The Great Frozen Sea: A Personal Narrative of the Voyage of the "Alert"Markham, Albert Hastings, Sir
History
The Great Frozen Sea: A Personal Narrative of the Voyage of the "Alert"
Markham, Albert Hastings, Sir
Alert (Sloop : 1856-1895); Arctic regions; Nares, George S. (George Strong), 1831-1915
A journey through, and over, hummocks is the most unsatisfactory kind of
travelling that can possibly be imagined. "Standing pulls" must be the
order of the day, and the incessant "one, two, three, haul" is
constantly heard. The trudging backwards and forwards to drag the
different sledges to the front along the same road is decidedly
monotonous; but this had no effect on the cheerfulness and general good
spirits of the men, who were all actuated by the same zealous desire to
do their best. The temperature all day had been delightful, ranging from
8° to 20° below zero.
_April 13th._--A dull, cloudy day, with the sun shining at intervals,
and the temperature as low at one time as -33°. We cut a road and
dragged the sledges through a fringe of hummocks about two hundred yards
in breadth, then crossed a fine large floe that afforded us capital
travelling for nearly a mile in a northerly direction, then through
another long fringe of large and troublesome hummocks, until we were
completely brought to a standstill by a mass of enormous fragments of
ice, piled up in an irregular form to the height of from twenty to
thirty feet. Through this obstacle we resolved to cut a road: in fact,
no other alternative offered. It was a long and tedious job; but with
such a hearty good will did the men work that we had the satisfaction of
dragging our sledges over a very rough road and encamping for the night
with the difficulties in our rear. Parr with pickaxe and shovel was a
first-rate "navvy," and worked like a horse.
Our routine was for one or other of us to select the best route through
the hummocks. This being done, one, with a gang of road-makers,
proceeded to construct the road, whilst the other, with the remainder of
the party, dragged the sledges on one by one. Great care had to be taken
that our boats, on the exceedingly rough road over which they were
dragged, did not sustain any injury. Sometimes it was a very delicate
matter, and one that required skilful handling, after the sledges had
been hauled up to the top of the hummocks, to lower them down in safety
on the opposite side. The ease and facility with which the ice yielded
to the dexterous blows of the pickaxes, wielded by strong and determined
men, was almost incredible. Apparently impenetrable masses of ice
vanished before their efforts, and left a fairly good road by which we
advanced.
_April 14th._--Last night our sleeping-bags were frozen so hard that it
was with great difficulty we succeeded in getting into them. Even when
this was accomplished, the warmth we derived from them was
inappreciable, and we felt more as if we were confined in a wooden box
or coffin than in a woollen bag! My blanket wrappers, although I laid on
them all night, were so stiff this morning that I had the utmost
difficulty in bending them over my feet! Being Good Friday, our prayers
in the morning were of longer duration than usual.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF TENT.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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