73. ARCTIC FOX.
Their hut was ready by September 12, and to preserve their supply of meat as long as possible, they lived four days of the week on the offal of whales’ fat which lay scattered about in great plenty. From October 26 to February 15 they saw no sun, and from the 13th to the 31st of December no twilight. The new year began with excessive cold: every piece of metal they touched stuck to their fingers like glue, and their skin became blistered when exposed to the air. The re-appearance of the sun was as a resurrection from death. To increase their joy, they saw two bears on the ice, one of which they killed, but they found, what has since been frequently experienced by others, that the liver of the animal has poisonous qualities, or is at least very unwholesome, for, after eating it, they were all attacked with a kind of eruptive fever, and their skin peeled off. Towards the middle of March their provisions were well-nigh exhausted, but the Polar bears appearing more frequently, replenished their stock. Soon also the migratory birds arrived from the south, the foxes crept out of their burrows, and many were caught in traps. On June 5 the ice began to break up, and on the following morning one-half of the bay was open. A gale forced them to seek the shelter of their hut. There, seated round the fire, they spoke of their approaching delivery, when suddenly a loud halloo was heard. They immediately rushed out into the open air, and hardly believed their eyesight, for they were greeted by their comrades of the previous summer, and saw their own well-known ship at anchor in the bay. Thus were these brave-hearted men rescued after a ten months’ exile in the latitude of 77°.
The possibility of wintering in Spitzbergen having thus been proved, some volunteers belonging to the Dutch fleet were induced by certain emoluments to attempt the same enterprise on Amsterdam Island; but, less fortunate than their predecessors, they all fell victims to the scurvy. A diary which they left behind recorded the touching history of their sufferings. “Four of us,” these were its last words, “are still alive, stretched out flat upon the floor, and might still be able to eat if one of us had but the strength to rise and fetch some food and fuel, but we are all so weak, and every movement is so painful, that we are incapable of stirring. We constantly pray to God soon to release us from our sufferings, and truly we can not live much longer without food and warmth. None of us is able to help the others, and each must bear his burden as well as he can.”
Since that time both the English and the Dutch have given up the idea of forming permanent settlements in Spitzbergen, but scarcely a year passes that some Russians and Norwegians do not winter in that high northern land. As far back as the seventeenth century, the former used to send out their clumsy but strongly-built “lodjes” of from 60 to 160 tons from the ports of Archangel, Mesen, Onega, Kola, and other places bordering the White Sea, to chase the various animals of Spitzbergen, the reindeer, the seal, the beluga, but chiefly the walrus, the most valuable of all. These vessels leave home in July, or as soon as the navigation of the White Sea opens, and as the shortness of the season hardly allows them to return in the same year, they pass the winter in some sheltered bay. Their first care on landing is to erect a large cross on the shore, a ceremony they repeat on leaving, and such is their religious faith that under the protection of that holy symbol they mock all the terrors of the Arctic winter. Near the place where their vessels are laid up, they build a large hut from twenty to twenty-five feet square, which is used as a station and magazine; but the huts used by the men who go in quest of skins, and which are erected at distances of from ten to fifty versts along the shore, are only seven or eight feet square. The smaller huts are usually occupied by two or three men, who take care to provide themselves from the store-house with the necessary provisions for the winter. Scoresby visited several of these huts, some constructed of logs, others of deal two inches in thickness. They are of the same kind as those used by the peasants in Russia, and, being taken out in pieces, are erected with but little trouble in the most convenient situation. The stoves are built with bricks, or with clay found in the country. During the stay of the hunters, they employ themselves in killing seals or walruses in the water, and bears, foxes, deer, or whatever else they meet with on land. Each ship is furnished with provisions for eighteen months, consisting of rye flour for bread, oatmeal, barley-meal, peas, salt beef, salt cod, and salt halibut, together with curdled milk, honey, and linseed oil; besides which, they enjoy the flesh of the animals which they kill. Their drink consists chiefly of quas, a national beverage made from rye flour and water; malt or spirituous liquors being entirely forbidden, to prevent drunkenness, as, when they were allowed it, they drank so immoderately that their work was often altogether neglected. Their fuel for the most part is brought with them from Russia, and drift-wood is used for the same purpose.
The hunters, seldom travelling far in winter, make their short excursions on foot on snow-skates, and draw their food after them on hand-sledges. Not seldom they are overtaken by terrific snowstorms, which force them to throw themselves flat upon the ground, and sometimes even cost them their lives. Their best preservation against the scurvy is bodily exercise; they also use the Cochlearia fenestrata, which grows wild in the country, either eating it without any preparation, or drinking the liquor prepared from it by infusion in water. Yet, in spite of all their precautions, they often fall a prey to this terrible scourge. In the year 1771, Mr. Steward, of Whitby, landed in King’s Bay to gather drift-wood, and found a Russian hut. After having vainly called for admittance, they opened it, and found a corpse stretched out on the ground, its face covered with green mould. Most likely the unfortunate man, having buried all his comrades, had, as the last survivor, found no one to perform the same kind office for himself. Generally the Russian hunters, after spending the winter in Spitzbergen, return home in the following August or September; but their stop is often prolonged during several years; and Scharostin, a venerable Russian, who died in 1826 in Ice Sound, is deservedly remarkable for having spent no less than thirty-two winters of his long life in that high northern land, where he once remained during fifteen consecutive years. Surely this man ought to have been crowned king of Spitzbergen—
On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,
With a diadem of snow!
Every year, at the beginning of summer, about a dozen vessels leave the ports of Hammerfest and Tromsö for Spitzbergen. Formerly it was a very common thing for them to procure three cargoes of walrus and seals in a season, and less than two full cargoes was considered very bad luck indeed; now, however, it is a rare thing to get more than one cargo in a season, and many vessels return home after four months’ absence only half full. Yet, in spite of this diminution, the numbers of walruses still existing in that country are very considerable, particularly on the northern banks and skerries, which are only accessible in open seasons, or perhaps once in every three or four summers, when the persecuted animals get a little time to breed and replenish their numbers.
74. CHASE OF THE WALRUS.
About midway between Hammerfest and Spitzbergen lies Bear Island, originally discovered by Barentz on June 9, 1596. Seven years later, Stephen Bennet, a shipmaster in the service of the Muscovy Company, while on a voyage of discovery in a north-easterly direction, likewise saw Bear Island on August 16. Ignorant of its previous discovery by Barentz, he called it Cherie Island, after Sir Francis Cherie, a member of the company, and to this day both names are used.