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)
It is sad to reflect upon the future of these strange people; and yet
they contemplate a fate which they view as inevitable, with an air
of indifference difficult to comprehend. The only person who seemed
seriously to feel any pang at the prospect of the desolation which
will soon come over the villages, is Kalutunah. This singular being--a
mixture of seriousness, good-nature, and intelligence--seems truly to
take pride in the traditions of his race, and to be really pained at
the prospect of their downfall. When I took his hand to-day and told
him that I would not come ashore any more, the tears actually started
to his eyes, and I was much touched with his earnest words,--it was
almost an entreaty,--"Come back and save us." Save them I would and
will, if I am spared to return; and I am quite sure that upon no beings
in the whole wide world could Christian love and Christian charity more
worthily fall.
July 14th.
[Sidenote: ADIEU TO PORT FOULKE.]
Moving out to sea under full sail, with a light wind from the eastward.
We make little progress, but are able to pick our way among the loose
ice. As we pass along, I see shoals of old tin cans, dead dogs, piles
of ashes, and other débris of the winter, floating on ice-rafts upon
the sea,--relics of the ten months which are gone, with all its dreary
and all its pleasant memories. As I retreated from the deck, I saw the
Esquimaux standing on the beach, gazing after us; the little white
Observatory grew dim in the distance; and I have come below with a
kindly "Adieu, Port Foulke," lingering on the lip.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
LEAVING PORT FOULKE.--EFFORT TO REACH CAPE ISABELLA.--MEET THE PACK
AND TAKE SHELTER AT LITTLETON ISLAND.--HUNTING.--ABUNDANCE OF
BIRDS AND WALRUS.--VISIT TO CAIRN POINT.--REACHING THE WEST
COAST.--VIEW FROM CAPE ISABELLA.--PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.--OUR
RESULTS.--CHANCES OF REACHING THE POLAR SEA DISCUSSED.--THE
GLACIERS OF ELLESMERE LAND.
The schooner glided gently out to sea, but the wind soon died away and
the current carried us down into the lower bay, where we moored to a
berg, and I went ashore and got some good photographs of Little Julia's
Glen and Fall, Sonntag's Monument, Crystal Palace Glacier, and Cape
Alexander.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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