Moby-Duck (65 page)
Authors: Donovan Hohn
36
Me, I'm more inclined to attribute Nansen's success to Nansen than to miracles, or fortune, or providence. Read his account of the voyage,
Farthest North: The Epic Adventure of a Visionary Explorer
, and you'll repeatedly come upon moments of great peril and great self-doubt, moments in which I would have lost my wits and probably my life, like this one, recorded in his logbook in October 1894, after a year adrift in the ice:
Me, I'm more inclined to attribute Nansen's success to Nansen than to miracles, or fortune, or providence. Read his account of the voyage,
Farthest North: The Epic Adventure of a Visionary Explorer
, and you'll repeatedly come upon moments of great peril and great self-doubt, moments in which I would have lost my wits and probably my life, like this one, recorded in his logbook in October 1894, after a year adrift in the ice:
Personally, I must say that things are going well with me; much better than I could have expected. Time is a good teacher; that devouring longing does not gnaw so hard as it did. Is it apathy beginning? . . . Oh! sometimes it comes on with all its old strengthâas if it would tear me to pieces! But this is a splendid school of patience. Much good it does to sit wondering whether they are alive or dead at home; it only almost drives one mad.
Only almost
, here, are the decisive, characterological words. Nansen continues:
, here, are the decisive, characterological words. Nansen continues:
All the same, I never grow quite reconciled to this life. It is really neither life nor death but a state between the two. It means never being at rest about anything or in any placeâa constant waiting for what is coming; a waiting in which, perhaps, the best years of one's manhood will pass. It is like what a young boy sometimes feels when he goes on his first voyage. The life on board is hateful to him; he suffers cruelly from all the torments of sea-sickness; and being shut in within the narrow walls of the ship is worse than prison; but it is something that has to be gone through. Beyond it all lies the south, the land of his youthful dreams, tempting with its sunny smile. In time he arises, half dead. Does he find his south? How often it is but a barren desert he is cast ashore on!
37
The 1957 undertaking was, in fact, called the IGY, for International Geophysical Year, since the field of study was more global in its scope. Nevertheless, it is still counted as the third such event, and the most recent IPY, therefore, as the fourth.
The 1957 undertaking was, in fact, called the IGY, for International Geophysical Year, since the field of study was more global in its scope. Nevertheless, it is still counted as the third such event, and the most recent IPY, therefore, as the fourth.
38
That “polar bears are rather retiring and unaggressive, especially in comparison with grizzly bears”âto which, genetically, they're closely related, so closely related that polar bears and grizzlies can breed. Big polars standing up are twelve feet tall. The hardiest among them can live thirty years. In addition to seals and sled dogs, they eat mussels, kelp, lemmings, and blueberries. They walk about 2.5 miles per hour, though females and cubs tend to be faster than males. The female's estrus lasts for three weeks, in April and May. The polar bear's longest hairsâguard hairs, they're calledâare six inches long. And hollow. And clear. One forepaw, the specially adapted hairs of which muffle its owner's footsteps, weighs around forty pounds. To dry off, polar bears roll in the snow. They get rid of excess heat through their footpads, nose, and a pair of back muscles. The liver of a polar bear is not good for your breast milk. In fact, it contains a lethal concentration of vitamin A, as certain explorers discovered the hard way.
That “polar bears are rather retiring and unaggressive, especially in comparison with grizzly bears”âto which, genetically, they're closely related, so closely related that polar bears and grizzlies can breed. Big polars standing up are twelve feet tall. The hardiest among them can live thirty years. In addition to seals and sled dogs, they eat mussels, kelp, lemmings, and blueberries. They walk about 2.5 miles per hour, though females and cubs tend to be faster than males. The female's estrus lasts for three weeks, in April and May. The polar bear's longest hairsâguard hairs, they're calledâare six inches long. And hollow. And clear. One forepaw, the specially adapted hairs of which muffle its owner's footsteps, weighs around forty pounds. To dry off, polar bears roll in the snow. They get rid of excess heat through their footpads, nose, and a pair of back muscles. The liver of a polar bear is not good for your breast milk. In fact, it contains a lethal concentration of vitamin A, as certain explorers discovered the hard way.
39
A hummock is a small convexity of ice, a bummock a small concavity. In bummocks, pools of melt tend to form. Together, hummocks and bummocks create an orderly if unintentional pattern that is, like many patterns both orderly and unintentional, beautiful to behold.
A hummock is a small convexity of ice, a bummock a small concavity. In bummocks, pools of melt tend to form. Together, hummocks and bummocks create an orderly if unintentional pattern that is, like many patterns both orderly and unintentional, beautiful to behold.
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