Laura (9 page)

These imagined things provided entertainment, if one may call it such, in my slumbers; but I was woken by a joyful clamour. Our Eskimos, who were already up—for it would have been broad daylight, had we not been
enveloped
by the inflexible polar night—had spotted a group of wild geese that had just come down on our islet. These birds, tired or lacking discernment, allowed themselves to be caught by hand, and a veritable massacre was carried out: a pointless act of cruelty which revolted me, for we were not short of food, and the number of our victims far exceeded what we could eat and carry away with us. My uncle found my sensitivity misplaced, and mocked it so disdainfully that my suspicions returned. I saw flashes of ferocity pass across his usually grave, gentle physiognomy,
reminding me of the scene, or the dream of the scene, on the ship. As for me, I was upset to see the destruction of these phalanxes of travelling birds whom my uncle classed as stupid and which were not wary of human stupidity, for they came to throw themselves into our hands as if to ask us for protection and friendship.

After a few days’ rest and feasting in the cave, we set off again, still travelling northwards on ice that was
polished
and shining almost everywhere. The fever took hold of me again the moment I was in my sledge, and,
sensing
that my mind was wandering, I bound myself to my vehicle in order not to succumb to the desire to abandon it and venture into the lonely, savage wilderness. I do not know if we had re-entered the mist; if the polar light had been eclipsed or if our lantern had gone out.

We travelled as if at random in the darkness, and I felt frozen with terror. I could see nothing in front of me, nothing behind; I could not even make out my dogs, and the quiet sound made by the wake of my own sledge did not reach me. At times I imagined that I was dead and that my poor self, deprived of its organs, was being borne away to another world solely by the impetus of its
mysterious
potentiality.

We were still moving forward. The darkness receded, and the moon or some dazzling white star that I took for the moon came to show me that we had entered an
ice-tunnel
, a few leagues in length. From time to time, a fissure in the roof or a break in the wall allowed me to make out the immensity or the narrowness of this sub-glacial
passage
; then everything disappeared, and, for quite a long time, which sometimes seemed to me to last more than an
hour, we plunged back into the most complete, terrifying darkness.

During one of those moments, I felt a sudden attack of lassitude, despair or irritation. Deciding that I would never see the light again and telling myself that I was blind or mad, I began to untie myself with the vague intention of delivering myself from existence; but all at once the icy roof ceased to shelter me, and I distinctly saw Laura travelling close to me. I scarcely had the strength to let out a cry of joy and to stretch out my arms to her.

Forward! forward! she shouted to me.

And mechanically I whipped my dogs, although they were already doing at least six miles per hour. Laura was still travelling on my right, outrunning me by at most one or two paces. I saw her face clearly, for she turned it constantly towards me to make sure that I was
following
her. She was standing up, her hair streaming out, her body enveloped in a cloak of grebe feathers which formed thick, satiny folds about her, like new-fallen snow. Was she on a sledge or carried by a cloud, pulled by
fantastical
animals or supported by a snow-flurry at ground level? I could not be sure; but for quite a long time I saw her, and my whole being was renewed. When her image vanished, I wondered if it had not been my own that I had seen reflected on the shining wall of ice along which I was travelling; but I did not want to give up a vague hope of seeing her again soon, however insane it might be.

The various encampments and monotonous events of our journey have left few traces in my memory. I can scarcely gauge its length, as I am not certain of the date
when we left the ship. I know that one day the sun
reappeared
, and that the caravan halted, shouting out for joy.

We were on terra firma, at the summit of a high, mossy cliff; behind us, the immense glaciers of the two banks of the strait which we had crossed stretched out as far as the eye could see to the south, and before us, the open ocean, limitless, dark blue, broke at our feet, on harsh volcanic rocks, with a fearsome sound. Never had music by Mozart or Rossini been sweeter to my ears, so much had the
dismal
silence and solemn rigidity of the ice fields frustrated my need for external life. Our Eskimos, drunk with joy, erected the tents and prepared the equipment for fishing and hunting. Clouds of birds of all sizes filled the pink sky, and we saw innumerable whales frolicking in the warm tides of the polar sea.

Others had reported and consecrated it before us, this long-problematic sea; but, almost alone, at the end of their strength and in a hurry to retrace their steps, so as not to succumb to the fatigue and perils of the return journey, they had merely greeted and glimpsed it. We had arrived at this limit of the known world all in good health, rich in munitions, having lost none of our dogs, and with none of our precious equipment damaged. It was a such an unlikely conjunction of circumstances, that the
Eskimos
regarded my uncle more and more as a powerful magician, and that I myself, forced to admire his foresight, his skill and the faith that had sustained him, gazed upon him with a superstitious respect.

The sun paid us a short visit that day; but its
appearance
in a sky all marbled with shades of pink and orange had given me back my confidence and cheerfulness. For a
long time the sea was lit up by a twilight that was
transparent
as amethyst; we looked for a place sheltered from the wind, and at the foot of a glacier of immaculate whiteness we chose a charming valley carpeted with a fresh, velvety moss in which flowered lychnis, hesperis, lilac saxifrages, dwarf willows and Bermuda blue-eyed grass.

The following day, having noted that the seawater was as warm as in temperate climes, we gave ourselves the pleasure of bathing. I then climbed up onto quite a high peak with my uncle, and we took greater stock of the unexplored land we wished to reach.

This land was the west bank of the strait we had crossed, which stretched out in a straight line to the north on our left, while on our right the northern lands of Greenland seemed to flee away in a concave, horizontal line. In front of us lay nothing but the limitless sea. The western coast, also low-lying over a long distance, rose up again in powerful volcanic masses, the Parry Mountains no doubt, already seen from far off and christened by those who came before us, but never reached.

We have done nothing, said my uncle, if we do not go that far; we have two good canoes, and indeed we shall go; how does that seem to you?

We shall go, I replied; even if, as I believe, we find only lava and ice, we shall certainly go!

If we did not find anything else there, went on my uncle, it would be because your divinatory sense and mine had been obliterated, and then we should have to go back to mankind’s incomplete and tardy practical
science
to discover, in five or six thousand years perhaps, the secret of the polar world; but if you have doubts, I
do not: I have consulted my diamond, this mirror of the globe’s interior, this revealer of the invisible world, and I know what incalculable wealth awaits us, what glory lies in store for us, erasing all of humanity’s past and present glories!

Uncle, I said, fascinated by his conviction, let me look at it too, this diamond whose bright light, which your eyes can penetrate, has been too powerful for my weak sight up to now. Make haste, the sun is already setting. Let me strive to raise myself to the heights of your vision.

Gladly, said my uncle, presenting me with the
gemstone
he called his pole star. From the moment when you at last believe and submit, you will be able to read this talisman as well as I can.

I looked at the diamond, which suddenly seemed to me to take on the proportions of a mountain in my hand, and I almost fell off the top of the cliff into the sea when I saw in it the image of Laura, perfectly clear and clad in her ideal beauty. Standing, dressed all in pink, smiling and animated, she executed a great triumphal, gracious gesture, showing me a far-off peak well beyond the Parry Mountains.

Speak! I cried out, tell me …

But the sun was disappearing into the purple of the sea’s horizon, and I could no longer see anything in the diamond but the sky and the waves.

Well, what did you see? said my uncle, taking back his treasure.

I saw Laura, and I believe, I replied.

We resolved to wait until the days were longer. Our encampment was most agreeable and abundantly provided
with game and firewood. The shore was covered with
driftwood
debris, and the mountains were clad in a thick layer of lichen. I was extremely surprised to see the remains of powerful vegetation beached on this coast.

I, said Nasias, am surprised only by your surprise. Beyond these far-off banks whose details our eye questions in vain, I do not doubt that there exists an Eldorado, an enchanted land where the cedars of Lebanon are wedded to gigantic laburnums and perhaps to the richest products of tropical nature.

My uncle’s assertion appeared a little risky to me, and I keenly regretted having neglected the study of botany, which would have enabled me better to analyse the plant remains I had before me. It seemed to me that I could sometimes recognise among them the stems of tree ferns, sometimes the overlapping bark of immense palm trees; but I was not sure of anything, and I lost myself in conjectures.

After the pleasantest of camps, we were disposed to undertake the crossing of the polar sea, when our
Eskimos
, who up till then had been so confident and joyful, remarked to us that, given the time needed for the return journey and the exceptional warmth of the year, we ran the risk of being caught in the thaw, which would make the route impracticable by sea and by land.

My uncle showed them in vain that what they took for an exceptional summer was only the effect of a
climate
that was new for them and stable in this region; that in case of a sudden thaw, we were in a position to wait for weeks and months for the propitious moment; they mutinied. Nostalgia had gripped them, they missed their desolate climes, their dens under the snow, their rancid,
salted fish, perhaps also their relations and their friends. In short, they wanted to leave, and they did not return to obedience until they were faced with Nasias’s threat. He presented them with his diamond, telling them that it would dry them all out and cook them, if they began complaining again. We had only two canoes. It was very difficult for us to get them to build others with the
driftwood
and the bark from the shore. These enchanted trees terrified their imagination. And then they said that this navigable sea, rich in fish on the coasts, must, at a
certain
distance, contain unknown monsters and treacherous whirlpools.

Their true object of horror was basically the fear that we would bear them away into the world of Europeans, which they assumed was situated in the neighbourhood of Cape Bellot, never to see their homeland again. My uncle, despite his prestige and his authority, could only persuade a dozen of them to follow us. We managed to equip six canoes and, forced to abandon all our equipment and all our chances of returning to the discontented troop, we set out and abandoned ourselves to destiny.

Although the weather was magnificent, a strong swell prevailed on that sea, where no vessel had yet ventured and will perhaps never venture again. Our own strength and our rowers’ was soon exhausted, and we had to
abandon
ourselves to a strong current which all at once carried us northwards with a terrifying swiftness.

We went round the Parry Mountains without being able to land, and, after three days of absolute desperation on the part of our men, who however lacked for nothing, did not suffer from the cold and took no blades on board
their excellent canoes, at sun-up we saw a prodigiously high peak appear, which my uncle felt surpassed many of the summits in the Himalayas.

Our courage returned; but, when the night hid this giant of the world in its shadows, the fear of not being able to find it again and going past it in spite of ourselves was painful.

Only Nasias displayed no anxiety. Our canoes, tied together with ropes, were moving in convoy, but at the vagaries of chance, when the sky and the waters were filled with a light so bright that it was difficult to bear. It was the most magnificent aurora borealis our eyes had yet gazed upon, and for twelve hours its intensity did not weaken for a moment, although it presented infinitely
varied
phenomena of colour and shape, each more magical than the previous one. Only the famous crown, which is noticed in these palpitations of the polar moon, remained completely stable and entirely distinct, and we were able to convince ourselves that it emanated from the place where the peak was situated, for the peak had come back into sight and rose to a point in the very middle of the luminous circle, like a black needle in a gold ring.

Admiration and surprise had silenced fear. Impatient to reach this magical world, our Eskimos did their best to paddle, although the powerful current overtook their vain attempts. When daylight returned, they became
discouraged
again: the peak was as far off as the previous evening, and it even seemed to recede as we moved forward. We had to journey thus for several days and several nights; finally this terrifying summit seemed lower: this was a sure sign that we were getting closer. Little by little other,
smaller mountains loomed up from the horizon. Behind them the principal peak was entirely masked, and a land of considerable extent was unfurled before our eyes. From that moment on, each hour we approached was an hour of growing certainty and joy. With the telescope, we made out forests, valleys, waterfalls, a land luxuriant with
vegetation
, and the heat became so real, that we had to take off our furs.