Under the Sea to the North Pole (12 page)

The site was carefully chosen from the shelter of the northerly winds, under a barrier of lofty hills. It was found by observation that Cape Washington is situated in 83'’ 35' 6" north latitude, and 41° 12' west longitude. There remained consequently 1° 24' 54'’ or 141 kilometres 484 metres to traverse before they reached the 85th parallel.

What would they find under that parallel? Would it be a new land—an island dependent on Greenland, but nearer the Pole? Or would it be a vast glaciated continent extending to the Pole itself, and perhaps beyond it to almost the north of Siberia, here and there jutting out a peninsula, of which Franz Josef Land, discovered by Payer in 1871, was a promontory?

As far as they could see to the north the water was open. Captain Lacrosse took advantage of it to go out as far as possible from the station being built, to fix the positions of the line of coast he had sailed along to Cape Washington.

The shortness of the summer, which does not last more than two months at the Pole, compelled the leaders of the expedition to make the best possible use of the exceptional position in which they found themselves; and De Keralio called a meeting
of-
them for the purposes of consultation.

There was an almost unanimous opinion in favour of an immediate reconnaissance to the northward. In consequence of this everybody went on board ship again, and a start was made out to the open sea.

At the end of the first twenty miles several gigantic floes were met with, drifted probably from some fiord transformed into a glacier. All these fields of ice, these icebergs, apparently, moved towards the east and southeast, proving the presence of a very warm current in the inviolate Greenland seas.

Ten miles further on the ship had some difficulty in finding a way through the innumerable fragments of the old palaeocrystic field. The voyage was becoming embarrassing, although it was favoured with constant warmth which was breaking up the pack they were evidently approaching. They had passed the 84th parallel, and it was hoped they would be among the floating blocks at daybreak.

But on the morning of the 18th of June the look-out cried “Land-ho!” and about ten miles to the north they could distinguish a continuous chain of not very lofty mountains, hemmed in by a border of ice.

The
Polar Star,
changing her course, began to coast along the obstacle, trying to find an opening leading westward. The belt of ice did not seem to diminish or to break up. The evidence was unmistakable. The sea was closed against the explorers.

They fixed the position of the coast, while the ship tried in vain to anchor in 200 fathoms or more. They were evidently near a very steep shore, and the ship’s position was dangerous.

De Keralio again consulted his officers.

“Gentlemen,” said he, “up to the present we have every right to be satisfied with the result of our efforts. No man has gone as far as we have gone towards the Pole, for we are now in 84° 35' north latitude. Had it not been for the regrettable barrier the pack opposes to us we should have gone on to the 85th parallel. But what a ship cannot do I intend to accomplish over land. Barely twenty kilometres separate us from the island in view. I will take command of a few men and endeavour to reach it. We will take provisions enough for a long journey, and, with God’s help, we will reach this unknown spot of the globe which for so many years has been the object of so many heroic attempts.”

There were a few who endeavoured to dissuade the old man. He refuted all their objections. His age did not hinder his attempting such an enterprise. He had not come there only for the purpose of going back, and he considered he was justified in calling on his companions whom he had brought here at his own expense, in order that, without egotism, he could claim the merit of the discovery.

“I am persuaded,” he exclaimed, in an outburst of enthusiasm, “that beyond that unexpected barrier we shall find the open sea.”

In face of this energetic will backed up by unshakable conviction, De Keralio’s companions gave in; and all that could be done was to carry out the intention.

On the 21st of June, in the morning, the largest sledge was landed on the ice, and arranged for the reception of one of the boats in the event of there being any strips of water to cross. As De Keralio was about to try a decisive experiment, it was decided that it would be better not to leave the balloon behind. A second sledge and then a third sledge were put on the ice, and received the sections of the balloon and the submarine boat.

Up to that moment the most impenetrable secrecy had been kept with regard to these two means which were to be employed together or separately. The explorers had great hopes of them—of the balloon in particular, considering that aerostation was still the safest resource in face of the obstacles offered by the pack ice. In this opinion De Keralio joined.

It was necessary that the party should be numerous to cope with the difficulties of sledging, and to work the apparatus they were taking with them. The
Polar Star
was thus left with only her own crew. Isabelle remained on board with the invalids, as also did Tina Le Floc’h, who helped as well as she could with the little strength that remained to her. Captain Lacrosse kept with him Lieutenants Pol and Hardy, and Doctor Le Sieur. No consideration this time could prevent Servan accompanying his friend Keralio on an expedition of which all recognized the importance. It was the same with Hubert, whose presence among the explorers appeared indispensable for working the contrivances they were taking with them.

They did not even wait for the morrow to set out. They were not sure of the stability of the pack, and it was as well to let the
Polar Star
get away into safety as soon as possible.

The steamer was to try east or west for a way through to the land in sight, and to keep up communication with the explorers. If she could do this all would be well. In case she could not she was to endeavour to find some point on the coast, and there land provisions for the explorers on their return, and build cairns to protect these stores. Finally, it was agreed that if the land in sight were an island, the’explorers would return within three weeks.

These understandings having been arrived at, the column departed over the ice-field, while the steamer headed off to the eastward.

She was only just in time to get away from the belt of ice.

On the night of the 22nd of June, a frightful storm broke out over this part of the sea. By the violence of the waves, by their truly prodigious height, the sailors inferred that the water was of considerable depth. For two days the steamer struggled against a foaming expanse, on which gigantic icebergs were leaping as if they were monsters intent on destruction. There were sudden falls in the temperature which took down the thermometer from eight to four degrees, and brought on snowstorms which were quite unexpected at this season of the year. Finally, on the 24th, the
Polar Star
was in calm waters, almost entirely clear of the dangerous fragments. She had gone up six or seven miles to the north, and was in 0° 0' 3" east longitude, halfway to Spitzbergen.

There was no use in going further east There was no land on the horizon, but here and there were a few floes gliding heavily on the gently heaving waves. The steamer therefore headed boldly towards the north, and reached the 85th parallel.

It was with shouts and cheers that they saluted the crossing of this latitude, the highest reached up to then Captain Lacrosse called the crew together and pronounced a short allocution in the presence of Isabelle De Keralio who received a warm ovation. The weather was superb;

the thermometer stood at six degrees. Not a cloud stained the azure of the sky or threw a shadow on the cerulean robe of the ocean. Had it not been for the presence of a few wandering floes, they might have thought they were in the temperate zone. And finally, as an additional pleasure to all, the four invalids were able to come on deck and share in the general rejoicing. As a record of their crossing, the sailors threw over into the sea a barrel, in which they had carefully enclosed the following declaration written on parchment:—

“To-day, Saturday, June, the ship
Polar Star,
De Keralio, owner, Bernard Lacrosse, captain, Lieutenants Hardy, Pol, and Remois, Doctors Servan and Le Sieur Schnecker, chemist, with Isabelle De Keralio, passenger, Corentine Le Floc’h, her nurse, and twenty of the ship’s company, of whom six are ill, but not seriously, after having landed in eighty-four degrees north latitude, and forty-one degrees west longitude, De Keralio, chief of the expedition, H. D’Ermont, Lieutenant, Doctor Servan, Chemist Schnecker, Lieutenant Remois, twenty of the crew under Guerbraz, first boatswain, and thirty dogs, all on an exploring party, crossed the 85th parallel at eleven hours forty-four minutes a.m. Sky clear; sun superb; temperature seven degrees; no land in sight. Vive la France!”

And then followed the signatures of all present.

The cask was taken to the stern where the gun had been loaded. Isabelle was invited to fire it, and she did so,. and as the cask fell into the sea, the gun bellowed forth in its voice of bronze, as excited hurrahs greeted the explosion.

There was a banquet at which all sat down, and numerous toasts were drunk to the success of the expedition.

As there were only four days before the ist July, and no confidence could be placed in the stability of the calm, Lacrosse decided to steer for the westward, so as to pick up the exploring column before the date fixed for the meeting.

CHAPTER VIII

ADIEU OR AU REVOIR.

O
N the 28th the
Polar Star
was in sight of the island reported a week before. Next day she cast anchor in a creek admirably sheltered and of easy access owing to the

shelving shore.

A landing took place immediately, and a detachment composed of Isabelle, Captain Lacrosse and eight men, started to explore the interior.

Isabelle greatly enjoyed this change from the monotony of the life on board ship.

Since the departure of the column, she had been increasingly subject to low spirits. Unable as she was to explain it, gloomy presentiments haunted her mind. Greatly did she grieve in bidding farewell to the expedition, and receiving her father’s kiss. That kiss had left behind it a print of mourning. A thousand torturing thoughts troubled her every moment, and the most terrible fancies rose before her eyes. The desolation around was not calculated to drive away these forebodings, notwithstanding the presence of the sun, which shone unceasingly above the horizon. When the solstice had passed, it seemed to her as if they were falling back into winter and its eternal night, so gloomy was she in her mind.

She had tried her best to struggle against these unwelcome feelings. The piano which had resumed its place in the saloon was her first consoler. She devoted herself to music as much for her own consolation as for that of her companions, who were gradually succumbing to the melancholy of these fatal zones.

Isabelle was a brave girl, and much as she might feel the effects of this depressing stay in the north, she had no wish that what she might suffer should lead to or increase the discouragement of those around .her. Among them was one who was particularly dear to her, her nurse Tina Le Floc’h, whose feeble health was now giving rise to the greatest uneasiness.

But music soon became powerless. She felt it to be even a weariness, and she only put her fingers to the keyboard to amuse her travelling companions.

Then she tried still more futile occupations. Reading gave her only half a respite. She wanted action to enable her to overcome her lassitude and anxiety due to the long. idleness of the sea voyage.

It was with enthusiasm, then, that she received the proposition to land.

Guerbraz was no longer with her, but she had Salvator. It was in Salvator’s company on the 30th of June, after it had been found that the land was an island or rather a sort of ridge about fifty kilometres long and three or four wide, that she went ashore and took her way up the chain of mountains, which traversed it throughout its length,

She wished to be alone. The constraint she had so long imposed on herself, or rather since her separation from the land party, had overtaxed her nerves. Seated on a bare peak nearly eight hundred metres above the sea, from which she could look upon both shores of the island, she could not restrain her tears. They streamed down her cheeks, overflowing from her sorrowful heart, and mingling with the reproaches and the vague remorse that her conscience awoke in its most secret remembrances.

For among her gloomy apprehensions, the poor child accused herself of being the involuntary cause, not only of her own trials, but of the dangers now being encountered by her father, her betrothed, her old friend Doctor Servan, the faithful Guerbraz, and the other brave men who for the moment were linked with her destiny. If she had devoted herself to strenuously resisting her father’s plans instead of encouraging them by her foolish proposal to share in the adventure, she might perhaps have dissuaded him. Science might perhaps have lost something by the renunciation but how much rest and happiness she would have gained for those who were so dear to her!