第71章 LETTER XI(11)

To have killed a polar bear was a great thing,but to eat him would be a greater.If artistically dealt with,his carcase would probably cut up into a supply of fresh meat for many days.One of the hands appened to be a butcher.Whenever I wanted anything a little out of the way to be done on board,I was sure to find that it happened to be the specialite of some one of the ship's company.In the course of a few hours,the late bear was converted into a row of the most tempting morsels of beef,hung about the rigging.Instead of in flags,the ship was dressed in joints.In the meantime it so happened that the fox,having stolen a piece of offal,was in a few minutes afterwards seized with convulsions.I had already given orders that the bear's liver should be thrown overboard,as being,if not poisonous,at all events very unwholesome.The seizure of the fox,coupled with this injunction,brought about a complete revolution in the men's minds,with regard to the delicacies they had been so daintily preparing for themselves.Silently,one by one,the pieces were untied and thrown into the sea:I do not think a mouthful of bear was eaten on board the "Foam."I never heard whether it was in consequence of any prognostics of Wilson's that this act of self-denial was put into practice.I observed,however,that for some days after the slaughter and dismemberment of the bear,my ship's company presented an unaccountably sleek appearance.As for the steward,his head and whiskers seemed carved out of black marble:a varnished boot would not have looked half so bright:I could have seen to shave myself in his black hair.I conclude,therefore,that the ingenious cook must,at all events,have succeeded in manufacturing a supply of genuine bear's grease,of which they had largely availed themselves.

The bagging of the bear had so gloriously crowned our visit to Spitzbergen,that our disappointment about the deer was no longer thought of;it was therefore with light hearts,and most complete satisfaction,that we prepared for departure.

Maid Marian had already carved on a flat stone an inion,in Roman letters,recording the visit of the "Foam"to English Bay,and a cairn having been erected to receive it,the tablet was solemnly lifted to its resting-place.Underneath I placed a tin box,containing a memorandum similar to that left at Jan Mayen,as well as a printed dinner invitation from Lady --,which Ihappened to have on board.Having planted a boat's flag beside the rude monument,and brought on board with us a load of driftwood,to serve hereafter as Christmas yule-logs,we bade an eternal adieu to the silent hills around us;and weighing anchor,stood out to sea.For some hours a lack of wind still left us hanging about the shore,in the midst of a grave society of seals;but soon after,a gentle breeze sprang up in the south,and about three o'clock on Friday,the 11th of August,we again found ourselves spanking along before a six-knot breeze,over the pale green sea.

In considering the course on which I should take the vessel home,it appeared to me that in all probability we should have been much less pestered by the ice on our way to Spitzbergen,if,instead of hugging the easterly ice,we had kept more away to the westward;I determined therefore--as soon as we got clear of the land--to stand right over to the Greenland shore,on a due west course,and not to attempt to make any southing,until we should have struck the Greenland ice.The length of our tether in that direction being ascertained,we could then judge of the width of the channel down which we were to beat,for it was still blowing pretty fresh from the southward.

Up to the evening of the day on which we quitted English Bay,the weather had been most beautiful;calm,sunshiny,dry,and pleasant.Within a few hours of our getting under weigh,a great change had taken place,and by midnight it had become as foggy and disagreeable as ever.

The sea was pretty clear.During the few days we had been on shore,the northerly current had brushed away the great angular field of ice which had lain off the shore,in a northwest direction;so that instead of being obliged to run up very nearly to the 80th parallel,in order to round it,we were enabled to sail to the westward at once.During the course of the night,we came upon one or two wandering patches of drift ice,but so loosely packed that we had no difficulty in pushing through them.

About four o'clock in the morning,a long line of close ice was reported right a-head,stretching south as far as the eye could reach.We had come about eighty miles since leaving Spitzbergen.The usual boundary of the Greenland ice in summer runs,according to Scoresby,along the second parallel of west longitude.This we had already crossed,so that it was to be presumed the barricade we saw before us was a frontier of the fixed ice.In accordance,therefore,with my predetermined plan,we now began working to the southward,and the result fully justified my expectations.

The sea became comparatively clear,as far as could be seen from the deck of the vessel,although small vagrant patches of ice that we came up with occasionally--as well as the temperature of the air and the sea--continued to indicate the proximity of larger bodies on either side of us.