第50章 LETTER VIII.(13)

The wind was freshening,and the ice was evidently still in motion;but although very anxious to get back again into open water,we thought it would not do to go away without landing,even if it were only for an hour.So having laid the schooner right under the cliff,and putting into the gig our own discarded figure-head,a white ensign,a flag-staff;and a tin biscuit-box,containing a paper on which I had hastily written the schooner's name,the date of her arrival,and the names of all those who sailed on board,--we pulled ashore.Aribbon of beach not more than fifteen yards wide,composed of iron-sand,augite,and pyroxene,running along under the basaltic precipice--upwards of a thousand feet high--which serves as a kind of plinth to the mountain,was the only standing room this part of the coast afforded.

With considerable difficulty,and after a good hour's climb,we succeeded in dragging the figure-head we had brought ashore with us,up a sloping patch of snow,which lay in a crevice of the cliff,and thence a little higher,to a natural pedestal formed by a broken shaft of rock;where--after having tied the tin box round her neck,and duly planted the white ensign of St.George beside her,--we left the superseded damsel,somewhat grimly smiling across the frozen ocean at her feet,until some Bacchus of a bear should come to relieve the loneliness of my wooden Ariadne.

On descending to the water's edge,we walked some little distance along the beach without observing anything very remarkable,unless it were the network of vertical and horizontal dikes of basalt which shot in every direction through the scoriae and conglomerate of which the cliff seemed to be composed.Innumerable sea-birds sat in the crevices and ledges of the uneven surface,or flew about us with such confiding curiosity,that by reaching out my hand I could touch their wings as they poised themselves in the air alongside.There was one old sober-sides with whom I passed a good ten minutes tete-a-tete,trying who could stare the other out of countenance.

It was now high time to be off.As soon then as we had collected some geological specimens,and duly christened the little cove,at the bottom of which we had landed,"Clandeboye Creek,"--we walked back to the gig.But--so rapidly was the ice drifting down upon the island,--we found it had already become doubtful whether we should not have to carry the boat over the patch which--during the couple of hours we had spent on shore--had almost cut her off from access to the water.If this was the case with the gig,it was very evident the quicker we got the schooner out to sea again the better.So immediately we returned on board,having first fired a gun in token of adieu to the desolate land we should never again set foot on,the ship was put about,and our task of working out towards the open water recommenced.As this operation was likely to require some time,directly breakfast was over,(it was now about eleven o'clock A.M.,)and after a vain attempt had been made to take a photograph of the mountain,which the mist was again beginning to envelope,I turned in to take a nap,which I rather needed,--fully expecting that by the time I awoke we should be beginning to get pretty clear of the pack.On coming on deck,however,four hours later,although we had reached away a considerable distance from the land,and had even passed the spot,where,the day before,the sea was almost free,--the floes seemed closer than ever;and,what was worse,from the mast-head not a vestige of open water was to be discovered.On every side,as far as the eye could reach,there stretched over the sea one cold white canopy of ice.

The prospect of being beset,in so slightly built a craft,was--to say the least--unpleasant;it looked very much as if fresh packs were driving down upon us from the very direction in which we were trying to push out,yet it had become a matter of doubt which course it would be best to steer.To remain stationary was out of the question;the pace at which the fields drift is sometimes very rapid,[Footnote:Dr.Scoresby states that the invariable tendency of fields of ice is to drift south-westward,and that the strange effects produced by their occasional rapid motions,is one of the most striking objects the Polar Seas present,and certainly the most terrific.They frequently acquire a rotary motion,whereby their circumference attains a velocity of several miles an hour;and it is scarcely possible to conceive the consequences produced by a body,exceeding ten thousand million tons in weight,coming in contact with another under such circumstances.The strongest ship is but an insignificant impediment between two fields in motion.