The Siege and Conquest of the North PoleBryce, George
History
The Siege and Conquest of the North Pole
Bryce, George
Arctic regions; North Pole; Scientific expeditions
slept, was usually from 36° to 45°, according to the state of the
external atmosphere; but on one or two occasions, in calm and warm
weather, it rose as high as 60° to 66°, obliging us to throw off a part
of our fur dress. After we had slept seven hours, the man appointed to
boil the cocoa roused us, when it was ready, by the sound of a bugle,
when we commenced our day in the manner before described.
“Our allowance of provisions for each man per day was as follows:—
“Biscuit, 10 oz.; pemmican, 9 oz.; sweetened cocoa-powder, 1 oz. to make
1 pint; rum, 1 gill; tobacco, 3 oz. per week.
“Our fuel consisted entirely of spirits of wine, of which 2 pints formed
our daily allowance, the cocoa being cooked in an iron boiler over a
shallow iron lamp, with seven wicks; a simple apparatus, which answered
our purpose remarkably well. We usually found 1 pint of spirits of wine
sufficient for preparing our breakfast—that is, for heating 28 pints of
water, though it always commenced from the temperature of 32°.”
They set off on their first journey over the ice on 24th June. Instead
of the fine level floes they expected, they found the ice consisting of
pieces of small extent and very rugged, obliging them to make three
journeys, and sometimes four, with the boats and baggage, and to launch
several times across narrow pools of water. They experienced a great
amount of rain, and had sometimes to wade through water from 2 to 5
inches deep upon the ice. It was rarely that they met with a surface
sufficiently level and hard to drag all their loads at one journey. Deep
soft snow was frequently met with, and proved a difficult obstacle to
overcome. At other times their way lay across small loose pieces of ice,
and the boats had to be made to serve the purpose of a bridge between
the pieces. After a laborious day’s work, they frequently found that
they had not progressed more than 2 miles. It had been calculated that
they could travel 20 miles per day over level ice. They found the
Lapland shoes, or Kamoogas, good for walking in when the snow was dry,
but when it was wet they found Esquimaux boots much superior. On the 5th
of July they had reached latitude 81° 45′ 15″, and on sounding with 400
fathoms of line failed to reach the bottom. A like result was met in
latitude 82° 17′ 10″, which was reached on 13th July. About this date
they found that they were being drifted considerably to the
south—sometimes 1 or 2 miles per day. The glare of the sun was often
very oppressive: the best preservative was found to be spectacles having
the glass of a bluish-green colour, and with side-screens to them. On
the 20th July they reached 82° 36′ 52″, less than 5 miles to the
northward of their position on the 17th, although they calculated they
certainly had travelled 12 miles. On the 25th July, Parry wrote: “So
small was the ice now around us, that we were obliged to halt for the
night at 2 a.m., being upon the only piece in sight, in any direction,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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