CHAPTER XXII.
THE FLAMING MOUNTAIN.
A few days after the events described in the last chapter, Captain Hazzard summoned the boys to him and informed them that it was time to start out and establish "depots" for the storing of food and blankets as far as was practicable, in the direction of the pole. This was in order that any parties sent out to explore might not run the chance of being lost in the antarctic snows without having some place to which they could retreat. The "depots" were to be marked as rapidly as they were made with tall bamboo poles, each of which bore a black flag.
The boys pitched in to this occupation with great enthusiasm and, with the aid of the motor-sledge, soon had established three depots, covering a radius of some eighty miles from the camp. This work brought them to the verge of the chain of snow-mountains, beyond whose white crests they believed lay the pole. Somewhere along the coast line of this chain of mountains, too, so the lieutenant calculated, lay the Viking ship, which, in the years that had elapsed since the whalemen had seen her, must have drifted towards their bases on the ever-shifting polar currents. For the Great Barrier, solid as it seems, is not stationary, and many scientists hold that it is subject to violent earthquakes, caused by the subsidence of great areas of icy land into the boiling craters of polar volcanoes.
A careful study of the position, in which the whalemen set down they had spied the ship, and a calculation of the polar drift during the time that had elapsed from their discovery, had enabled Captain Hazzard to come, as he believed, very nearly locating the exact situation of the mysterious vessel.
"Somewhere to the southeast, at the foot of the snow-mountains, I firmly believe that we shall find her," he said.
It was a week after the establishment of the last depot that the boys were ready to make their first flight in polar regions. The Golden Eagle's vacuum tank and crank-case were attached and a supply of non-freezing oils and gasolene drums, carefully covered with warm felt, taken on board.
"Your instructions are," were Captain Hazzard's parting words, "to fly to the southward for a distance of a hundred miles or so, but no further. You will report the nature of the country and bring back your observations made with the instruments."
The Golden Eagle, which had been assembled earlier in the spring, was wheeled out of her shed and, after a brief "grooming," was ready for her first flight in the antarctic regions.
"It seems queer," observed Frank, "to be flying an aeroplane, that has been through so many tropical adventures, in the frozen regions of the south pole."
"It does, indeed," said the professor, who, with Billy Barnes, had obtained permission to accompany the boys.
Captain Hazzard, himself, would have come but that he and Captain
Barrington had determined to make surveys of the ice surrounding the
Southern Cross, in order to decide whether the ship had a speedy
chance of delivery from her frozen bondage.
The Golden Eagle shot into the icy air at exactly ten minutes past nine on the morning of the 28th of September. It was a perfect day, with the thermometer registering 22 above zero. So accustomed had they become to the bitter cold of the polar winter that even this low temperature seemed oppressive to the boys, and they wore only their ordinary leather aviation garments and warm underclothes. A plentiful supply of warm clothing was, however, taken along in case of need. Plenty of provisions and a specially contrived stove for melting snow into water were also carried, as well as blankets and sleeping bags.
The shout of farewell from the sojourners at the camp had hardly died out before the aviators found themselves flying at a height of three hundred feet above the frozen wastes. Viewed from that height, the aspect stretched below them was, indeed, a desolate one. As far as the eye could reach was nothing but the great whiteness. Had it not been for the colored snow goggles they wore the boys might have been blinded by the brilliancy of the expanse, as cases of snow blindness are by no means uncommon in the Antarctic.
On and on they flew toward the mighty snow mountains which towered like guardian giants ahead of them. The barograph showed that after some hours of flying they had now attained a height of two thousand feet, which was sufficient to enable them to clear the ridge. Viewed from above, the snow mountains looked like any other mountains. They were scarred by gullies and valleys in the snow, and only the lack of vegetation betrayed them as frozen heaps. Perhaps not mountains in the ordinary sense at all, but simply mighty masses of ice thrown up by the action of the polar drift.
"Look, look," quavered Billy Barnes, as they cleared the range and their eyes fell on the expanse beyond.
The boy's exclamation had been called forth by the sight of an immense mountain far to the southward of them.
From its summit was emerging a cloud of black smoke.
"A volcano!" exclaimed Frank, in blank astonishment.
"Such another as Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, also within the antarctic circle, but not either of which is as big as this one. I should imagine," said the professor. "Boys, let us head for it," he exclaimed; "it must be warm in the vicinity of the crater and perhaps we may find some sort of life existent there. Even the fur-bearing pollywog may reside there. Who knows?"
All agreed, without much argument, that it came within the scope of their duties to investigate the volcano, and they soon were winging toward it. As they neared the smoking cone they observed that its sides were formed of some sort of black stone, and with that, mingled with the smoke that erupted from its mouth, came an occasional burst of flame.
"It's in eruption," gasped Billy. "We'd better not get too near to it."
"I apprehend no danger," said the professor. "Both Scott and Shackleton and our own Wilkes examined the craters of Mounts Erebus and Terror, when steam and flames were occasionally spurting from them, without suffering any bad consequences."
Acting on the professor's advice the aeroplane was grounded at a point some distance from the summit of the mountain, on a small flat plateau. The warmth was perceptible, and some few stunted bushes and trees clung to the sides of the flaming mountain. The professor was delighted to find, flitting among the vegetation, a small fly with pink and blue wings, which he promptly christened the Sanburritis Antarcticitis Americanus. He netted it without difficulty and popped it into a camphor bottle and turned, with the boys, to regarding the mountain.
"Let's climb it and examine the crater," exclaimed Frank, suddenly, the instinct of the explorer strong in him.
"Bully," cried Billy; "I'm on."
"And me," exploded Harry.
"I should dearly love to," spoke the professor; "perhaps we can discover some more strange insects at the summit."
The climb was a tedious one, even with the aid of the rope they had brought with them from the Golden Eagle; and with which part of the party hauled the others over seemingly impassable places. At last, panting, and actually perspiring in the warm air, they stood on the lip of the crater and gazed down.
It was an awe-inspiring sight.
The crater was about half-a-mile across the top, and its rocky sides glowed everywhere with the glare of the subterranean fires. A reek of sulphurous fumes filled the air and made the adventurers feel dizzy. They, therefore, worked round on the windward side of the crater, and after that felt no ill consequences.
For a long time they stood regarding the depths from which the heavy black smoke rolled up.
"There's no danger of an eruption, is there?" asked Billy, somewhat apprehensively.
"I don't apprehend so," rejoined the professor. "A survey of the sides of the crater convinces me that it is many years since the volcano was active."
"It is a wonderful feeling to think that we are the first human beings who have ever seen it," exclaimed Frank, impulsively.
"It is, indeed," agreed the professor. "This is a great discovery and we must take possession of it in the name of the United States. Let us call it Mount Hazzard in commemoration of this expedition."
And so with a cheer the great antarctic volcano was named in honor of the leader of the expedition.
At the foot of the flaming mountain, originated no doubt by the warmth, were numerous large lakes filled with water of a deep greenish blue hue.
"I wonder if there aren't some fish in those lakes?" wondered the professor, gazing at the bodies of water so far below them. "At any rate there may be some kinds of creatures there that are very uncommon. Conditions such as they must exist under would make them unlike any others on earth, provided the waters are inhabited."
"It's easy enough to see," said Frank.
"How so?"
"We can clamber down the mountain side and get in the aeroplane and fly down to examine the lakes," said the boy.
"Bless my soul, that's so," ejaculated the man of science. "Do you know, for a moment I had quite forgotten how it was possible to get here. That is a wonderful machine that you boys have there."
The climb down the mountain side was almost more difficult and dangerous than the ascent, but at last all, even the professor, were once more at the side of the Golden Eagle. They were soon on board, and in long spirals, Frank dropped to the earth, landing not far from the edge of one of the small lakes.
"How curiously honeycombed the rocks are," exclaimed Frank, as they got out of the craft.
Indeed the face of the cliff that towered above the lakes did present a singular appearance, there being myriads of holes in its face at a height of a few inches above the surface of the water.
"Doubtless some freak of the volcanic nature of the earth hereabouts," explained the professor; "but they do, indeed, look curious."
The water of the lake, on being tested, was found to be quite fresh and agreeable to the taste though it was warmish and seemed to have an admixture of iron in it. All about them—strangest freak of all—small geysers of hot water bubbled, sending up clouds of steam into the air.
"This is like an enchanted land," was Billy's comment, as he gazed about him. Indeed, what with the towering black mountain above them with its perpetual cloud of smoke hovering above its crest, the green lakes of warm water and the bubbling, steaming geysers, it did seem like another world than ours.
Some time was occupied by a thorough investigation of the small lake and the boys and their scientific companion then advanced on a larger one that lay at some distance.
"Do you think it is wise to go so far from the aeroplane?" asked
Harry.
"Why, there's nothing here that could attack us," the professor was beginning, when he stopped short suddenly with an exclamation.
"Look there!" he exclaimed, pointing down at the ground. "A human track."
The boys looked and saw the imprint of a foot!
Yet, on inspection, it was unlike a human foot and seemed more like the track of a bear. Several other prints of a similar nature became visible now that they examined the spongy soil carefully.
"Whatever do you think it is?" Frank asked of the professor, who was examining the imprints with some care.
"I don't know, my dear boy," he replied. "It looks like the foot of a bear, and yet it appears to be webbed as if it might be that of some huge water animal."
"Yes, but look at the size of it," argued Billy. "Why, the animal whose foot that is must be an immense creature."
"It's certainly strange," mused the professor, "and suggests to me that we had better be getting back to our aeroplane."
"You think it is dangerous to remain here, then?" asked Harry, with some dismay.
"I do, yes," was the naturalist's prompt reply. "I do not know what manner of animal it can be that left that track, and I know the tracks of every known species of mammal."
"Perhaps some hitherto unknown creature made it," suggested Billy.
"That's just what I think, my boy," was the reply. "I have, as I said, not the remotest conception of what sort of a creature it could be, but I have an idea from the size of that track that it must be the imprint of a most formidable brute."
"Might it not be some prehistoric sort of creature like the mammoths of the north pole or the dinosauras, or huge flying-lizard?" suggested Frank.
"I'm inclined to think that that is what the creature is," rejoined the scientist. "It would be most interesting to remain here and try to get a specimen, but in the position we are in at present we should be cut off from the aeroplane in case an attack came from in front of us."
"That's so," agreed Frank. "Come on, boys, let's get a move on. We can come back here with heavy rifles some day, and then we can afford to take chances. I don't like the idea of facing what are possibly formidable monsters with only a pistol."
"My revolver can—," began Billy, drawing the weapon in question—when he stopped short.
The faces of all blanched as they, too, noted the cause of the interruption.
A harsh roar had suddenly filled the air, booming and reverberating against the gloomy cliffs like distant thunder.
Suddenly Billy, with a shout that was half a scream, called attention to the holes they had noticed at the foot of the acclivity.
"Look, look at that!" he chattered, his teeth clicking like castanets with sheer terror.
"We are lost!" shouted the professor, starting back with blanched cheeks.
From the strange holes they had previously noticed at the foot of the cliffs, dozens of huge creatures of a form and variety unknown to any in the party, were crawling and flopping into the lake.
That their intentions were hostile was evident. As they advanced in a line that would bring them between the boys and their aeroplane, they emitted the same harsh, menacing roar that had first started the adventurers.
"Run for your lives," shouted Frank, as the monsters cleaved the water, every minute bringing them nearer.