The captain did not seem to hear him, but went to where some of the crew were busy now, unfurling and shaking out the jib preparatory to hoisting it to dry, while other men were busy with the stay-sail.
The lads brightened up at the order given, and the result was that an hour later the largest boat, well manned, and prepared for any emergencies in the way of meeting game, from walrus to wild duck, pushed off from the ship’s side, leaving her floating as snugly and as motionless as if in a dock.
The morning was glorious, and as they rowed north the various turnings of the fiord soon shut out all view of the Hvalross. After a while the huge towering cliffs, which had risen up nearly sheer from the water’s edge, began to retire, becoming less precipitous, and leaving a shore which, from being a mere ribbon, rapidly increased till there was a wide stretch of level land on either side, showing patches of green here and there where the snow had melted away; and soon after a narrow valley opened off to the right, but not going far, its upper end being choked by a glacier of great extent.
The men rowed as if glad of the chance to stretch their muscles, and soon after another valley was passed, and again another, but both on the right, the left side of the fiord being formed by a long, rocky and icy ridge, showing no gap whatever or means of getting through it toward the sea.
The valleys they still kept on passing, away east, gave plenty of promise of deer, so that, even if kept prisoners for some time, there did not appear to be any lack of food; but the other side was the more eagerly scanned by the Norsemen, who had the walrus harpoons, ropes, and lances lying ready to hand, and who longed to wield them again.
The party did not attempt to land, but travelled on for miles, and always through plenty of water, passing at last a likely-looking chasm on their left, through which ran a narrow, zigzagging, deep-looking canal; and in the hope that this might prove to be a way through to the west coast, it was left for the time being, while they pushed on for a mile or two farther. Here they came upon an unmistakable passage through a rocky defile, whose bottom was clear, dark water, going right on as far as they could see, while, leaving this too so as to finish the exploration of the main fiord first, they rowed on once more. At last, turning a headland, they came suddenly in view of a magnificent sight from the point of view of a lover of nature, but a terribly damping one to a captain whose ship was caught in a trap; for there, about a mile away, and spreading from side to side of the fiord, whose blue waters touched its foot, was another grand glacier, which looked from the distance like a frozen cataract, flowing down from high up in the mountains, to empty its solid waters into the fiord.
“No way out,” said the captain, after a few minutes’ examination of the great glacier with his glass; and he handed it to the doctor, who was fain to confess that the fiord was sealed up there as effectually as at the other end.
“It’s very grand,” he said with a sigh, “magnificent; but rather a dash to your hopes.”
“Back again!” said the captain, after Steve had had his survey as well, and longed to be rowed close up to the blue ice grottoes he could see at the foot of the glacier, beyond which many peaks towered up while the land was scored with valleys.
The oars dipped again in the blue water, and they rowed back to the rugged defile they had left to explore on their return.