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)
And now, in apparent security, the ship's company abandon themselves
to repose. Weary and worn with the hard struggle and exposure, we were
all badly in need of rest. An abundant supply of hot coffee was our
first refreshment. But, notwithstanding their fatigue, some of the more
enthusiastic members of the party went ashore, so anxious were they to
touch this far-north land.
8 o'clock, P. M.
I have just returned from a tedious climb to the top of the cliffs. At
an elevation of twelve hundred feet I had a good view. The sea is free
from ice along the shore apparently up to Littleton Island, from which
the pack stretches out over the North Water as far as the eye will
carry. There appears to be much open water about Cape Isabella, but I
could not of course see the shore line. Above the cape the ice appeared
to be solid. Although the prospect is discouraging, I have determined
to attempt a passage with the first favorable wind.
[Sidenote: VIEW FROM THE CLIFFS.]
The journey was a very difficult one, and when I had reached the
summit of the cliff I was almost blown over it. The force of the wind
was so great that I was obliged to steady myself against a rock while
making my observations. Knorr, who accompanied me, lost his cap, and it
went sailing out over the sea as if a mere feather. The scene was but a
broader panorama of that which I described in this journal yesterday.
It was a grand, wild confusion of the elements. The little schooner,
far down beneath me, was writhing and reeling with the fitful gusts,
and straining at her cables like a chained wild beast. The clouds of
drifting snow which whirled through the gorges beneath me, now and
then hid her and the icebergs beyond from view; and when the air fell
calm again the cloud dropped upon the sea, and the schooner, after a
short interval of unrest, lay quietly on the still water, nestling in
sunshine under the protecting cliffs.
There are yet some lingering traces of the summer. Some patches of
green moss and grass were seen in the valleys, where the snow had
drifted away; and I plucked a little nosegay of my old friends the
poppies and the curling spider-legged _Saxifraga flagelaris_. The frost
and snow and wind had not robbed them of their loveliness and beauty.
The cliffs are of the same sandstone, interstratified with greenstone,
which I have before remarked of the coast below.
McCormick has replaced the old foresail which was split down the
centre, with the new one, and has patched up the mainsail and jib, both
of which were much torn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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