CHAPTER VII.
More temperate Weather.—House rebuilt.—Quantity of Ice collected on the Hecla's lower Deck.—Meteorological Phenomena.—Conclusion of Theatrical Entertainments.—Increased Sickness on board the Griper.—Clothes first dried in the open Air.—Remarkable Halos and Parhelia.—Snow Blindness.—Cutting the Ice round the Ships, and other Occurrences to the Close of May.
Before sunrise on the morning of the 1st of March, Lieutenant Beechey remarked so much bright red light near the southeastern horizon, that he constantly thought the sun was rising nearly half an hour before it actually appeared; there was a column of light above the sun similar to those which we had before seen. The day being clear and moderate, a party of men were employed in digging out the things which were buried in the ruins; the clocks were removed on board for examination, and preparations were made to rebuild the house for their reception.
The 5th of March was the most mild and pleasant day we had experienced for several weeks, and after divine service had been performed, almost all the officers and men in both ships were glad to take advantage of it, by enjoying a long walk upon the neighbouring hills. The weather had been hazy, with light snow and some clouds in the morning; but the latter gradually dispersed after noon, affording us the first day to which we could attach the idea of spring.
We continued to enjoy the same temperature and enlivening weather on the 7th, and now began to flatter ourselves in earnest that the season had taken that favourable change for which we had so long been looking with extreme anxiety and impatience. This hope was much strengthened by a circumstance which occurred to-day, and which, trifling as it would have appeared in any other situation than ours, was to us a matter of no small interest and satisfaction. This was no other than the thawing of a small quantity of snow in a favourable situation upon the black paintwork of the ship's stern, which exactly faced the south; being the first time that such an event had occurred for more than five months.
The severe weather which, until the last two or three days, we had experienced, had been the means of keeping in a solid state all the vapour which had accumulated and frozen upon the ship's sides on the lower deck. As long as it continued in this state, it did not prove a source of annoyance, especially as it had no communication with the bed-places. The late mildness of the weather, however, having caused a thaw to take place below, it now became necessary immediately to scrape off the coating of ice, and it will, perhaps, be scarcely credited, that we this day removed about one hundred buckets full, each containing from five to six gallons, being the accumulation which had taken place in an interval of less than four weeks. It may be observed, that this vapour must principally have been produced from the men's breath, and from the steam of their victuals during meals, that from the coppers being effectually carried on deck by the screen which I have before mentioned.
On the 9th it blew a hard gale from the northward and westward, raising a snowdrift, which made the day almost as inclement as in the midst of winter. The wind very suddenly ceased in the evening, and while the atmosphere near the ships was so serene and undisturbed that the smoke rose quite perpendicularly, we saw the snowdrift on the hills, at one or two miles' distance, whirled up into the air, in columns several hundred feet high, and carried along by the wind, sometimes to the north, and at others in the opposite direction. The snow thus raised at times resembled waterspouts, but more frequently appeared like smoke issuing from the tops of the hills, and as such was at first represented to me.
It blew a strong breeze from the N.b.W., with a heavy snowdrift, on the 12th, which continued, with little intermission, till near noon on the 14th; affording us a convincing proof that the hopes with which we had flattered ourselves of the speedy return of spring were not yet to be accomplished.
On the 16th, there being little wind, the weather was again pleasant and comfortable, though the thermometer remained very low.
This evening the officers performed the farces of the Citizen and the Mayor of Garratt, being the last of our theatrical amusements for this winter, the season having now arrived when there would no longer be a want of occupation for the men, and when it became necessary also to remove a part of the roofing to admit light to the officers' cabins. Our poets were again set to work on this occasion, and an appropriate address was spoken on the closing of the North Georgia Theatre, than which we may, without vanity, be permitted to say, none had ever done more real service to the community for whose benefit it was intended.
On the 23d we found, by digging a hole in the ice, in the middle of the harbour, where the depth of water was four fathoms and a quarter, that its thickness was six feet and a half, and the snow on the surface of it eight inches deep. This may be considered a fair specimen of the average formation of ice in this neighbourhood since the middle of the preceding September: and as the freezing process did not stop for six weeks after this, the produce of the whole winter may, perhaps, be reasonably taken at seven, or seven and a half feet. In chopping this ice with an axe the men found it very hard and brittle, till they arrived within a foot of the lower surface, where it became soft and spongy.
Being extremely anxious to get rid, as early as possible, of the drying of our washed clothes upon the lower deck, I had to-day a silk handkerchief washed and hung up under the stern, in order to try the effect of the sun's rays upon it. In four hours it became thoroughly dry, the thermometer in the shade being from -18° to -6° at the time. This was the first article that had been dried without artificial heat for six months, and it was yet another month before flannel could be dried in the open air. When this is considered, as well as that, during the same period, the airing of the bedding, the drying of the bed-places, and the ventilation of the inhabited parts of the ship, were wholly dependant on the same means, and this with a very limited supply of fuel, it may, perhaps be conceived, in some degree, what unremitting attention was necessary to the preservation of health, under circumstances so unfavourable and even prejudicial.
The morning of April 27th being very fine, and the thermometer at +6°, the ship's company's bedding was hung up to air, between the fore and main rigging, being the first time we had ventured to bring it from the lower deck for nearly eight months. While it was out, the berths and bed-places were fumigated with a composition of gunpowder mixed with vinegar, and known familiarly by the name of devils; an operation which had been regularly gone through once a week during the winter.
For the last three or four days of April the snow on the black cloth of our housing had begun to thaw a little during a few hours in the middle of the day, and on the 30th so rapid a change took place in the temperature of the atmosphere, that the thermometer stood at the freezing, or, as it may more properly be termed in this climate, the thawing point, being the first time that such an event had occurred for nearly eight months, or since the 9th of the preceding September. This temperature was to our feelings, so much like that of summer, that I was under the necessity of using my authority to prevent the men from making such an alteration in their clothing as might have been attended with very dangerous consequences. The thermometer had ranged from -32° to +32° in the course of twenty days. There was, at this period, more snow upon the ground than at any other time of the year, the average depth on the lower parts of the land being four or five inches, but much less upon the hills; while in the ravines a very large quantity had been collected. The snow at this time became so soft, from the influence of the sun upon it, as to make walking very laborious and unpleasant.
The fine and temperate weather with which the month of April had concluded, induced Captain Sabine to set the clocks going, in order to commence his observations for the pendulum, and he now took up his quarters entirely on shore for that purpose. On the first of May, however, it blew a strong gale from the northward, which made it impossible to keep up the desired temperature in the house: and so heavy was the snowdrift, that in a few hours the house was nearly covered, and we were obliged to communicate with Captain Sabine and his attendants through a small window, from which the snow was, with much labour, cleared away, the door being quite inaccessible. We saw the sun at midnight for the first time this season.
The gale and snowdrift continued on the following day, when we had literally to dig out the sentries, who attended the fire at the house, in order to have them relieved.
On the 6th, the thermometer rose no higher than +8½° during the day; but, as the wind was moderate, and it was high time to endeavour to get the ships once more fairly afloat, we commenced the operation of cutting the ice about them. In order to prevent the men suffering from wet and cold feet, a pair of strong boots and boot-stockings were on this occasion served to each.
On the 15th, two or three coveys of ptarmigan were seen, after which they became more and more numerous, and a brace or two were almost daily procured for the sick, for whose use they were exclusively reserved. As it was of the utmost importance, under our present circumstances, that every ounce of game which we might thus procure should be served in lieu of other meat, I now renewed the orders formerly given, that every animal killed was to be considered as public property; and, as such, to be regularly issued like any other kind of provision, without the slightest distinction between the messes of the officers and those of the ships' companies.
Some of our men having, in the course of their shooting excursions, been exposed for several hours to the glare of the sun and snow, returned at night much affected with that painful inflammation in the eyes occasioned by the reflection of intense light from the snow, aided by the warmth of the sun, and called in America "snow blindness." This complaint, of which the sensation exactly resembles that produced by large particles of sand or dust in the eyes, is cured by some tribes of American Indians by holding them over the steam of warm water; but we found a cooling wash, made by a small quantity of acetate of lead mixed with cold water, more efficacious in relieving the irritation, which was always done in three or four days, even in the most severe cases, provided the eyes were carefully guarded from the light. As a preventive of this complaint, a piece of black crape was given to each man, to be worn as a kind of short veil attached to the hat, which we found to be very serviceable. A still more convenient mode, adopted by some of the officers, was found equally efficacious; this consisted in taking the glasses out of a pair of spectacles, and substituting black or green crape, the glass having been found to heat the eyes and increase the irritation.
On the 17th we completed the operation of cutting the ice round the Hecla, which was performed in the following manner. We began by digging a large hole under the stern, being the same as that in which the tide-pole was placed, in order to enter the saw, which occupied us nearly two days, only a small number of men being able to work at it. In the mean time, all the snow and rubbish was cleared away from the ship's side, leaving only the solid ice to work upon; and a trench, two feet wide, was cut the whole length of the starboard side, from the stem to the rudder, keeping within an inch or two of the bends; and taking care here and there to leave a dike, to prevent the water which might ooze into one part from filling up the others in which the men were working. In this manner was the trench cut with axes to the depth of about four feet and a half, leaving only eighteen inches for the saws to cut, except in those places where the dikes remained. The saw, being then entered in the hole under the stern, was worked in the usual manner, being suspended by a triangle made of three spars: one cut being made on the outer part of the trench, and a second within an inch or two of the bends, in order to avoid injuring the planks. A small portion of ice being broken off now and then by bars, handspikes, and ice-chisels, floated, to the surface, and was hooked out by piecemeal. This operation was a cold and tedious one and required nine days to complete it. When the workmen had this morning completed the trench within ten or twelve feet of the stern, the ship suddenly disengaged herself from the ice, to which she had before been firmly adhering on the larboard side, and rose in the water about ten inches abaft, and nearly eighteen inches forward, with a considerable surge. This circumstance it was not difficult to explain. In the course of the winter, the strong eddy-winds about the ships had formed round them a drift of snow seven or eight feet deep in some parts, and perhaps weighing a hundred tons; by which the ice, and the ships with it, were carried down much below the natural level at which they would otherwise have floated. In the mean time the ships had become considerably lighter, from expenditure of several months' provisions: so that, on both these accounts, they had naturally a tendency to rise in the water as soon as they were set at liberty.
A party of hands were occupied in breaking and weighing the stones for ballast, while others were getting out the sails and boats; and our carpenters, armourers, coopers, and sailmakers having each their respective employments, our little colony now presented the most busy and bustling scene that can be imagined. It was found necessary to caulk every part of the upper works, as well as all the decks, the seams having been so much opened by the frost as to require at least one, and in many parts two threads of oakum, though the ship had scarcely ever laboured at all since she was last caulked. I also at this time laid out a small garden, planting it with radishes, onions, mustard, and cress; and a similar attempt was made by Lieutenant Liddon; but, notwithstanding every care and attention which could be paid to it, this experiment may be said to have wholly failed, the radishes not exceeding an inch in length by the latter end of July, and the other seeds being altogether thrown away. I may remark, however, that some common ships' peas, which were sown by our people for their amusement, were found to thrive so well, that, had I been sooner aware of it, a great quantity of the leaves at least of this vegetable might have been grown, which, when boiled and eaten as greens, would have been no small treat to persons deprived of fresh vegetable substance for more than ten months.
Having considered that an examination of the extent and productions of the island might be conducive to the improvement of the geography and natural history of these regions, and the good state of health enjoyed by the crews permitting a certain number of men to be spared from each ship during their equipment for sea, I now determined to undertake a journey into the interior for this purpose, accompanied by a certain number of officers and men who volunteered their services on the occasion; and the 1st of June was fixed for our departure.
Early on the morning of the 24th Mr. Allison reported that he had felt a few drops of rain fall upon his face, an event which we had scarcely dared to anticipate so soon, but which was hailed with much satisfaction, as nothing appears to be so effectual as rain in producing the dissolution of the ice. The clouds had a watery appearance throughout the day, and at half past eight in the evening we were agreeably surprised by a smart shower of rain, which was shortly after succeeded by several others.
Early on the morning of the 29th the wind increased to a fresh gale from the northward and westward, which continued during the day, with a heavy fall of snow and a tremendous drift, that prevented our seeing to the distance of more than twenty yards around the ships. The following day being fine, I took my travelling party to the top of the northeast hill, in order to try the cart which had been constructed for carrying the tents and baggage, and which appeared to answer very well. The view from this hill was not such as to offer much encouragement to our hopes of future advancement to the westward. The sea still presented the same unbroken and continuous surface of solid and impenetrable ice, and this ice could not be less than from six to seven feet in thickness, as we knew it to be about the ships. When to this circumstance was added the consideration that scarcely the slightest symptoms of thawing had yet appeared, and that in three weeks from this period the sun would again begin to decline to the southward, it must be confessed that the most sanguine and enthusiastic among us had some reason to be staggered in the expectations they had formed of the complete accomplishment of our enterprise.