At four P.M., the weather being quite calm, the ships were towed in-sh.o.r.e by the boats, and made fast in the places selected for them.
Impatient and anxious as we were to make the most of the short remainder of the present season, our mortification will easily be imagined at perceiving, on the morning of the 9th, not only that the ice was as close as ever to the westward, but that the floes in our immediate neighbourhood were sensibly approaching the sh.o.r.e. As there was no chance, therefore, of our being enabled to move, I sent a party on sh.o.r.e at daylight to collect what coal they could find, and in the course of the day, nearly two thirds of a bushel, being about equal to the Hecla"s daily expenditure, was brought on board. Our sportsmen, who were out for several hours, could only procure us a hare and a few ducks.
On the 11th there was no alteration in the ice near the ships and Mr. Bushnan, whom I despatched at daylight to the western cape, reported on his return, that appearances were equally unpromising in that quarter. Mr. Dealy was fortunate enough to kill the first musk-ox that our sportsmen had yet been able to get near; but, as it was at the distance of eight or ten miles from the ships, our present situation with regard to the ice would not allow of my sending a party of men to bring it on board. A piece of the meat which Mr. Dealy brought with him was considered to taste tolerably well, but its smell was by no means tempting.
I must now mention an occurrence which had caused considerable apprehension in our minds for the last two days, and the result of which had very nearly proved of very serious importance to the future welfare of the expedition. Early on the morning of the 11th I received a note from Lieutenant Liddon, acquainting me that, at daylight on the preceding day, Mr. Fife, with a party of six men, had been despatched from the Griper, with the hope of surprising some reindeer and musk-oxen, whose tracks had been seen in a ravine to the westward of the ships. As they had not yet returned, in compliance with the instructions given to Mr. Fife, and had only been supplied with a small quant.i.ty of provisions, it was natural to apprehend that they had lost their way in pursuit of game. I therefore recommended to Lieutenant Liddon to send a party in search of his people, and Messrs. Reid, Beverly, and Wakeham, who immediately volunteered their services on the occasion, were accordingly despatched for this purpose. Soon after their departure, however, it began to snow, which rendered the atmosphere so extremely thick, especially on the hills along which they had to travel, that this party also lost their way, in spite of every precaution, but fortunately got sight of our rockets after dark, by which they were directed to the ships, and returned at ten o"clock, almost exhausted with cold and fatigue, without any intelligence of the absentees.
At daylight on the following morning, I sent Lieutenant Hoppner, with the Heck"s fore-royal-mast rigged as a flagstaff, which he erected on a conspicuous hill four or five miles inland, hoisting upon it a large ensign, which might be seen at a considerable distance in every direction. This expedient occurred to us as a more certain mode of directing our absentees towards the ships than that of sending out a number of parties, which I could not, in common prudence as well as humanity, permit to go to any great distance from the ships; but the snow fell so thick, and the drift was so great during the whole of the 12th, that no advantage could at that time be expected from it, and another night came without the absent party appearing.
Our apprehensions on their account was by this time increased to a most painful degree, and I therefore ordered four parties, under the command of careful officers, to be prepared to set out in search of them the following morning. These parties carried with them a number of pikes, having small flags attached to them, which they were directed to plant at regular intervals, and which were intended to answer the double purpose of guiding themselves on their return and of directing the absent party, should they meet with them, to the ships. For the latter purpose a bottle was fixed to each pike, containing the necessary directions for their guidance, and acquainting them that provisions would be found at the large flagstaff on the hill. Our searching parties left the ships soon after daylight, the wind still blowing hard from the westward, with incessant snow, and the thermometer at 28. This weather continued without intermission during the day, and our apprehensions for the safety of our people were excited to a most alarming degree, when the sun began to descend behind the western hills for the third time since they had left the ship; I will not, therefore, attempt to describe the joyful feelings we suddenly experienced, on the Griper"s hoisting the signal appointed, to inform us that her men, or a part of them, were seen on their return. Soon, after we observed seven persons coming along the beach to the eastward, who proved to be Mr. Nias and his party, with four out of the seven men belonging to the Griper. From the latter, consisting of a corporal of marines and three seamen, we learned that they had lost their way within a few hours after leaving the ship, and had wandered about without anything to guide them till about ten o"clock on the following day, when they descried the large flagstaff at a great distance. At this time the whole party were together; but now unfortunately separated, in consequence of a difference of opinion respecting the flagstaff, which Mr. Fife mistook for a smaller one that had been erected some days before at a considerable distance to the eastward of our present situation; and with that impression, walked away in a contrary direction, accompanied by two of his men. The other four, who had now returned (of whom two were already much debilitated), determined to make for the flagstaff. When they had walked some distance and were enabled to ascertain what it was, one of them endeavoured to overtake Mr. Fife, but was too much fatigued, and returned to his comrades. They halted during a part of the night, made a sort of hut of stones and turf to shelter them from the weather, and kindled a little fire with gunpowder and moss to warm their feet; they had never been in actual want of food, having lived upon raw grouse, of which they were enabled to obtain a quant.i.ty sufficient for their subsistence. In the morning they once more set forward towards the flagstaff, which they reached within three or four hours after Lieutenant Beechey had left some provisions on the spot; having eaten some bread, and drunk a little rum and water, a mixture which they described as perfectly tasteless and clammy, they renewed their journey towards the ships, and had not proceeded far, when, notwithstanding the snow which was constantly falling, they met with footsteps which directed them to Mr. Nias and his party, by whom they were conducted to the ships.
The account they gave us of Mr. Fife and his two companions led us to believe that we should find them, if still living, at a considerable distance to the westward; and some parties were just about to set out in that direction, when the trouble and anxiety which this mistake would have occasioned us were prevented by the arrival of another of the searching parties, with the information that Mr. Fife and the two men were on their way to the ships, being about five miles to the eastward. Some fresh hands were, immediately sent to bring them in, and they arrived on board at ten P.M. after an absence of ninety-one hours, and having been exposed during three nights to the inclemency of the first wintry weather we had experienced. Almost the whole of this party were much exhausted by cold and fatigue, and several of them were severely frostbitten in their toes and fingers; but, by the skill and unremitted attention of our medical gentlemen, they were in a few days enabled to return to their duty.
At three A.M. of Tuesday, the 14th, the thermometer fell to 9; and from this time the commencement of winter may fairly be dated.
On the 20th I considered it a duty inc.u.mbent upon me to call for the opinions of the senior officers of the expedition as to the expediency of immediately seeking a harbour in which the ships might securely lie during the ensuing winter. The opinions of the officers entirely concurring with my own as to the propriety of immediately resorting to this measure, I determined, whenever the ice and the weather would allow, to run back to the bay of the Hecla and Griper, in which neighbourhood alone we had any reason to believe that a suitable harbour might be found.
At half past two on the morning of the 22d, the night signal was made to weigh, and we began to heave at our cables; but such was the difficulty of raising our anchor and of hauling in our hawsers, owing to the stiffness of the ropes from frost and the quant.i.ty of ice which had acc.u.mulated about them, that it was five o"clock before the ships were under way. Our rudder, also, was so choked by the ice which had formed about it, that it could not be moved till a boat had been hauled under the stern, and the ice beaten and cut away from it. We ran along to the eastward without any obstruction, in a channel about five miles wide, till we were within four or five miles of Cape Hearne, where the bay-ice, in unbroken sheets of about one third of an inch in thickness, began to offer considerable impediment to our progress. We at length, however, struck soundings with twenty-nine fathoms of line, and at eight P.M. anch.o.r.ed in nine fathoms, on a muddy bottom, a little to the eastward of our situation on the 5th.
In going to the westward we pa.s.sed a shoal and open bay, immediately adjacent to the harbour which we were now about to examine, and soon after came to a reef of rocks, in some parts nearly dry, extending, about three quarters of a mile to the southward of a low point on the southeastern side of the harbour.
On rounding the reef, on which a quant.i.ty of heavy ice was lying aground, we found that a continuous floe, four or five inches in thickness, was formed over the whole harbour, which in every other respect appeared to be fit for our purpose; and that it would be necessary to cut a ca.n.a.l of two miles in length through the ice, in order to get the ships into a secure situation for the winter.
We sounded the channel into the harbour about three quarters of a mile, by making holes in the ice and dropping the lead through, and found the depth from five to six fathoms.
The ships weighed at six A.M. on the 24th. the wind being still at north, and the weather moderate and fine. As soon as the Hecla was under sail, I went ahead in a boat to sound, and to select an anchorage for the ships. Near the southwestern point of this harbour there is a remarkable block of sandstone, somewhat resembling the roof of a house, on which the ships names were subsequently engraved by Mr. Fisher. This stone is very conspicuous in coming from the eastward, and, when kept open to the southward of the grounded ice at the end of the reef, forms a good landing mark for the channel into the harbour. Off the end of the reef the water deepened to six fathoms, and the Hecla"s anchor was dropped in eight fathoms, half a mile within the reef, and close to the edge of the ice through which the ca.n.a.l was to be cut. The Griper arrived soon after, and by half past eight A.M.
both ships were secured in the proper position for commencing the intended operations.
As soon as our people had breakfasted, I proceeded with a small party of men to sound and to mark with boarding-pikes upon the ice the most direct channel we could find to the anchorage, having left directions for every other officer and man in both ships to be employed in cutting the ca.n.a.l. This operation was performed by first marking out two parallel lines, distant from each other a little more than the breadth of the larger ship. Along each of these lines a cut was then made with an ice saw, and others again at right angles to them, at intervals of from ten to twenty feet; thus dividing the ice into a number of square pieces, which it was again necessary to subdivide diagonally, in order to give room for their being floated out of the ca.n.a.l. On returning from the upper part of the harbour, where I had marked out what appeared to be the best situation for our winter-quarters, I found that considerable progress had been made in cutting the ca.n.a.l and in floating the pieces out of it. To facilitate the latter part of the process, the seamen, who are always fond of doing things in their own way, took advantage of a fresh northerly breeze, by setting some boats sails upon the pieces of ice, a contrivance which saved both time and labour. This part of the operation, however, was by far the most troublesome, princ.i.p.ally on account of the quant.i.ty of young ice which formed in the ca.n.a.l, and especially about the entrance, where, before sunset, it had become so thick that a pa.s.sage could no longer be found for the detached pieces without considerable trouble in breaking it. At half past seven P.M. we weighed our anchors and began to warp up the ca.n.a.l, but the northerly wind blew so fresh, and the people were so much fatigued, having been almost constantly at work for nineteen hours, that it was midnight before we reached the termination of our first day"s labour.
All hands were again set to work on the morning of the 25th, when it was proposed to sink the pieces of ice, as they were cut, under the floe, instead of floating them out, the latter mode having now become impracticable on account of the lower part of the ca.n.a.l, through which the ships had pa.s.sed, being, hard frozen during the night. To effect this, it was necessary for a certain number of men to stand upon one end of the piece of ice which it was intended to sink, while other parties, hauling at the same time upon ropes attached to the opposite end, dragged the block under that part of the floe on which the people stood. The officers of both ships took the lead in this employ, several of them standing up to their knees in water frequently during the day, with the thermometer generally at 12, and never higher than 16. At six P.M. we began to move the ships. The Griper was made fast astern of the Hecla, and the two ships" companies being divided on each bank of the ca.n.a.l, with ropes from the Hecla"s gangways, soon drew the ships along to the end of our second day"s work.
Sunday, 26th.--I should on every account have been glad to make this a day of rest to the officers and men; but the rapidity with which the ice increased in thickness, in proportion as the general temperature of the atmosphere diminished, would have rendered a day"s delay of serious importance. I ordered the work, therefore, to be continued at the usual time in the morning; and such was the spirited and cheerful manner in which this order was complied with, as well as the skill which had now been acquired in the art of sawing and sinking the ice, that although the thermometer was at 6 in the morning, and rose no higher than 9 during the day, we had completed the ca.n.a.l at noon, having effected more in four hours than on either of the two preceding days. The whole length of this ca.n.a.l was four thousand and eighty-two yards, or nearly two miles and one third, and the average thickness of the ice was seven inches.
At half past one P.M. we began to track the ships along in the same manner as before, and at a quarter past three we reached our winter-quarters, and hailed the event with three loud and hearty cheers from both ships" companies. The ships were in five fathoms water, a cable"s length from the beach on the northwestern side of the harbour, to which I gave the name of WINTER HARBOUR; and I called the group of islands which we had discovered in the Polar Sea the NORTH GEORGIAN ISLANDS.
CHAPTER V.
Precautions for securing the Ships and Stores.--For promoting Good Order, Cleanliness, Health, and Good-Humour among the Ships"
Companies.--Establishment of a Theatre and of the North Georgia Gazette.--Erection of an Observatory on Sh.o.r.e.--Commence our Winter"s Amus.e.m.e.nts.--State of the Temperature, and various Meteorological Phenomena.--Miscellaneous Occurrences to the Close of the Year 1819.
Having, on the 19th October, reached the station where, in all probability, we were destined to remain for at least eight or nine months, during three of, which we were not to see the face of the sun, my attention was immediately and imperiously called to various important duties; many of them of a singular nature, such as had, for the first time, devolved on any officer in his majesty"s navy, and might, indeed, be considered of rare occurrence in the whole history of navigation. The security of the ships and the preservation of the various stores were objects of immediate concern. A regular system to be adopted for the maintenance of good order and cleanliness, as most conducive to the health of the crews during the long, dark, and dreary winter, equally demanded my attention.
Not a moment was lost, therefore, in the commencement of our operations. The whole of the masts were dismantled except the lower ones and the Hecla"s main-topmast; the lower yards were lashed fore and aft amidships, to support the planks of the housing intended to be erected over the ships; and the whole of this framework was afterward roofed over with a cloth. The boats, spars, running rigging, and sails were removed on sh.o.r.e; and, as soon as the ships were secured and housed over, my whole attention was directed to the health and comfort of the officers and men.
The surgeon reported that not the slightest disposition to scurvy had shown itself in either ship.
Soon after our arrival in Winter Harbour, when the temperature of the atmosphere had fallen considerably below zero of Fahrenheit, we found that the steam from the coppers, as well as the breath and other vapour generated in the inhabited parts of the ship, began to condense into drops upon the beams and the sides, to such a degree as to keep them constantly wet. In order to remove this serious evil, a large stone oven, cased with cast iron, in which all our bread was baked daring the winter, was placed on the main hatchway, and the stovepipe led fore and aft on one side of the lower deck, the smoke being thus carried up the fore hatchway. On the opposite side of the deck an apparatus had been attached to the galley-range for conveying a current of heated air between decks. This apparatus simply consisted of an iron box, about fifteen inches square, through which pa.s.sed three pipes of two inches diameter, communicating below with the external air, and uniting above in a metal box, fixed to the side of the galley-range; to this box a copper stovepipe was attached, and conveyed to the middle part of the lower deck. When a fire was made under the air-vessel, the air became heated in its pa.s.sage through the three pipes, from which it was conveyed through the stovepipe to the men"s berths. While this apparatus was in good order, a moderate fire produced a current of air of the temperature of 87, at the distance of seventeen feet from the fireplace; and with a pipe of wood, or any other imperfect conductor of heat, which would not allow of its escaping by the way, it might undoubtedly be carried to a much greater distance. By these means we were enabled to get rid of the moisture about the berths where the people messed; but when the weather became more severely cold, it still acc.u.mulated in the bed places occasionally to a serious and very alarming degree. Among the means employed to prevent the injurious effects arising from this annoyance, one of the most efficacious, perhaps, was a screen made of fearnaught, fixed to the beams round the galley, and dropping within eighteen inches of the deck, which served to intercept the steam from the coppers, and prevent it, as before, from curling along the beams, and condensing upon them into drops.
For the preservation of health, and as a necessary measure of economy, a few alterations were made in the quant.i.ty and quality of the provisions issued. I directed the allowance of bread to be permanently reduced to two thirds, a precaution which, perhaps, it would have been as well to adopt from the commencement of the voyage. A pound of preserved meat, together with one pint of vegetable or concentrated soup per man, was subst.i.tuted for one pound of salt beef weekly; a proportion of beer and wine was served in lieu of spirits; and a small quant.i.ty of sourkrout and pickles, with as much vinegar as could be used, was issued at regular intervals. The daily proportion of lime-juice and sugar was mixed together, and with a proper quant.i.ty of water, was drunk by each man in presence of an officer appointed to attend to this duty. This latter precaution may appear to have been unnecessary to those who are not aware how much sailors resemble children in all those points in which their own health and comfort are concerned. Whenever any game was procured, it was directed to be invariably served in lieu of, and not in addition to, the established allowance of other meat, except in a few extraordinary cases; when such an indulgence was allowed; and in no one instance, either in quant.i.ty or quality, was the slightest preference given to the officers.
Great attention was paid to the clothing of the men, and one day in the week was appointed for the examination of the men"s shins and gums by the medical gentlemen, in order that any slight appearance of the scurvy might at once be detected, and checked by timely and adequate means.
Under circ.u.mstances of leisure and inactivity, such as we were now placed in, and with every prospect of its continuance for a very large portion of the year, I was desirous of finding some amus.e.m.e.nt for the men during this long and tedious interval. I proposed, therefore, to the officers to get up a play occasionally on board the Hecla, as the readiest means of preserving among our crews that cheerfulness and good-humour which had hitherto subsisted. In this proposal I was readily seconded by the officers of both ships; and Lieutenant Beechey having been duly elected as stage-manager, our first performance was fixed for the 5th of November, to the great delight of the ships" companies. In these amus.e.m.e.nts I gladly undertook a part myself, considering that an example of cheerfulness, by giving a direct countenance to everything that could contribute to it, was not the least essential part of my duty, under the peculiar circ.u.mstances in which we were placed.
In order still farther to promote good-humour among ourselves, as well as to furnish amusing occupation during the hours of constant darkness, we set on foot a weekly newspaper, which was to be called the _North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle_, and of which Captain Sabine undertook to be the editor, under the promise that it was to be supported by original contributions from the officers of the two ships: and I can safely say, that the weekly contributions had the happy effect of employing the leisure hours of those who furnished them, and of diverting the mind from the gloomy prospect which would sometimes obtrude itself on the stoutest heart.
Immediately on our arrival in harbour, Captain Sabine had employed himself in selecting a place for the observatory, which was erected in a convenient spot, about seven hundred yards to the westward of the ships. It was also considered advisable immediately to set about building a house near the beach for the reception of the clocks and instruments. For this purpose we made use of a quant.i.ty of fir-plank, which was intended for the construction of spare boats, and which was so cut as not to injure it for that purpose. The ground was so hard frozen that it required great labour to dig holes for the upright posts which formed the support of the sides. The walls of this house being double, with moss placed between the two, a high temperature could, even in the severest weather which we might be doomed to experience, be kept up in it without difficulty by a single stove.
After our arrival in port we saw several reindeer and a few coveys of grouse; but the country is so dest.i.tute of everything like cover of any kind, that our sportsmen were not successful in their hunting excursions, and we procured only three reindeer previous to the migration of these and the other animals from the island, which took place before the close of the month of October, leaving only the wolves and foxes to bear us company during the winter.
The full-grown deer which we killed in the autumn, gave us from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and seventy pounds of meat each, and a fawn weighed eighty-four pounds.
On the 1st of October, Captain Sabine"s servant, having been at some distance from the ships to examine a fox-trap, was pursued by a large white bear, which followed his footsteps the whole way to the ships, where he was wounded by several b.a.l.l.s, but made his escape after all. This bear, which was the only one we saw during our stay in Winter Harbour, was observed to be more purely white than any we had before seen, the colour of these animals being generally that of a dirtyish yellow when contrasted with the whiteness of the ice and snow.
Some deer being seen near the ships on the 10th, a party was despatched after them, some of whom having wounded a stag, and being led on by the ardour of pursuit, forgot my order that every person should be on board before sunset, and did not return till late, after we had suffered much apprehension their account. John Pearson, a marine belonging to the Griper, who was the last that returned on board, had his hands severely frostbitten, having imprudently gone away without mittens, and with a musket in his hand. A party of our people most providentially found him, although the night was very dark, just as he had fallen down a steep bank of snow, and was beginning to feel that degree of torpor and drowsiness which, if indulged, inevitably proves fatal.
When he was brought on board his fingers were quite stiff, and bent into the shape of that part of the musket which he had been carrying; and the frost had so far destroyed the animation in his fingers on one hand, that it was necessary to amputate three of them a short time after, notwithstanding all the care and attention paid to him by the medical gentlemen. The effect which exposure to severe frost has in benumbing the mental as well as the corporeal faculties, was very striking in this man, as well as in two of the young gentlemen who returned after dark, and of whom we were anxious to make inquiries respecting Pearson. When I sent for them into my cabin, they looked wild, spoke thick and indistinctly, and it was impossible to draw from them a rational answer to any of our questions. After being on board for a short time, the mental faculties appeared gradually to return with the returning circulation, and it was not till then that a looker-on could easily persuade himself that they had not been drinking too freely. In order to guard in some measure against the danger of persons losing their way, which was more and more to be apprehended as the days became shorter and the ground more covered with snow, which gives such a dreary sameness to the country, we erected on all the hills within two or three miles of the harbour, finger-posts pointing towards the ships.
I have before remarked that all the water which we made use of while within the polar circle was procured from snow either naturally or artificially dissolved. Soon after the ships were laid up for the winter, it was necessary to have recourse entirely to the latter process, which added materially to the expenditure of fuel during the winter months. The snow for this purpose was dug out of the drifts which had formed upon the ice round the ships, and dissolved in the coppers. We found it necessary always to strain the water thus procured, on account of the sand which the heavy snowdrifts brought from the island, after which it was quite pure and wholesome.
On the 16th it blew a strong gale from the northward, accompanied by such a constant snowdrift, that, although the weather was quite clear overhead, the boathouse at the distance of three or four hundred yards could scarcely be seen from the ships. On such occasions no person was permitted on any account to leave the ships. Indeed, when this snowdrift occurred, as it frequently did in the winter, with a hard gale and the thermometer very low, I believe that no human being could have remained alive after an hour"s exposure to it. In order, therefore, to secure a communication between the two ships, a distance not exceeding half a cable"s length, as well as from the ships to the house on sh.o.r.e, a line was kept extended, as a guide from one to the other. The meridian, alt.i.tude of the sun was observed this day by an artificial horizon, which I noticed from the circ.u.mstance of its being the last time we had an opportunity of observing it for about four months.
On the 26th the sun afforded us sufficient light or writing and reading in my cabin, the stern-windows exactly facing the south, from half past nine till half past two; for the rest of the four-and-twenty hours, we lived, of course, by candle-light.
Nothing could exceed the beauty of the sky to the southeast and southwest at sunrise and sunset about this period: near the horizon there was generally a rich bluish purple and a bright arch of deep red above, the one mingling imperceptibly with the other.
It now became rather a painful experiment to touch any metallic substance in the open air with the naked hand; the feeling produced by it exactly resembling that occasioned by the opposite extreme of intense heat, and taking off the skin from the part affected. We found it necessary, therefore, to use great caution in handling our s.e.xtants and other instruments, particularly the eye-pieces of telescopes, which, if suffered to touch the face, occasioned an intense burning pain; but this was easily remedied by covering them over with soft leather. Another effect, with regard to the use of instruments, began to appear about this time.
Whenever any instrument which had been some time exposed to the atmosphere, so as to be cooled down to the same temperature, was suddenly brought below into the cabins, the vapour was instantly condensed all around it, so as to give the instrument the appearance of smoking, and the gla.s.ses were covered almost instantly with a thin coating of ice, the removal of which required great caution, to prevent the risk of injuring them, until it had gradually thawed, as they acquired the temperature of the cabin. When a candle was placed in a certain direction from the instrument with respect to the observer, a number of very minute _spiculae_ of snow were also seen sparkling around the instrument, at the distance of two or three inches from it, occasioned, as we supposed, by the cold atmosphere produced by the low temperature of the instrument almost instantaneously congealing into that form the vapour which floated in its immediate neighbourhood.
The 4th of November being the last day that the sun would, independently of the effects of refraction, be seen above our horizon till the 8th of February, an interval of ninety-six days, it was a matter of considerable regret to us that the weather about this time was not sufficiently clear to allow us to see and make observations on the disappearance of that luminary, in order that something might be attempted towards determining the amount of the atmospheric refraction at a low temperature. But though we were not permitted to take a last farewell, for at least three months, of that cheering orb, "of this great world both eye and soul," we nevertheless felt that this day const.i.tuted an important and memorable epoch in our voyage. We had some time before set about the preparations for our winter"s amus.e.m.e.nts; and the theatre being ready, we opened on the 5th November, with the representation of _Miss in her Teens_, which afforded to the men such a fund of amus.e.m.e.nt as fully to justify the expectations we had formed of the utility of theatrical entertainments under our present circ.u.mstances, and to determine me to follow them up at stated periods. I found, indeed, that even the occupation of fitting up the theatre and taking it to pieces again, which employed a number of the men for a day or two before and after each performance, was a matter of no little importance, when the immediate duties of the ship appeared by no means sufficient for that purpose; for I dreaded the want of employment as one of the worst evils that was likely to befall us.
About the time of the sun"s leaving us, the wolves began to approach the ships more boldly, howling most piteously on the beach near us, sometimes for hours together, and on one or two occasions coming alongside the ships, when everything was quiet at night; but we seldom saw more than one or two together, and therefore could form no idea of their number. These animals were always very shy of coming near our people; and though evidently suffering much from hunger, never attempted to attack any of them.
The white foxes used also to visit the ships at night, and one of these was caught in a trap set under the Griper"s bows. The uneasiness displayed by this beautiful little animal during the time of his confinement, whenever he heard the howling of a wolf near the ships, impressed us with the opinion that the latter is in the habit of hunting the fox as his prey.
The temperature of the atmosphere having about this time become considerably lower than before, the cracking of the timbers was very frequent and loud for a time; but generally ceased altogether in an hour or two after this fall had taken place in the thermometer, and did not occur again at the same temperature during the winter. The wind blowing fresh from the northward, with a heavy snowdrift, made the ship very cold below; so that the breath and other vapour acc.u.mulated during the night in the bed places and upon the beams, and then immediately froze; hence it often occupied all hands for two or three hours during the day to sc.r.a.pe the ice away, in order to prevent the bedding from becoming wet by the increase of temperature occasioned by the fires. It was therefore found necessary to keep some of the fires in between decks at night, when the thermometer was below -15 or -20 in the open air, especially when the wind was high. To a.s.sist in keeping the lower decks warm, as well as to r.e.t.a.r.d, in some slight degree, the formation of ice immediately in contact with the ships" bends, we banked the snow up against their sides as high as the main chains; and canva.s.s screens were nailed round all the hatchways on the lower deck.
The stars of the second magnitude in Ursa Major were just perceptible to the naked eye a little after noon this day, and the Aurora Borealis appeared faintly in the southwest at night. About this time our medical gentlemen began to remark the extreme difficulty with which sores of every kind healed; a circ.u.mstance that rendered it the more necessary to be cautious in exposing the men to frostbites, lest the long inactivity and want of exercise during the cure of sores, in other respects trifling, should produce serious effects upon the general health of the patients.
During the following fortnight we were chiefly occupied in observing various phenomena in the heavens, the vivid coruscations of the Aurora Borealis, the falling of meteors, and in taking lunar distances; but the difficulty of making observations in this climate is inconceivably great; on one occasion the mercury of the artificial horizon froze into a solid ma.s.s.
About this part of the winter we began to experience a more serious inconvenience from the bursting of the lemon-juice bottles by frost, the whole contents being frequently frozen into a solid ma.s.s, except a small portion of highly concentrated acid in the centre, which in most instances was found to have leaked out, so that when the ice was thawed it was little better than water. This evil increased to a very alarming degree in the course of the winter: some cases being opened in which more than two thirds of the lemon-juice was thus destroyed, and the remainder rendered nearly inefficient.
It was at first supposed that this accident might have been prevented by not quite filling the bottles, but it was afterward found that the corks flying out did not save them from breaking.
We observed that the greatest damage was done in those cases which were stowed nearest to the ship"s side, and we therefore removed all the rest amidships; a precaution which, had it been sooner known and adopted, would probably have prevented at least a part of the mischief. The vinegar also became frozen in the casks in the same manner, and lost a great deal of its acidity when thawed.
This circ.u.mstance conferred an additional value on a few gallons of very highly concentrated vinegar, which had been sent out on trial upon this and the preceding voyage, and which, when mixed with six or seven times its own quant.i.ty of water, was sufficiently acid for every purpose. This vinegar, when exposed to the temperature of 25 below zero, congealed only into a consistence like that of the thickest honey, but was never sufficiently hard to break any vessel which contained it. There can be no doubt, therefore, that on this account, as well as to save stowage, this kind of vinegar should exclusively be used in these regions; and for similar reasons of still greater importance, the lemon-juice should be concentrated.
We had now reached the shortest day, Wednesday, the 22d, and such was the occupation which we had hitherto contrived to find during the first half of our long and gloomy winter, that the quickness with which it had come upon us was a subject of general remark. So far, indeed, were we from wanting that occupation of which I had been apprehensive, especially among the men that it accidentally came to my knowledge about this period that they complained of not having time to mend their clothes. This complaint I was as glad to hear as desirous to rectify; and I therefore ordered that, in future, one afternoon in each week should be set aside for that particular purpose.
The circ.u.mstances of our situation being such as have never before occurred to the crews of any of his majesty"s ships, it may not, perhaps, be considered wholly uninteresting to know in what manner our time was thus so fully occupied throughout the long and severe winter which it was our lot to experience, and particularly during a three months" interval of nearly total darkness.