The Open Polar Sea: A narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States"Hayes, I. I. (Isaac Israel)
History
The Open Polar Sea: A narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States"
Hayes, I. I. (Isaac Israel)
Arctic regions; United States (Schooner)
On the second day's march the ice was found to be jammed in a terrible
manner upon Cape Napoleon, so that we were quite unable to reach the
shore at that place, and were forced to hold out into the Sound and
become once more entangled among the hummocks. A thick fog, completely
veiling the land, coming upon us from the north, and a shower of snow
following after, caused us so much bewilderment that we were obliged to
camp and await better weather.
The land-ice was reached next morning, and during that day we made a
brisk run to the north side of Cape Frazer--the first time that we had
struck a trot since leaving Cairn Point. Our camp was made near the
furthest point reached by me in 1854.
[Sidenote: KENNEDY CHANNEL.]
We were now within Kennedy Channel, which I had before barely entered.
The ice in the entrance of the Channel was much like that of the Sound
below; so that we were obliged to adhere to the land-ice, even while
crossing Gould Bay,[8] which lies between Capes Leidy and Frazer, and
which I once thought would furnish a good winter harbor. Indeed, this
was the bay which it was my aim to reach with my vessel the previous
autumn. The little flag-staff, which I had before planted at this
place, was discovered, still standing erect among the rocks; but not a
vestige of the flag remained. The winds had whipped it entirely away.
[Footnote 8: So named in honor of Dr. B. A. Gould, of Cambridge.]
[Sidenote: TRACES OF ESQUIMAUX.]
While rounding the head of Gould Bay, I observed that, as at Port
Foulke, Van Rensselaer Harbor, and indeed in almost every bay of
the Greenland coast which I have visited above Cape York, the land
rises with a gentle slope, broken into steppes of greater or less
regularity,--a series of terraced beaches, the highest of which I
estimated to be from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty
feet above the sea. To these terraces I shall have occasion hereafter
to refer, and will not now longer detain the reader than merely to
observe that they indicate a consecutive elevation of the two coasts.
I also found in that Bay the remains of an Esquimau camp. The marks
were quite unmistakable in their character although of very ancient
date. The discovery was the more gratifying, that it confirmed the
native traditions which had been recited to me by Kalutunah. They were
a single circle of heavy stones lying upon the shingly terrace. The
circle was about twelve feet in diameter, and is such as may be seen
in all places where Esquimaux have been in the summer time. The stones
answer the purpose of securing the lower margin of their seal-skin
tent; and, when they break up camp, the skins are drawn out, leaving
the stones in the situation above described.
[Sidenote: ROTTEN ICE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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