Meanwhile we were tormented with another set of gales, and we could scarcely stir abroad. The ice was all broken up in the outer bay, and the open sea came nearer to us than during any previous period of the winter. The ice was nearly all driven out of the bay, and the broad, dark, bounding water was not only in sight from the deck, but I could almost drop a minie-ball into it from my rifle, while standing on the poop. Even the ice in the inner harbor was loosened around the shore, and, thick and solid though it was, I thought at one time that there was danger of its giving way and going bodily out to sea.
ARCTIC BIRDS.
Strange, too, along the margin of this water there came a flock of speckled birds to shelter themselves under the lee of the shore, and to warm their little feet in the waters which the winds would not let freeze. They were the Dovekie of Southern Greenland,—the Uria grylle of the naturalist. They are often seen about Disco Island and Upernavik in the winter time, but I was much surprised to find them denizens of the Arctic night so near the Pole. It was a singular sight to see them paddling about in the caves, under the ice-foot, at 30° below zero, uttering their plaintive cry, and looking for all the world like homeless children, shoeless and in rags, crouching for shelter beneath a door-stoop on a bleak December night. I wanted one of them badly for a specimen, but it would have required something stronger than the claims of science to have induced me to harm a feather of their trembling little heads.
CHAPTER XXI.
SUNRISE.
February 18th.
Heaven be praised! I have once more seen the sun.
Knowing that the sun would appear to-day, everybody was filled with expectation, and hastened off after breakfast to some favorite spot where it was thought that he might be seen. Some went in the right direction, and were gratified; others went in the wrong direction, and were disappointed. Knorr and others of the officers climbed the hills above Etah. Charley limbered up his rheumatic old legs, and tried to get a view from the north side of the harbor, forgetting that the mountains intervened. Harris and Heywood climbed to the top of the hill behind the harbor, and the former shook his Odd Fellow's flag in the sun's very face. The cook was troubled that he did not have a look at "de blessed sun;" but he could not gratify his wish without going upon the land, and this he could no more be induced to do than the mountain could be persuaded to come to Mahomet. He will probably have to wait until the sun steals over the hills into the harbor, which will be at least twelve days.
SUNRISE.