"But what is the explanation of it, Doctor?"
"It"s very simple; there is no explanation."
At that moment the ice-master, who was on watch in the topmast cross-trees, cried out that there was a floating ma.s.s on the starboard quarter, about fifteen miles to windward.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"An iceberg in these lat.i.tudes!" cried the doctor.
Shandon turned his gla.s.s in that direction, and corroborated the lookout"s words.
"That"s strange," said the doctor.
"Are you surprised?" asked the commander, laughing. "What! are we lucky enough to find anything that will surprise you?"
"I am surprised without being surprised," answered the doctor, smiling, "since the brig _Ann Poole_, of Greenspond, was caught in the ice in the year 1813, in the forty-fourth degree of north lat.i.tude, and Dayement, her captain, saw hundreds of icebergs."
"Good," said Shandon; "you can still teach us a great deal about them."
"O, not so very much!" answered Clawbonny, modestly, "except that ice has been seen in very much lower lat.i.tudes."
"That I know, my dear Doctor, for when I was a cabin-boy on the sloop-of-war, _Fly_--"
"In 1818," continued the doctor, "at the end of March, or it might have been the beginning of April, you pa.s.sed between two large fields of floating ice, in lat.i.tude forty-two."
"That is too much!" exclaimed Shandon.
"But it"s true; so I have no need to be surprised, now that we are two degrees farther north, at our sighting an iceberg."
"You are bottled full of information, Doctor," answered the commander; "one needs only draw the cork."
"Very well, I shall be exhausted sooner than you think; and now, Shandon, if we can get a nearer view of this phenomenon, I should be the gladdest of doctors."
"Exactly, Johnson," said Shandon, summoning the boatswain; "I think the wind is freshening."
"Yes, Commander," answered Johnson, "we are making very little headway, and soon we shall feel the currents from Davis Strait."
"You are right, Johnson, and if we mean to make Cape Farewell by the 20th of April, we must go under steam, or we shall be cast on the coast of Labrador.--Mr. Wall, give the order to light the fires."
The mate"s orders were obeyed; an hour later the engines were in motion; the sails were furled; and the screw, turning through the waves, was driving the _Forward_ rapidly in the teeth of the northwest wind.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GREAT POLAR CURRENT.
Soon more numerous flocks of birds, petrels, puffins, and others which inhabit those barren sh.o.r.es, gave token of their approach to Greenland. The _Forward_ was moving rapidly northward, leaving behind her a long line of dark smoke.
Tuesday, the 17th of April, the ice-master caught the first sight of the _blink_[1] of the ice. It was visible at least twenty miles off to the north-northwest. In spite of some tolerably thick clouds it lighted up brilliantly all the air near the horizon. No one of those on board who had ever seen this phenomenon before could fail to recognize it, and they felt a.s.sured from its whiteness that this blink was due to a vast field of ice lying about thirty miles farther than they could see, and that it came from the reflection of its luminous rays.
[Footnote 1: A peculiar and brilliant color of the air above a large expanse of ice.]
Towards evening the wind shifted to the south, and became favorable; Shandon was able to carry sail, and as a measure of economy they extinguished the furnace fires. The _Forward_ under her topsails, jib, and foresail, sailed on towards Cape Farewell.
At three o"clock on the 18th they made out an ice-stream, which, like a narrow but brilliant band, divided the lines of the water and sky.
It was evidently descending rather from the coast of Greenland than from Davis Strait, for the ice tended to keep on the western side of Baffin"s Bay. An hour later, and the _Forward_ was pa.s.sing through the detached fragments of the ice-stream, and in the thickest part the pieces of ice, although closely welded together, were rising and falling with the waves.
At daybreak the next morning the watch saw a sail; it was the _Valkyria_, a Danish corvette, sailing towards the _Forward_, bound to Newfoundland. The current from the strait became perceptible, and Shandon had to set more sail to overcome it.
At that moment the commander, the doctor, James Wall, and Johnson were all together on the p.o.o.p-deck, observing the force and direction of the current. The doctor asked if it were proved that this current was felt throughout Baffin"s Bay.
"There"s no doubt of it," answered Shandon; "and sailing-vessels have hard work in making headway against it."
"And it"s so much the harder," added James Wall, "because it"s met on the eastern coast of America, as well as on the western coast of Greenland."
"Well," said the doctor, "that serves to confirm those who seek a Northwest Pa.s.sage. The current moves at the rate of about five miles an hour, and it is hard to imagine that it rises at the bottom of a gulf."
"That is very likely, Doctor," answered Shandon, "because, while this current flows from north to south, there is a contrary current in Behring Strait, which flows from south to north, and which must be the cause of this one."
"Hence," said the doctor, "you must admit that America is completely separated from the polar regions, and that the water from the Pacific skirts its whole northern coast, until it reaches the Atlantic.
Besides, the greater elevation of the water of the Pacific is another reason for its flowing towards the European seas."
"But," said Shandon, "there must be some facts which support this theory; and if there are," he added with gentle irony, "our learned friend must be familiar with them."
"Well," answered the latter, complacently, "if it interests you at all I can tell you that whales, wounded in Davis Strait, have been found afterwards on the coast of Tartary, still carrying a European harpoon in their side."
"And unless they doubled Cape Horn, or the Cape of Good Hope,"
answered Shandon, "they must have gone around the northern coast of America. There can be no doubt of that, Doctor."
"And if you were not convinced, my dear Shandon," said the doctor, smiling, "I could produce still other evidence, such as the floating wood with which Davis Strait is filled, larch, aspen, and other southern kinds. Now we know that the Gulf Stream could not carry them into the strait; and if they come out from it they must have got in through Behring Strait."
"I am perfectly convinced, Doctor, and I must say it would be hard to maintain the other side against you."
"See there," said Johnson, "there"s something that will throw light on this discussion. It"s a large piece of wood floating on the water; if the commander will give us leave, we can put a rope about it, hoist it on board, and ask it the name of its country."
"That"s the way!" said the doctor; "after the rule we have the example."
Shandon gave the necessary orders; the brig was turned towards the piece of wood, and soon the crew were hoisting it aboard, although not without considerable trouble.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
It was the trunk of a mahogany-tree, eaten to its centre by worms, which fact alone made it light enough to float.
"This is a real triumph," exclaimed the doctor, enthusiastically, "for, since the Atlantic currents could not have brought it into Davis Strait, since it could not have reached the polar waters from the rivers of North America, as the tree grows under the equator, it is evident that it must have come direct from Behring Strait. And besides, see those sea-worms which have eaten it; they belong to warm lat.i.tudes."
"It certainly gives the lie to those who deny the existence of a Northwest Pa.s.sage."