A Voyage to the Arctic in the Whaler Aurora

by David Moore Lindsay

CHAPTER XIII—CAREY ISLANDS TO LANCASTER SOUND

"Here winter holds his unrejoicing court;

And through his airy hall the loud misrule

Of driving tempest is forever heard.

Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath,

Here arms his winds and all-subduing frost.

Moulds his fierce hail and treasures up his snows

With which he now oppresses half the globe."

June 22nd. Sunday. It was blowing very hard from the south, and there was much ice, so we had a difficult time picking our way. The weather was also bitterly cold. Again birds were very numerous. We were making our way to Princess Charlotte's Monument on the west side, and it was slow work. The Arctic was ahead of us and not moving on any faster. We felt the loss of the relief ships. They were always a cause of some excitement, and there was a chance of finding Greely so long as we kept going north. Now that that interest was removed, I consoled myself with the knowledge that we were nearing the magnetic pole, and would soon be steaming up Lancaster Sound, the highway to the northwest along which so many brave men had gone never to return. During the afternoon it became more squally, and when I turned in we were making little headway, but the wind was going down.