a month had gone by since the summer solstice, and already winter was announcing its return in the usual dreary way. Sunny days were becoming rarer, while those in which mists veiled the sky were becoming greyer and more miserable. The
Polar Star
found the floes growing thicker, and experienced increasing difficulty in breaking through the thin coat of frost which like a transparent pellicle wrinkled the face of the ocean. The pieces of ice began to join together, adhering at their edges and- coagulating with the cement of the young ice. If two more weeks went by like this, it was certain that the steamer would be seized in some terrible nip in the icefield.

Such were the anxieties and perplexities, when in the morning of the 22nd of July, a month exactly from the landing of the column, Lieutenant Hardy when on the bridge distinctly heard the report of a gun from the island, and apparently from Long Creek itself.

A gun was immediately fired in reply. Captain Lacrosse came on deck at the noise, and, mounting the bridge, gave orders to get up full steam. When the thick fog cleared off it was found they were about a mile from the shore. Half an hour later the ship was in the narrow harbour she had entered a fortnight before. There was joy in every heart; and a feeling analogous to that of a father’s happiness in finding a son he believed to be dead, was shared by all.

This joy was soon to be changed into apprehension.

As the
Polar Star
approached the island those on board could see a group of men assembled on the bank and greeting them with shouts and gestures. As soon as the boats landed the men threw themselves into each other’s arms, mutually asking what had happened to both the land and sea expeditions.

The land party were almost exhausted, and were without provisions and without strength, having lived for ten days on scanty and unhealthy food. Lacrosse at once attended to their wants, and after a hearty meal the poor fellows related the lamentable story of the numberless tortures to which they had had to submit in their long sustained struggle.

Among those whom the steamer had relieved were Hubert D’Ermont, Schnecker, the chemist, and Guerbraz. The doctor ordered them twenty-four hours’ absolute rest.

Then Isabelle, overwhelmed with anxiety, came in tears to beg Hubert to tell her what had happened since the day of their separation. It was an affecting story.

At the departure the column, animated by immense hope, had rapidly surmounted, but not without some trouble, the first difficulties of sledging. The ice was firm and led right up to the shore of the island although covered with hummocks and bristling with sharp edges driven up on the field by the force of the tide and the currents. Great had been their disappointment in finding how little the island stretched to the north.

But they had been soon consoled by the thought that the pack was still firm enough for them to travel over to the land they could see about twenty miles ahead. And so after a day’s rest, the column had resumed its adventurous course over the icefield.

On the 25th of June they had reached this land, the object of all their hopes and desires. ‘ It was certainly more extensive than Courbet Island, but in width it only reached from 86° to 86° 23’, and in length it was about 38 kilometres.

Beyond lay the pack again, but besides the doubtful signs of land, such as giant swellings and patches of spotless blue, they could recognize rocky islets rising above the palaeocrystic ocean and supporting the formidable floe, which announced its approaching dissolution by continual crackings that every day grew louder.

Pools were formed, gaps of water opened every moment under the feet of the explorers. The time came when they found it necessary to retreat, owing to its being uncertain whether they could return by the same road. It is true they possessed three boats, one of which was infinitely more valuable than the others, and destined for many uses;

this was the submarine one constructed of sheet aluminum, a metal so light that De Keralio’s companions refused to believe that it could also be used as the car of the balloon.

And so it was decided not to defer the balloon experiment any longer. As a platform an island, or rather a flat rock, was chosen, emerging some sixty yards above the sea, and from six hundred to eight hundred yards across.

It was assuredly an exciting scene when this attempt took place under circumstances more extraordinary than ever aeronaut had experienced before.

It had been decided that the first experiment should be from a captive balloon.

The explorers took a final look at the figures, and, as they had not to take into account either the weight of provisions nor of weapons, which were not required for this first attempt, they found the account as follows:—

Kilos.

3 men averaging 80 kilos each.....     240

Scientific instruments.....      30

Car (the aluminum hull of the submarine boat)...  1950

Total.....    2220

This amount was less by 580 kilos than that carried by the balloon constructed by Henri Giffard in 1852; and there was no reason to suppose that the attempt would not realize the hopes that had been formed of it.

The balloon itself was formed of a double skin of silk, with the seams varnished with gutta percha. It was in the shape of a cigar, as adopted by all scientific aeronauts and especially by Captains Renard and Krebs. It measured twelve yards in its central diameter, and it was forty-four yards in length. The net which covered it was fastened on to a single horizontal rope, which held the car.

This car was eight yards long and three wide, and of the same shape as the aerostat.

In order that the experiment might not be wasted, it was decided that when the filling had taken place, the car should be gradually loaded with the things necessary for a journey, in case it was deemed propitious to let go the rope.

The operation began at seven o’clock in the morning. It was impossible, after the revelations previously made, to keep secret the calculations concerning Marc D’Ermont’s wonderful discovery. Besides, there was no reason for keeping them from. Schnecker now that he had shown such goodwill in winter quarters. They could hardly expect him to do any harm unless he returned to Europe before his companions, and the German knew too well that his fate was now bound up with that of the expedition.

Hubert D’Ermont therefore made no objection to revealing whatever secret remained.

The tubes filled with solidified hydrogen required for , the balloon represented an amount of about 2500 cubic metres of gas.

There was only one man there capable of assisting Hubert in the delicate and dangerous enterprise of filling. This was Schnecker. More accustomed than the lieutenant to laboratory practice, he set to work, with the help of two sailors placed under his orders, to fit up the discharging tubes required for the expansion of the precious gas. It took’him no less than three hours to make these tubes in lead, the rapidity of the expansion of hydrogen and the tenuity of the gas not admitting of the use of simple india-rubber tubing.

By noon all was ready. The aerostat was as full as an egg, and floated majestically, retained by the enormous rope which was going to keep it captive about half a mile from the ground.

But there a double deception awaited them.

At first the mist which covered the horizon prevented them from seeing anything rising above it. Everywhere, as far as they could see, the palaeocrystic or permanent ice, so called by Nares and Markham, covered the ocean, although towards the north the pack seemed to be in movement.

A second disagreeable surprise was the discovery that the aerostat, when it had reached four hundred yards, would rise no higher. In vain they removed the supplementary weight, in vain they reduced the weight of the car by taking out everything possible, in vain only one man went up in it.

They tried several ascents at different hours of the day and night; the result remained the same. They tried to discover the reason of this embarrassing circumstance. As they could not ascribe it to the rarefaction of the air, they had to admit that it must be due to magnetic perturbations, up to then unknown, occurring in the higher zones of the atmosphere, and affecting the gravity of the constituent gases. This would also explain the trouble there was in breathing and the troubled circulation, the signs of’ cyanosis which were more pronounced after each attempt, and the violent palpitation which proved that the air at that height would become unbreathable.

The aerostat was sent up by itself, and again it did not rise above the same limit. The members of the column were seized with great discouragement, as it was evident that, in spite of all the scientific theories, aerostation would never be of use in the exploration of the Pole. At last, when nearly worn out, D’Ermont and Schnecker hastily constructed a car of planks weighing about 400 kilos, and, getting in, had the balloon set free. The spectators of this last scene felt sad enough at heart, but their anguish was not of long duration.

Before the southerly wind the balloon drifted swiftly to the northward, always at the same altitude. For three hours they could follow it above the horizon, and then they lost sight of it.

But what was their astonishment when it reappeared next day at about the same time and with the gas half out, and sank on to a gigantic floe not two kilometres away. A boat put off and rescued the aeronauts. Schnecker had fainted and was half asphyxiated; D’Ermont, thoroughly exhausted, remained for some hours in a state of prostration before he could give his companions the account of the voyage he repeated to Isabelle.

The balloon had gone due north. The travellers estimated that the distance they went was about two hundred kilometres. Then the wind gradually shifted and bore them away to the westward. But strange to say they did not seem to cross the parallel they had reached which they stated to be 88 degrees, though the thick mist that surrounded them prevented them from verifying their suspicions.

Fortunately the sun came out just in time to clear away the fog and afford them the means of reconnoitering. They gazed on a spectacle, grand, unique, almost fantastic. The sea was below them, an open blue sea, the breaking waves of which they had heard in the semi-darkness of the mist. It extended out of sight to the south, east, and west, but on the north its waves broke against an impenetrable barrier of ice.