CHAPTER IX.
Occurrences at Winter Harbour in the early Part of June.—Gradual
Dissolution of the Ice upon the Sea and of the Snow upon the
Land.—Decease and Burial of William Scott.—Equipment of the
Ships completed.—Temperate Weather during the Month of
July.—Breaking up of the Ice near the Ships.—Move to the lower
Part of the Harbour.—Separation of the Ice at the
Entrance.—Prepare to Sail.—Abstract of Observations made in
Winter Harbour.
I had the happiness to find, on my return, that the officers and men in both ships continued to enjoy the same good health as before, with the exception of Scott, who was still the only man in the Hecla's sick-list, and whose complaint seemed such as to baffle every attempt that had been made to produce an amendment. A constant disposition to fainting and a languid sort of despondency had been, for some time past, the only symptoms which had induced Mr. Edwards to continue the antiscorbutic treatment; and this it was sometimes absolutely necessary to discontinue for a day or two together, on account of the weak state of his bowels. During my absence he had been much worse than before, notwithstanding the greatest care and attention paid to him; but he was now once more better. He had lived almost entirely on the ptarmigan and ducks, of which a sufficient quantity had been procured to serve the sick and convalescent in both ships abundantly, and none had at this time been issued to any officer or man in the expedition.
The equipment of the ships had gone on satisfactorily during my absence, the Griper being nearly ready for sea, the Hecla not quite so forward, on account of the heavy work with the ballast, of which sixty-five tons had been brought on board, to supply the deficiency of weight in her holds. The survey of the provisions, fuel, and other stores was completed, and the quantity and condition of them, with the exception of the lemon-juice and vinegar before mentioned, were found to be satisfactory. With respect to vermin, I may here mention, that not a mouse, or rat, or maggot of any kind ever appeared on board, to my knowledge, during this voyage.
A very perceptible change had taken place in the ice of the harbour on its upper surface, it being covered with innumerable pools of water, chiefly brackish, except close in-shore, where the tides had lifted the ice considerably above the level of the sea.
Having observed that the sorrel was now so far advanced in foliage as to be easily gathered in sufficient quantity for eating, I gave orders that two afternoons in each week should be occupied by all hands in collecting the leaves of this plant; each man being required to bring in, for the present, one ounce, to be served in lieu of lemon-juice, pickles, and dried herbs, which had been hitherto issued. The growth of the sorrel was from this time so quick, and the quantity of it so great on every part of the ground about the harbour, that we shortly after sent the men out every afternoon for an hour or two; in which time, besides the advantage of a healthy walk, they could, without difficulty, pick nearly a pound each of this valuable antiscorbutic, of which they were all extremely fond. Of the good effects produced upon our health by the unlimited use of fresh vegetable substances, thus bountifully supplied by the hand of Nature, even where least to be expected, little doubt can be entertained, as it is well known to be a never-failing specific for scorbutic affections, to which all persons deprived of it for a length of time are probably more or less predisposed.
By the 20th of June, the land in the immediate neighbourhood of the ships, and especially in low and sheltered situations, was much covered with the handsome purple flower of the saxifraga oppositifolia, which was at this time in great perfection, and gave something like cheerfulness and animation to a scene hitherto indescribably dreary in its appearance.
The suddenness with which the changes take place during the short season which may be called summer in this climate, must appear very striking when it is remembered that, for a part of the first week in June, we were under the necessity of thawing artificially the snow which we made use of for water during the early part of our journey to the northward; that, during the second week, the ground was in most parts so wet and swampy that we could with difficulty travel; and that, had we not returned before the end of the third week, we should probably have been prevented doing so for some time, by the impossibility of crossing the ravines without great danger of being carried away by the torrents, an accident that happened to our hunting parties on one or two occasions in endeavouring to return with their game to the ships.
On the 22d, at four P.M., a thermometer, in the shade on board the Hecla, stood at 51°, being the highest temperature we had yet registered this season.
On the 24th we had frequent showers of snow, which occur in this climate more or less at all times of the year; at this season, however, when the earth is warm, it seldom or never lies on the ground for a whole day together.
Lieutenant Beechey, on his return from a hunting excursion at midnight on the 26th, reported that the ice along shore in that direction appeared in a more forward state of dissolution than near Winter Harbour, there being almost water enough in some places to allow a boat to pass, with several large cracks in the ice extending from the land some distance to seaward. The deep had now become much more wild near the tents, and it was therefore necessary to shift the ground a little. Lieutenant Beechey succeeded in killing one of these animals, by lying down quietly, and imitating the voice of a fawn, when the deer immediately came up to him within gunshot. The horns of the deer killed at this season, as Mr. Fisher remarks, were "covered with a soft skin having a downy pile or hair upon it; the horns themselves were soft, and at the tips flexible and easily broken." The foxes, of which they saw several, "had a black spot or patch on each side of the hind-quarters or hams."
On the 29th, one of the men, in returning on board from the daily occupation of gathering sorrel, found in a hole upon the ice a small fish, which appeared to be of the whiting species; and, on going to examine the place where it was picked up, Mr. Edwards and myself found two others exactly similar. As there was as yet no communication between the sea and the upper surface of the ice sufficiently large to admit these fish, it became a matter of question in what manner they had got into the situation in which we found them. It appeared most likely that they were frozen on the surface of the water at the beginning of winter, when the frost first commenced, and perhaps, therefore, had been floating there dead. We remarked that, whenever any hard substance is laid upon the ice in small quantities, it soon makes a deep hole for itself, by the heat it absorbs and radiates, by which the ice around it is melted. There were at this time upon the ice innumerable holes of this kind, some forming small, and others large pools of water; and in every one of these, without exception, some extraneous substance, such as seaweed, sand, and not unfrequently a number of small putrid shrimps were found. In one of these holes the fish alluded to were found. It was curious to see how directly contrary was the effect produced upon the ice by a quantity of straw which was put out upon it in the early part of May, and which, by preventing the access of warmth, had now become raised above the general surface more than two feet; affording a strong practical example of the principle on which straw is made use of in ice-houses, and, what was at that time of more importance to us, a proof, how much the upper surface of the ice had been insensibly wasted by dissolution.
Lieutenant Hoppner returned on the evening of the 29th from his hunting excursion to the southwest, bringing with him some game, and, what was to us much more acceptable, the welcome information that the ice had been observed in motion in the offing on the 22d. This circumstance was first observed by Messrs. Skene and Fife, who were of Lieutenant Hoppner's party, and who were awakened by a loud grinding noise, which, as they had soon the satisfaction to find, was occasioned by the heavy field-ice setting rapidly to the eastward, at the distance of five miles from the land, and apparently at the rate of a mile an hour. The wind was at this time moderate, but on the preceding day it had blown a fresh northerly gale.
For some days past Scott had been gradually growing worse, and on the evening of the 29th he was so far exhausted that Mr. Edwards did not expect him to survive through the night. At two A.M. on the 30th I was informed by that gentleman that Scott was dying; and, before I could get my clothes on, he had breathed his last, without any apparent pain.
On Sunday, the 2d of July, after divine service had been performed, the body of the deceased was committed to the earth, on a level piece of ground about a hundred yards from the beach; with every solemnity which the occasion demanded, and the circumstances of our situation would permit. The ensigns and pendants were lowered half-mast during the procession, and the remains of our unfortunate shipmate were attended to the grave by every officer and man in both ships. A neat tombstone was afterward placed at the head of the grave by Mr. Fisher, who carved upon it the name of the deceased, with the other usual information.
The dissolution of the ice of the harbour went on so rapidly in the early part of July, that we were greatly surprised, on the 6th, in finding that, in several of the pools of water on its upper surface, holes were washed quite through to the sea beneath. On examining several of these, we found that the average thickness of the ice in the upper part of the harbour, where the ships were lying, did not exceed two feet, which was much less than we had any idea of. Towards the mouth of the harbour, however, where the water was deeper, no such holes made their appearance for some days after this. It must here be remarked, that in all cases we found the ice to be first thawed and broken up in the shoalest water, in consequence, I suppose, of the greater facility with which the ground, at a small depth below the surface of the sea, absorbed and radiated the heat of the sun's rays; and as it is in such situations that water generally freezes the first, this circumstance seems a remarkable instance of the provision of nature for maintaining such a balance in the quantity of ice annually formed and dissolved, as shall prevent any undue or extraordinary accumulation of it in any part of the Polar regions of the earth.
On unhanging the rudders, and hauling them up on the ice for examination, we found them a good deal shaken and grazed by the blows they had received during the time the ships were beset at the entrance of Davis's Strait. We found, also, that the rudder-cases in both ships had been fitted too small, occasioning considerable difficulty in getting the rudders down when working, a circumstance by no means disadvantageous (perhaps, indeed, rather the contrary) on ordinary service at sea, but which should be carefully avoided in ships intended for the navigation among ice, as it is frequently necessary to unship the rudder at a short notice, in order to preserve it from injury, as our future experience was soon to teach us. This fault was, however, soon remedied, and the rudders again hung in readiness for sea.
On the 14th a boat passed, for the first time, between the ships and the shore, in consequence of the junction of a number of the pools and holes in the ice; and on the following day the same kind of communication was practicable between the ships. It now became necessary, therefore, to provide against the possibility of the ships being forced on shore by the total disruption of the ice between them and the beach, and the pressure of that without, by letting go a bower-anchor underfoot, which was accordingly done as soon as there was a hole in the ice under the bows of each sufficiently large to allow the anchors to pass through. We had now been quite ready for sea for some days; and a regular and anxious look-out was kept from the crow's-nest for any alteration in the state of the ice which might favour our departure from Winter Harbour, in which it now became more than probable that we were destined to be detained thus inactively for a part of each month in the whole year, as we had readied it in the latter part of September, and were likely to be prevented leaving it till after the commencement of August.
From six A.M. till six P.M. on the 17th, the thermometer stood generally from 55° to 60°; the latter temperature being the highest which appears in the Hecla's Meteorological Journal during this summer. It will readily be conceived how pleasant such a temperature must have been to our feelings after the severe winter which immediately preceded it. The month of July is, indeed, the only one which can be called at all comfortable in the climate of Melville Island.
On the 20th, there being a strong breeze from the N.N.E., with fog and rain, all favourable to the dispersion of the ice, that part of it which was immediately around the Hecla, and from which she had been artificially detached so long before, at length separated into pieces and floated away, carrying with it the collection of ashes and other rubbish which had been accumulating for the last ten months: so that the ship was now once more fairly riding at anchor, but with the ice still occupying the whole of the centre of the harbour, and within a few yards of her bows: the Griper had been set free in a similar manner a few days before. But it was only in that part of the harbour where the ships were lying that the ice had yet separated in this manner at so great a distance from the shore; a circumstance probably occasioned by the greater radiation of heat from the ships, and from the materials of various kinds which we had occasion to deposite upon the ice during the time of our equipment.
Lieutenant Liddon accompanied me in a boat down the west shore of the harbour to the southern point of the entrance, in order to sound along the edge of the ice, where we found from seven to fifteen feet water; the ice about the entrance appeared still very solid and compact, and not a single hole was at this time noticed through any of the pools upon its surface except one, which was made by a seal, and which discovered the thickness of the ice to be there between two and three feet.
There was a fresh breeze from the northeastward, with fine clear weather, on the 22d, which made the Hecla swing round into twenty feet water astern; and the ice, being now moveable in the harbour, came home towards the shore with this wind, but not so much as to put any considerable strain on the cable of either ship; and the holding-ground being excellent, there was nothing to apprehend for their security.
A fresh gale, which blew from the northward on the morning of the 23d, caused a great alteration in the appearance of the ice near the ships, but none whatever in that in the offing or at the mouth of the harbour, except that the shores were there more encumbered than before, owing to the quantity of pieces which were separated and driven down from the northward, so that our small boat could not succeed in getting along the shore.
On the 24th the sails were bent, in readiness for starting at a moment's notice, though it must be confessed that the motive for doing so was to make some show of moving rather than any expectation which I dared to entertain of soon escaping from our long and tedious confinement; for it was impossible to conceal from the men the painful fact that, in eight or nine weeks from this period, the navigable season must unavoidably come to a conclusion.
I went away in a boat early on the morning of the 25th, in order to sound the harbour in those parts where the ice would admit the boat, with a view to take advantage of the first favourable change which might present itself. The wind having come round to the southward in the afternoon, caused the separation of a large portion of ice on the northern side of that which now occupied the harbour, and the detached pieces drifting down towards us, rendered it necessary to be on our guard, lest the ships should be forced from their anchorage. On this account, as well as from an anxious and impatient desire to make a move, however trifling, from a spot in which we had now unwillingly, but unavoidably, passed nearly ten months, and of which we had long been heartily tired, I directed lines to be run out for the purpose of warping the ships along the ice in the centre of the harbour, and at half past two P.M. the anchors were weighed. As soon as a strain was put upon the lines, however, we found that the ice to which they were attached came home upon us, instead of the ships being drawn out to the southward; and we were therefore obliged to have recourse to the kedge-anchors, which we could scarcely find room to drop on account of the closeness of the ice. Having warped a little way out from the shore, into five fathoms and a half, it was found impossible to proceed any farther without a change of wind, and the anchors were therefore dropped till such a change should take place. In the course of the evening all the loose ice drifted past us to the northward, loading that shore of the harbour with innumerable fragments of it, and leaving a considerable space of clear water along shore to the southward.
On the morning of the 26th it was nearly calm, with continued rain and thick weather; and there being now a space of clear water for nearly three quarters of a mile to the southward of us, we took advantage of a breeze which sprung up from the northward to weigh, at nine A.M., and run down as far as the ice would permit, and then dropped our anchors in the best berths we could select, close to the edge of it, with the intention of advancing step by step, as it continued to separate by piecemeal. The ice across the entrance of the harbour as far as this spot, and the whole of that in the offing, of which we had here a commanding view from the Hecla's crow's-nest, was still quite continuous and unbroken, with the same appearance of solidity as it had during the middle of winter, except that the pools of water were numerous upon its surface.
The wind being from the S.S.W. during the night of the 30th, served to close the lane of water which had appeared in the offing the preceding day, which we considered a favourable circumstance, as showing that the external mass of ice was in motion. In the course of the day, the wind shifting to the W.N.W., we once more discovered a small opening between the old and young floes, and at eleven P.M., the whole body of the ice in the harbour was perceived to be moving slowly out to the southeastward, breaking away, for the first time, at the points which form the entrance of the harbour. This sudden and unexpected change rendering it probable that we should at length be released, I sent to Captain Sabine, who had been desirous of continuing his observations on the pendulum to the last moment, to request that he would have the clocks ready for embarcation at an early hour in the morning.