CHAPTER VI.
First Appearance of Scurvy.—The Aurora Borealis and other
Meteorological Phenomena.—Visits of the Wolves.—Reappearance of
the Sun.—Extreme low Temperature.—Destruction of the House on
Shore by Fire.—Severe Frostbites occasioned by this Accident.
January 1, 1820.—I received this morning the first unpleasant report of the scurvy having made its appearance among us: Mr. Scallon, the gunner of the Hecla, had for some days past been complaining of pains in his legs, which Mr. Edwards at first took to be rheumatic, but which, together with the appearance of his gums, now left no doubt of the symptoms being scorbutic. It is so uncommon a thing for this disease to make its first appearance among the officers, that Mr. Edwards was naturally curious to inquire into the cause of it; and at length discovered that Mr. Scallon's bedding was in so damp a state, in consequence of the deposite of moisture in his bed-place, which I have before mentioned, as to leave no doubt that to this circumstance, as the immediate exciting cause, his illness might justly be attributed. The difficulty of preventing this deposite of moisture, and the consequent accumulation of ice, was much greater in the officers' bed-places than in those of the men, in consequence of the former being necessarily placed in close contact with the ship's sides, and forming an immediate communication, as it were, with the external atmosphere; whereas in the latter there was a vacant interval of eighteen inches in width interposed between them. To prevent as much as possible, therefore, the injurious effects of this evil upon the health of the officers, I appointed certain days for the airing of their bedding by the fires, as well as for that of the ships' companies. Every attention was paid to Mr. Scallon's case by the medical gentlemen, and all our anti-scorbutics were put in requisition for his recovery: these consisted principally of preserved vegetable soups, lemon-juice, and sugar, pickles, preserved currants and gooseberries, and spruce beer. I began also, about this time, to raise a small quantity of mustard and cress in my cabin, in small shallow boxes filled with mould, and placed along the stovepipe; by these means, even in the severity of winter, we could generally ensure a crop at the end of the sixth or seventh day after sowing the seed, which, by keeping several boxes at work, would give to two or three scorbutic patients nearly an ounce of salad each daily, even though the necessary economy in our coals did not allow of the fire being kept in at night. The mustard and cress thus raised were necessarily colourless, from the privation of light; but, as far as we could judge, they possessed the same pungent aromatic taste as if grown under ordinary circumstances. So effectual were these remedies in Mr. Scallon's case, that, on the ninth evening from the attack, he was able to walk about on the lower deck for some time, and he assured me that he could then "run a race."
At noon on the 7th, the temperature of the atmosphere had got down to 49° below zero, being the greatest degree of cold which we had yet experienced; but the weather being quite calm, we walked on shore for an hour without inconvenience, the sensation of cold depending much more on the degree of wind at the time than on the absolute temperature of the atmosphere as indicated by the thermometer. In several of the accounts given of those countries in which an intense degree of natural cold is experienced, some effects are attributed to it which certainly did not come under our observation in the course of this winter. The first of these is the dreadful sensation said to be produced on the lungs, causing them to feel as if torn asunder when the air is inhaled at a very low temperature. No such sensation was ever experienced by us, though in going from the cabins into the open air, and vice versâ, we were constantly in the habit for some months of undergoing a change of from 80° to 100°, and, in several instances, 120° of temperature in less than one minute; and, what is still more extraordinary, not a single inflammatory complaint, beyond a slight cold, which was cured by common care in a day or two, occurred during this particular period. The second is, the vapour with which the air of an inhabited room is charged, condensing into a shower of snow immediately on the opening of a door or window communicating with the external atmosphere. This goes much beyond anything that we had an opportunity of observing. What happened with us was simply this: on the opening of the doors at the top and bottom of our hatchway ladders, the vapour was immediately condensed, by the sudden admission of the cold air, into a visible form, exactly resembling a very thick smoke, which settled on all the panels of the doors and bulkheads, and immediately froze, by which means the latter were covered with a thick coating of ice, which it was necessary frequently to scrape off; but we never, to my knowledge, saw the conversion of the vapour into snow during its fall.
On the evening of the 15th, the atmosphere being clear and serene, we were gratified by a sight of the only very brilliant and diversified display of Aurora Borealis which occurred during the whole winter. I believe it to be almost impossible for words to give an idea of the beauty and variety which this magnificent phenomenon displayed.
About this time it had been remarked, that a white setter dog had left the Griper for several nights past at the same time, and had regularly returned after some hours' absence. As the daylight increased, we had frequent opportunities of seeing him in company with a she-wolf, with which he kept up an almost daily intercourse for several weeks, till at length he returned no more to the ships; having either lost his way by rambling to too great a distance, or, what is more likely, perhaps, been destroyed by the male wolves. Some time after, a large dog of mine, which was also getting into the habit of occasionally remaining absent for some time, returned on board a good deal lacerated and covered with blood, having no doubt maintained a severe encounter with a male wolf, which we traced to a considerable distance by the tracks on the snow. An old dog, of the Newfoundland breed, that we had on board the Hecla, was also in the habit of remaining out with the wolves for a day or two together; and we frequently watched them keeping company on the most friendly terms.
A wolf, which crossed the harbour close to the ships on the 25th, was observed to be almost entirely white, his body long and extremely lean, standing higher on his legs than any of the Esquimaux dogs, but otherwise much resembling them; his tail was long and bushy, and always hanging between his legs, and he kept his head very low in running. It is extraordinary that we could never succeed in killing or catching one of these animals, though we were for months almost constantly endeavouring to do so.
On the 1st and 2d of February the weather was rather hazy, so that the sun could not have been seen had it been above the horizon; but the 3d was a beautifully clear and calm day. At eight A.M. a cross, consisting of the usual vertical and horizontal rays, was seen about the moon. At twenty minutes before apparent noon, the sun was seen from the Hecla's main-top, at the height of fifty-one feet above the sea, being the first time that this luminary had been visible to us since the 11th of November, a period of eighty-four days, being twelve days less than the time of its remaining actually beneath the horizon, independently of the effects of atmospherical refraction. On ascending the main-top, I found the sun to be plainly visible over the land to the south; but at noon there was a dusky sort of cloud hanging about the horizon, which prevented our seeing anything like a defined limb, so as to measure or estimate its altitude correctly.
At noon on the 7th we had the first clear view of the sun which we had yet enjoyed since its reappearance above our horizon, and an indistinct parhelion, or mock sun, slightly prismatic, was seen on the eastern side of it, at the distance of 22°.
There was now sufficient daylight, from eight o'clock till four, to enable us to perform with great facility any work outside the ships. I was not sorry to commence upon some of the occupations more immediately connected with the equipment of the ships for sea than those to which we had hitherto been obliged to have recourse as mere employment. We therefore began this day to collect stones for ballast, of which it was calculated that the Hecla would require in the spring nearly seventy tons, besides twenty tons of additional water, to make up for the loss of weight by the expenditure of provisions and stores. These stones were brought down on sledges about half a mile to the beach, where they were broken into a convenient size for stowage, and then weighed in scales erected on the beach for the purpose; thus affording to the men a considerable quantity of bodily exercise whenever the weather would permit them to be so employed.
The distance at which sounds were heard in the open air, during the continuance of intense cold, was so great as constantly to afford matter of surprise to us, notwithstanding the frequency with which we had occasion to remark it. We have, for instance, often heard people distinctly conversing, in a common tone of voice, at the distance of a mile; and to-day I heard a man singing to himself as he walked along the beach, at even a greater distance than this. Another circumstance also occurred to-day, which may perhaps be considered as worthy of notice. Lieutenant Beechey, and Messrs. Beverly and Fisher, in the course of a walk which led them to a part of the harbour, about two miles directly to leeward of the ships, were surprised by suddenly perceiving a smell of smoke, so strong as even to impede their breathing, till, by walking on a little farther, they got rid of it. This circumstance shows to what a distance the smoke from the ships was carried horizontally, owing to the difficulty with which it rises at a very low temperature of the atmosphere.
From four P.M. on the 14th till half past seven on the following morning, being an interval of fifteen hours and a half, during which time the weather was clear and nearly calm, a thermometer, fixed on a pole between the ships and the shore, never rose above -54°, and was once during that interval, namely, at six in the morning, as low as -55°. During the lowest temperature above mentioned, which was the most intense degree of cold marked by the spirit-thermometer during our stay in Winter Harbour, not the slightest inconvenience was suffered from exposure to the open air by a person well clothed, as long as the weather was perfectly calm; but, in walking against a very light air of wind, a smart sensation was experienced all over the face, accompanied by a pain in the middle of the forehead, which soon became rather severe. We amused ourselves in freezing some mercury during the continuance of this cold weather, and by beating it out on an anvil previously reduced to the temperature of the atmosphere; it did not appear to be very malleable when in this state, usually breaking after two or three blows from the hammer.
The increased length of the day, and the cheering presence of the sun for several hours above the horizon, induced me, notwithstanding the severity of the weather, to open the dead-lights of my stern windows, in order to admit the daylight, of which, in our occupations below, we had entirely been deprived for more than four months. I had soon, however, occasion to find that this change was rather premature, and that I had not rightly calculated on the length of the winter in Melville Island. The Hecla was fitted with double windows in her stern, the interval between the two sashes being about two feet; and within these some curtains of baize had been nailed close in the early part of the winter. On endeavouring now to remove the curtains, they were found to be so strongly cemented to the windows by the frozen vapour collected between them, that it was necessary to cut them off in order to open the windows; and from the space between the double sashes we removed more than twelve large buckets full of ice or frozen vapour, which had accumulated in the same manner.
About noon on the 16th, a parhelion, faintly prismatic, appeared on each side of the sun, continuing only for half an hour. Notwithstanding the low temperature of the external atmosphere, the officers contrived to act, as usual, the play announced for this evening; but it must be confessed that it was almost too cold for either the actors or the audience to enjoy it, especially for those of the former who undertook to appear in female dresses.
In the constant hope that each succeeding day would produce some amendment in the weather, we endeavoured contentedly to put up with the cold, which, however, continued to be so intense in the cabin for several weeks after this, that it was impossible to sit there without being warmly wrapped up; and it was not uncommon for us, at this period, to reverse the usual order of things, by throwing off our great coats when we went on deck to warm ourselves by exercise (the only mode we had of doing so), and immediately resuming them on coming below.
With our present temperature, the breath of a person at a little distance looked exactly like the smoke of a musket just fired, and that of a party of men employed upon the ice to-day resembled a thick white cloud.
At a quarter past ten on Thursday, the 24th, while the men were running round the decks for exercise, and were on that account fortunately well clothed, the house on shore was discovered to be on fire. All the officers and men of both ships instantly ran up to extinguish it; and having, by great exertion, pulled off the roof with ropes, and knocked down a part of the sides, so as to allow snow to be thrown upon the flames, we succeeded in getting it under after three quarters of an hour, and fortunately before the fire had reached that end of the house where the two clocks, together with the transit and other valuable instruments, were standing in their cases. Having removed these, and covered the ruins with snow, to prevent any remains of fire from breaking out again, we returned on board till more temperate weather should enable us to dig out the rest of the things, among which nothing of any material consequence was subsequently found to have suffered injury; and, having mustered the ships' companies to see that they had put on dry clothes before going to dinner, they were employed daring the rest of the day in drying those which had been wet. The appearance which our faces presented at the fire was a curious one, almost every nose and cheek having become quite white with frostbites in five minutes after being exposed to the weather; so that it was deemed necessary for the medical gentlemen, together with some others appointed to assist them, to go constantly round while the men were working at the fire, and to rub with snow the parts affected, in order to restore animation. Notwithstanding this precaution, which, however, saved many frostbites, we had an addition of no less than sixteen men to the sick lists of both ships in consequence of this accident. Among these there were four or five cases which kept the patients confined for several weeks; but John Smith, of the artillery, who was Captain Sabine's servant, and who, together with Sergeant Martin, happened to be in the house at the time the fire broke out, was unfortunate enough to suffer much more severely. In their anxiety to save the dipping-needle, which was standing close to the stove, and of which they knew the value, they immediately ran out with it; and Smith, not having time to put on his gloves, had his fingers in half an hour so benumbed and the animation so completely suspended, that on his being taken on board by Mr. Edwards, and having his hands plunged into a basin of cold water, the surface of the water was immediately frozen by the intense cold thus suddenly communicated to it; and, notwithstanding the most humane and unremitting attention paid to them by the medical gentlemen, it was found necessary, some time after, to resort to the amputation of a part of four fingers on one hand and three on the other.