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Page 66
On the twenty-fifth of the same month, having crossed the Atlantic and
reached Montreal, where they took in coal, and Erik was assured that his
orders had been punctually fulfilled, they left the waters of the St.
Lawrence and Straits of Belle Isle, which separate Labrador from
Newfoundland. On the 10th of May they reached the coast of Greenland and
found the vessel with their coal, it having arrived before them.
Erik knew very well that at this early date it would be useless to
attempt to force his way through the Arctic Ocean, which was still
firmly frozen over the largest part of his route. But he counted upon
obtaining on these shores, which were much frequented by
whaling-vessels, precise information as to the best charts, and he was
not mistaken. He was also able to buy, although at a high price, a dozen
dogs, who with Kaas could draw their sledges if necessary.
Among the Danish stations on the coast of Greenland, he found Godhaven,
which is only a poor village, and is used as a depot by dealers in oil
and the furs of the country. At this time of the year the cold is not
more severe than at Stockholm or Noroe. But Erik and his friends beheld
with surprise the great difference between the two countries, both
situated at the same distance from the pole. Godhaven is in precisely
the same latitude as Bergen. But whilst the southern port of Norway is
in April covered with green forests and fruit trees, and even cultivated
vines trained upon trellises above green meadows, Greenland is still in
May covered with ice and snow, without a tree to enliven the monotony.
The shape of the Norwegian coast, deeply indented by forests and
sheltered by chains of islands, which contribute almost as much as the
warmth of the Gulf Stream to raise the temperature of the country.
Greenland, on the contrary, has a low regular coast and receives the
full shock of the cold blasts from the pole, consequently she is
enveloped almost to the middle of the island by fields of ice several
feet in thickness.
They spent fifteen days in the harbor and then the "Alaska" mounted
Davis' Straits, and keeping along the coast of Greenland, gained the
polar sea.
On the 28th of May for the first time they encountered floating ice in
70 15' of north latitude, with a temperature two degrees below zero.
These first icebergs, it is true, were in a crumbling condition, rapidly
breaking up into small fragments. But soon they became more dense, and
frequently they had to break their way through them. Navigation,
although difficult, was not as yet dangerous. By a thousand signs they
perceived, however, that they were in a new world. All objects at a
little distance appeared to be colorless, and almost without form; the
eye could find no place to repose in this perpetually changing horizon,
which every minute assumed a new aspect.
"Who can describe," says an eye-witness, "these melancholy surroundings,
the roaring of the waves beating beneath the floating ice, the singular
noise made by the snow as it falls suddenly into the abyss of waters?
Who can imagine the beauty of the cascades which gush out on all sides,
the sea of foam produced by their fall, the fright of the sea-birds who,
having fallen asleep on a pyramid of ice, suddenly find their
resting-place overturned and themselves obliged to fly to some other
spot? And in the morning, when the sun bursts through the fog, at first
only a little of the blue sky is visible, but it gradually widens, until
the view is only limited by the horizon."
These spectacles, presented by the polar sea, Erik and his friends were
able to contemplate at their leisure as they left the coast of
Greenland, to which they had kept close until they had reached
Uppernavik. Then they sailed westward across Baffin's Bay. Here
navigation became more difficult, for this sea is the ordinary course of
the polar icebergs which are drawn in by the innumerable currents which
traverse it. Sometimes they found their course checked by insurmountable
barriers of ice, which it was impossible to break, and therefore they
were compelled to turn aside. The "Alaska" was obliged continually to
break her way through immense fields of ice. Sometimes a tempest of snow
assailed them which covered the deck and the masts with a thick coat.
Sometimes they were assailed by ice dashed over them by the wind, which
threatened to sink the vessel by its weight. Sometimes they found
themselves in a sort of lake, surrounded on all sides by fields of ice
apparently firm and impassable, and from which they had great difficulty
to extricate themselves and gain the open sea. Then they had to exercise
great vigilance to escape some enormous iceberg sailing down from the
north with incredible swiftness, a frightful mass, which could have
crushed the "Alaska" like a walnut. But a greater danger still was the
submarine ice, which could injure her and act like a battering-ram.
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