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twg_000012588600 | o' that, father?" "I think it's somewhat dangerous," answered the Captain, recovering his gravity and re-shouldering his axe. "However, as long as you enjoy the work, it can't hurt you, so go ahead, my boy; it'll be a long time before you cut away too much o' the Polar ice!" Reaching a slightly open space beyond this p... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588601 | were harnessed, and the party advanced for a mile or so, when they came to another obstruction worse than that which they had previously passed. "There's a deal of ice-rubbish in these regions," remarked Benjy, eyeing the wildly heaped masses with a grave face, and heaving a deep sigh. "Yes, Massa Benjy, bery too much ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588602 | sigh. "Come, we won't cut through this," cried Captain Vane in a cheery voice; "we'll try to go over it. There is a considerable drift of old snow that seems to offer a sort of track. What says Chingatok?" The easy-going Eskimo said that it would be as well to go over it as through it, perhaps better! So, over | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588603 | it they went, but they soon began to wish they had tried any other plan, for the snow-track quickly came to an end, and then the difficulty of passing even the empty sledges from one ice mass to another was very great, while the process of carrying forward the goods on the shoulders of the men was exceedingly laborious... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588604 | poor dogs, too, were constantly falling between masses, and dragging each other down, so that they gave more trouble at last than they were worth. In all these trying circumstances, the Eskimo women were almost as useful as the men. Indeed they would have been quite as useful if they had been as strong, and they bore t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588605 | trials of the journey with the placid good humour, and apparent, if not real, humility of their race. At last, one afternoon, our discoverers came suddenly to the edge of this great barrier of ancient ice, and beheld, from an elevated plateau to which they had climbed, a scene which was calculated to rouse in their bre... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588606 | of admiration and despair, for there, stretching away below them for several miles, lay a sea of comparatively level ice, and beyond it a chain of stupendous glaciers, which presented an apparently impassable barrier--a huge continuous wall of ice that seemed to rise into the very sky. This chain bore all the evidences... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588607 | that of the so-called "ancient sea" was absolutely juvenile. On the ice-plain, which was apparently illimitable to the right and left, were hundreds of pools of water in which the icebergs, the golden clouds, the sun, and the blue sky were reflected, and on the surface of which myriads of Arctic wild-fowl were sporting... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588608 | their plaintive cries, and ruffling the glassy surfaces of the lakes with their dipping wings. The heads of seals were also observed here and there. "These will stop us at last," said Alf, pointing to the bergs with a profound sigh. "No, they won't," remarked the Captain quietly. "_Nothing_ will stop us!" "That's true,... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588609 | it be, as Chingatok thinks, that we are in search of nothing, of course when we find nothing, nothing will stop us!" "Why, Alf," said Leo, "I wonder that you, who are usually in an enthusiastic and poetical frame of mind, should be depressed by distant difficulties, instead of admiring such a splendid sight of birds an... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588610 | in what I may style an Arctic heaven. You should take example by Benjy." That youth did indeed afford a bright example of rapt enthusiasm just then, for, standing a little apart by himself, he gazed at the scene with flushed face, open mouth, and glittering eyes, in speechless delight. "Ask Chingatok if he ever saw thi... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588611 | the Captain to Anders, on recovering from his first feeling of surprise. No, Chingatok had never seen it, except, indeed, the tops of the bergs-- at sea, in the far distance--but he had often heard of it from some of his countrymen, who, like himself, were fond of exploring. But that sea of ice was not there, he said, ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588612 | he had passed on his journey southward. It had drifted there, since that time, from the great sea. "Ah! the great sea that he speaks of is just what we must find and cross over," muttered the Captain to himself. "But how are we to cross over it, uncle?" asked Leo. The Captain replied with one of his quiet glances. | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588613 | His followers had long become accustomed to this silent method of declining to reply, and forbore to press the subject. "Come now, boys, get ready to descend to the plain. We'll have to do it with caution." There was, indeed, ground for caution. We have said that they had climbed to an elevated plateau on one of the sm... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588614 | which formed the outside margin of the rugged ice. The side of this berg was a steep slope of hard snow, so steep that they thought it unwise to attempt the descent by what in Switzerland is termed glissading. "We'll have to zig-zag down, I think," continued the Captain, settling himself on his sledge; but the Captain'... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588615 | Under a sudden impulse of reckless free-will, the whole team, giving vent to a howl of mingled glee and fear, dashed down the slope at full gallop. Of course they were overtaken in a few seconds by the sledge, which not only ran into them, but sent them sprawling on their backs right and left. Then it met a slight | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588616 | obstruction, and itself upset, sending Captain Vane and his companions, with its other contents, into the midst of the struggling dogs. With momentarily increasing speed this avalanche of mixed dead and living matter went sliding, hurtling, swinging, shouting, struggling, and yelling to the bottom. Fortunately, there w... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588617 | the level plain, over which the avalanche swept for a considerable distance before the momentum of their flight was expended. When at length they stopped, and disentangled themselves from the knot into which the traces had tied them, it was found that no one was materially hurt. Looking up at the height down which they... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588618 | Eskimos standing at the top with outstretched arms in the attitude of men who glare in speechless horror. But these did not stand thus long. Descending by a more circuitous route, they soon rejoined the Captain's party, and then, as the night was far advanced, they encamped on the edge of the ice-plain, on a part that ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588619 | the beams of the ever-circling sun. That night at supper Captain Vane was unusually thoughtful and silent. "You're not losing heart, are you, uncle?" asked Leo, during a pause. "No, lad, certainly not," replied the Captain, dreamily. "You've not been bumped very badly in the tumble, father, have you?" asked Benjy with ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588620 | think so?" "Because you're gazing at Toolooha's lamp as if you saw a ghost in it." "Well, perhaps I do see a ghost there," returned the Captain with an effort to rouse his attention to things going on around him. "I see the ghost of things to come. I am looking through Toolooha's lamp into futurity." "And what does fut... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588621 | look like?" asked Alf. "Bright or dark?" "Black--black as me," muttered Butterface, as he approached and laid fresh viands before the party. It ought to be told that Butterface had suffered rather severely in the recent glissade on the snow-slope, which will account for the gloomy view he took of the future at that tim... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588622 | a look of sudden earnestness; "as it is highly probable that a day or two more will decide the question of our success or failure, I think it right to reveal to you more fully my thoughts, my plans, and the prospects that lie before us. You all know very well that there is much difference of opinion about the | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588623 | condition of the sea around the North Pole. Some think it must be cumbered with eternal ice, others that it is comparatively free from ice, and that it enjoys a somewhat milder climate than those parts of the Arctic regions with which we have hitherto been doing battle. I hold entirely with the latter view--with those ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588624 | open Polar basin. I won't weary you with the grounds of my belief in detail, but here are a few of my reasons-- "It is an admitted fact that there is constant circulation of the water in the ocean. That wise and painstaking philosopher, Maury, of the US navy, has proved to my mind that this grand circulation of the | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588625 | sea-water round the world is the cause of all the oceanic streams, hot and cold, with which we have been so long acquainted. "This circulation is a necessity as well as a fact. At the Equator the water is extremely warm and salt, besides lime-laden, in consequence of excessive evaporation. At the Poles it is extremely ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588626 | is therefore a necessity. The hot salt-waters of the Equator flow to the Poles to get freshened and cooled. Those of the Poles flow to the Equator to get salted, limed, and warmed. They do this continuously in two grand currents, north and south, all round the world. But the land comes in as a disturbing element; it di... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588627 | water into streams variously modified in force and direction, and the streams also change places variously, sometimes the hot currents travelling north as under-currents with the cold currents above, sometimes the reverse. One branch of the current comes from the Equator round the Cape of Good Hope, turns up the west c... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588628 | of Mexico, round which it sweeps, and then shoots across the Atlantic to England and Norway. It is known as our Gulf Stream. "Now, the equatorial warm and salt current enters Baffin's Bay as a submarine current, while the cold and comparatively fresh waters of the Polar regions descend as a surface-current, bearing the... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588629 | to the southward. One thing that goes far to prove this, is the fact that the enormous icebergs thrown off from the northern glaciers have been frequently seen by navigators travelling northward, right _against_ the current flowing south. These huge ice-mountains, floating as they do with seven or eight parts of their ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588630 | up stream by the under-current until their bases are worn off by the warm waters below, thus allowing the upper current to gain the mastery, and hurry them south again to their final dissolution in the Atlantic. "Now, lads," continued the Captain, with the air of a man who propounds a self-evident proposition; "is it n... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588631 | warm waters of the south flow into the Polar basin as an _under_ current, they must come up _somewhere_, to take the place of the cold waters that are for ever flowing away from the Pole to the Equator? Can anything be clearer than that--except the nose on Benjy's face? Well then, that being so, the waters round the Po... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588632 | _must_ be comparatively warm waters, and also, comparatively, free from ice, so that if we could only manage to cross this ice-barrier and get into them, we might sail right away to the North Pole." "But, father," said Benjy, "since you have taken the liberty to trifle with my nose, I feel entitled to remark that we ca... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588633 | waters, either hot or cold, without a ship." "That's true, boy," rejoined the Captain. "However," he added, with a half-humorous curl of his black moustache, "you know I'm not given to stick at trifles. Time will show. Meanwhile I am strongly of opinion that this is the last ice-barrier we shall meet with on our way to... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588634 | there not some tradition of a mild climate in the furthest north among the Eskimos?" asked Alf. "Of course there is. It has long been known that the Greenland Eskimos have a tradition of an island in an iceless sea, lying away in the far north, where there are many musk-oxen, and, from what I have been told by our | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588635 | friend Chingatok, I am disposed to think that he and his kindred inhabit this island, or group of islands, in the Polar basin--not far, perhaps, from the Pole itself. He says there are musk-oxen there. But there is another creature, and a much bigger one than any Eskimo, bigger even than Chingatok, who bears his testim... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588636 | sea, namely, the Greenland whale. It has been ascertained that the `right' whale does not, and cannot, enter the tropical regions of the Ocean. They are to him as a sea of fire, a wall of adamant, so that it is impossible for him to swim south, double Cape Horn, and proceed to the North Pacific; yet the very same | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588637 | kind of whale found in Baffin's Bay is found at Behring Straits. Now, the question is, how did he get there?" "Was born there, no doubt," answered Benjy, "and had no occasion to make such a long voyage!" "Ah! my boy, but we have the strongest evidence that he was _not_ born there, for you must know that some whalers | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588638 | have a habit of marking their harpoons with date and name of ship; and as we have been told by that good and true man Dr Scoresby, there have been several instances where whales have been captured near Behring Straits with harpoons in them bearing the stamp of ships that were known to cruise on the Baffin's Bay side of | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588639 | America. Moreover, in one or two instances a very short time had elapsed between the date of harpooning on the Atlantic and capturing on the Pacific side. These facts prove, at all events, a `North-west Passage' for whales, and, as whales cannot travel far under ice without breathing, they also tend to prove an open Po... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588640 | favour of this basin is the migration of birds to the northward at certain seasons. Birds do not migrate to frozen regions, and such migrations northward have been observed by those who, like ourselves, have reached the highest latitudes. "Captain Nares of the _Alert_, in May , when only a little to the southward of th... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588641 | pairs to the north-west, seeking for better feeding-grounds. Ducks and geese also passed northward early in June, indicating plainly the existence of suitable feeding-grounds in the undiscovered and mysterious North. "We have now passed beyond the point reached by Captain Nares. My last observation placed us in paralle... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588642 | "The highest, uncle?" interrupted Leo. "Yes--the highest. Scoresby reached degrees minutes in , Parry degrees minutes in --with sledges. That unfortunate and heroic American, Captain Hall, ran his vessel, the _Polaris_, in the shortest space of time on record, up to latitude degrees minutes. Captain Nares reached a hig... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588643 | of Captain Nares' expedition, travelled over this very `sea of ancient ice' with sledges to latitude degrees . minutes--about miles from the Pole, and the highest yet reached, as I have said. So, you see, we have beaten them all! Moreover, I strongly incline to the belief that the open Polar Sea lies just beyond that r... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588644 | which we see before us." The Captain rose as he spoke, and pointed to the gigantic chain, behind one of which the sun was just about to dip, causing its jagged peaks to glow as with intense fire. "But how are we ever to pass that barrier, uncle?" asked Alf, who was by nature the least sanguine of the party | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588645 | in regard to overcoming difficulties of a geographical nature, although by far the most enthusiastic in the effort to acquire knowledge. "You shall see, to-morrow," answered the Captain; "at present we must turn in and rest. See, the Eskimos have already set us the example." CHAPTER NINE. THE CAPTAIN MAKES A STUPENDOUS... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588646 | was crossed at a swinging gallop. Indeed, the dogs were so fresh and frisky after a good rest and a hearty meal that they ran away more than once, and it became a matter of extreme difficulty to check them. At last the great chain was reached, and the party came to an abrupt halt at the base of one | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588647 | of the largest of the bergs. Captain Vane gazed up at it as Napoleon the First may be supposed to have gazed at the Alps he had resolved to scale and cross. The resemblance to alpine scenery was not confined to mere form--such as towering peaks and mighty precipices--for there were lakelets and ponds here and there up ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588648 | crystal heights, from which rivulets trickled, streams brawled, and cataracts thundered. It was evident, however, that the old giant that frowned on them was verging towards dissolution, for he was honey-combed in all directions. "Impossible to scale that," said Alf, with a solemn look. Even Leo's sanguine temperament ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588649 | it," he said, "for masses are falling about here and there in a very dangerous fashion." As he spoke, a tall spire was seen to slip from its position, topple over, and go crashing down into a dark blue gulf of ice below it. "No chance of success _now_," said Benjamin Vane, gloomily. "None wotsomediver," muttered Butter... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588650 | visage absolutely elongated by sympathetic despair. For, you must know, as far as his own feelings were concerned, sympathy alone influenced him. Personally, he was supremely indifferent about reaching the North Pole. In fact he did not believe in it at all, and made no scruple of saying so, when asked, but he seldom v... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588651 | modest and polite man. During these desponding remarks Captain Vane did not seem to be much depressed. "Anders," he said, turning abruptly to the interpreter, "ask Chingatok what he thinks. Can we pass this barrier, and, if not, what would he advise us to do?" It was observed that the other Eskimos drew near with anxio... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588652 | opinion of their chief. Toolooha and Tekkona, however, seemed quite devoid of anxiety. They evidently had perfect confidence in the giant, and poor little Oblooria glanced up in the face of her friend as if to gather consolation from her looks. Chingatok, after a short pause, said:-- "The ice-mountains cannot be passed... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588653 | fly. They must return to land, and travel for many days to the open water near the far-off land--there." He pointed direct to the northward. Captain Vane made no reply. He merely turned and gave orders that the lashings of one of the large sledges which conveyed the baggage should be cast loose. Selecting a box from th... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588654 | it, and took therefrom a small instrument made partly of brass, partly of glass, and partly of wood. "You have often wondered, Benjy," he said, "what I meant to do with this electrical machine. You shall soon see. Help me to arrange it, boy, and do you, Leo, uncoil part of this copper wire. Here, Alf, carry this little... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588655 | to the foot of the berg, and lay it in front of yon blue cavern." "Which? That one close to the waterfall or--" "No, the big cavern, just under the most solid part of the berg--the one that seems to grow bluer and bluer until it becomes quite black in its heart. And have a care, Alf. The box you | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588656 | carry is dangerous. Don't let it fall. Lay it down gently, and come back at once. Anders," he added, turning round, "let all the people go back with dogs and sledges for a quarter of a mile." There was something so peremptory and abrupt in their leader's manner that no one thought of asking him a question, though all w... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588657 | filled with surprise and curiosity as to what he meant to do. "Come here, Leo," he said, after his orders had been obeyed. "Hold this coil, and pay it out as I walk to the berg with the end in my hand." The coil was one of extremely fine copper wire. Leo let it run as the Captain walked off. | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588658 | A minute or two later he was seen to enter the dark blue cavern and disappear. "My dear dad is reckless," exclaimed Benjy, in some anxiety, "what if the roof o' that cave should fall in. There are bits of ice dropping about everywhere. What _can_ he be going to do?" As he spoke, the Captain issued from the cave, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588659 | and walked smartly towards them. "Now then, it's all right," he said, "give me the coil, Leo, and come back, all of you. Fetch the machine, Alf." In a few minutes the whole party had retired a considerable distance from the huge berg, the Captain uncoiling the wire as he went. "Surely you're not going to try to blow it | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588660 | up piecemeal?" said Leo. "No, lad, I'm not going to do that, or anything so slow," returned the Captain, stopping and arranging the instrument. "But if the box contains gunpowder," persisted Leo, "there's not enough to--" "It contains dynamite," said the Captain, affixing the coil to the machine, and giving it a sharp ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588661 | fire under the iceberg the effect could not have been more tremendous. Thunder itself is not more deep than was the crash which reverberated among the ice-cliffs. Smoke burst in a huge volume from the heart of the berg. Masses, fragments, domes, and pinnacles were hurled into the air, and fell back to mingle with the b... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588662 | slid, or plunged in horrible confusion. Only a portion, indeed, of the mighty mass had been actually disrupted, but the shock to the surrounding ice was so shattering that the entire berg subsided. "Stu-pendous!" exclaimed Alf, with a look of awe-stricken wonder. Benjy, after venting his feelings in a shriek of joyful ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588663 | Butterface stood still,--speechless. As for the Eskimos, they turned with one hideous yell, and fled from the spot like maniacs--excepting Chingatok, who, although startled, stood his ground in an attitude expressive of superlative surprise. "So,--it has not disappointed me," remarked the Captain, when the hideous din ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588664 | than powder." "But it seems to me," said Leo, beginning to recover himself, "that although you have brought the berg down you have not rendered it much more passable." "That's true, lad," answered the Captain with a somewhat rueful expression. "It does seem a lumpy sort of heap after all; but there may be found some pr... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588665 | examine it more closely. Come, we'll go see." On closer inspection it was found that the ruined berg still presented an absolutely insurmountable obstacle to the explorers, who, being finally compelled to admit that even dynamite had failed, left the place in search of a natural opening. Travelling along the chain for ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588666 | they came at last to a succession of comparatively level floes, which conducted them to the extreme northern end of the chain, and there they found that the floes continued onwards in an unbroken plain to what appeared to be the open sea. "That is a water-sky, for certain," exclaimed Captain Vane, eagerly, on the eveni... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588667 | made. "The open ocean cannot now be far off." "There's a very dark cloud there, father," said Benjy, who, as we have before said, possessed the keenest sight of the party. "A cloud, boy! where? Um--Yes, I see something--" "It is land," said Chingatok, in a low voice. "Land!" exclaimed the Captain, "are you sure?" "Yes,... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588668 | I passed it on my journey here. We left our canoes and oomiaks there, and took to sledges because the floes were unbroken. But these ice-mountains were not here at that time. They have come down since we passed from the great sea." "There!" said the Captain, turning to Leo with a look of triumph, "he still speaks of th... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588669 | great sea! If these bergs came from it, we _must_ have reached it, lad." "But the land puzzles me," said Leo. "Can it be part of Greenland?" "Scarcely, for Greenland lies far to the east'ard, and the latest discoveries made on the north of that land show that the coast turns still more decidedly east--tending to the co... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588670 | is an island. This land, therefore, must be entirely new land--an island-- a continent perhaps." "But it may be a cape, father," interposed Benjy. "You know that capes have a queer way of sticking out suddenly from land, just as men's noses stick out from their faces." "True, Benjy, true, but your simile is not perfect... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588671 | always stick out from their faces--witness the nose of Butterface, which, you know, is well aft of his lips and chin. However, this _may_ be Greenland's nose--who knows? We shall go and find out ere long. Come, use your whip, Leo. Ho! Chingatok, tell your hairy kinsmen to clap on all sail and make for the land." "Hold ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588672 | cried Alf, "I think I see a splendid specimen of--" The crack of Leo's whip, and the yelping of the team, drowned the rest of the sentence, and Alf was whirled away from his splendid specimen, (whatever it was), for ever! "It is a piece of great good fortune," said the Captain, as they swept along over the hard and | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588673 | level snow, "that the Eskimos have left their boats on this land, for now I shall have two strings to my bow." "What is the other string?" asked Leo, as he administered a flip to the flank of a lazy dog. "Ah, that remains to be seen, lad," replied the Captain. "Why, what a tyrant you are, uncle!" exclaimed Alf, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588674 | who had recovered from his disappointment about the splendid specimen. "You won't tell us anything, almost. Who ever before heard of the men of an expedition to the North Pole being kept in ignorance of the means by which they were to get there?" The Captain's reply was only a twinkle of the eye. "Father wants to fill ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588675 | bliss, Alf," said Benjy, "according to your own notions of that sort of thing." "What do you mean, Ben?" "Why, have we not all heard you often quote the words:--`Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.'" "Hear, hear! That's it, Benjy," said the Captain, with a nod and a short laugh, while his son assumed the s... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588676 | of look appropriate to one who has made a hit; "I won't decrease his bliss by removing his ignorance yet awhile." "Hain't Buzzby got nuffin' to say on that 'ere pint?" whispered Butterface to Benjy, who sat just in front of him. "Ah! to be sure. I say, Alf," said the boy with an earnest look, "hasn't your favourite aut... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588677 | got something to say about the bliss of ignorance? I'm almost sure I heard you muttering something in your dreams on that subject the other day." "Of course he has. He has a long poem on that subject. Here is a bit of it." Alf, whose memory was good, immediately recited the following: "How sweet is ignorance! How sooth... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588678 | the mind, To search for treasures in the brain, and nothing find! Consider. When the memory is richly stored, How apt the victim of redundant knowledge to be bored! When Nothing fills the chambers of the heart and brain, Then negative enjoyment comes with pleasures in her train! Descending on the clods of sense like su... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588679 | gives power, and so it often does; Knowledge makes sorrow, too, around our pillows buzz. In debt I am, with little cash; I know it--and am sad. Of course, if I were ignorant of this--how glad! A loving friend, whom once I knew in glowing health, Has broken down, and also, somehow, lost his wealth. How sad the knowledge... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588680 | me! Better far In ignorance to live, than hear of things that jar, And think of things that are not,--not of things that are. "`If ignorance is bliss,' the poet saith--why `if?' Why doubt a fact so clearly proven, stubborn, stiff? The heavy griefs and burdens of the world around, The hideous tyranny by which mankind is... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588681 | tempest, rush of war, and wail of woe, Are all as though they were not--if I do not know! Wrapped in my robe of ignorance, what _can_ I miss? Am I not saved from all--and more than all--of this? Do I not revel in a regal realm of bliss?" "Bravo! Buzzby," cried the Captain, "but, I say, Alf, don't it | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588682 | seem to smack rather too much of selfishness?" "Of course it does, uncle. I do not think Buzzby always sound in principle, and, like many poets, he is sometimes confused in his logic." "You're right, Benjy, the land is clear enough now," remarked the Captain, whose interest in Buzzby was not profound, and whose feeling... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588683 | contemptuous, as is often the case with half-educated men, and, strange to say, sometimes with highly-educated men, as well as with the totally ignorant--so true is it that extremes meet! In the course of a couple of hours the sledges drew near to the island, which proved to be a large but comparatively low one, rising... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588684 | hundred feet in any part. It was barren and ragged, with patches of reindeer moss growing in some parts, and dwarf willows in others. Myriads of sea-birds made it their home, and these received the invaders with clamorous cries, as if they knew that white men were a dangerous novelty, and objected to the innovation. De... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588685 | landed, and the Eskimos hurried over the rocks to that part of the island where they had left their kayaks and women's boats in charge of a party of natives who were resident on the island at the time they passed, and from whom they had borrowed the dogs and sledges with which they had travelled south. Meanwhile the wh... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588686 | men took to rambling; Leo to shoot wild-fowl for supper, Alf to search for "specimens," and Benjy to scramble among the rocks in search of anything that might "turn up." Butterface assisted the latter in his explorations. While the rest were thus engaged, the Captain extemporised a flag-staff out of two spears lashed t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588687 | top for the purpose of running up a flag, and formally taking possession of the island when they should re-assemble. This done, he wrote a brief outline of his recent doings, which he inserted in a ginger-beer bottle brought for that very purpose. Then he assisted Anders in making the encampment and preparing supper. T... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588688 | midst of the latter operation when a shout was heard in the distance. Looking in the direction whence it came they saw Chingatok striding over the rocks towards them with unusual haste. He was followed by the other Eskimos, who came forward gesticulating violently. "My countrymen have left the island," said Chingatok w... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588689 | with them?" asked Captain Vane anxiously. "Every one," replied the giant. This was depressing news to the Captain, who had counted much on making use of the Eskimo canoes in the event of his own appliances failing. "Where have they gone, think you?" he asked. "Tell Blackbeard," replied Chingatok, turning to Anders, "th... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588690 | the lanes of open water have closed, and the ice is solid everywhere." "But where the kayak and the oomiak cannot float the sledge may go," said the Captain. "That is true; tell the pale chief he is wise, yet he knows not all things. Let him think. When he comes to the great open sea what will he do | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588691 | without canoes?" "Huk!" exclaimed Oolichuk, with that look and tone which intimated his belief that the pale chief had received a "clincher." The chattering of the other Eskimos ceased for a moment or two as they awaited eagerly the Captain's answer, but the Captain disappointed them. He merely said, "Well, we shall se... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588692 | nevertheless I know a deal more than you can guess at. Come now, let's have supper, Anders; we can't wait for the wanderers." As he spoke, three of the wanderers came into camp, namely Leo, Benjy, and Butterface. "What's come of Alf?" asked the Captain. Neither Leo nor Benjy had seen him since they parted, a quarter of... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588693 | after starting, and both had expected to find him in camp, but Butterface had seen him. "Sawd him runnin'," said the sable steward, "runnin' like a mad kangaroo arter a smallish brute like a mouse. Nebber sawd nuffin' like Massa Alf for runnin'." "Well, we can't wait for him," said the Captain, "I want to take possessi... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588694 | before supper. What shall we call it?" "Disappointment Isle," said Leo, "seeing that the Eskimos have failed us." "No--I won't be ungrateful," returned the Captain, "considering the successes already achieved." "Call it Content Isle, then," suggested Benjy. "But I am not content with partial success. Come, Butterface, ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588695 | "No," he said, "I's 'orrible stoopid. Nebber could get nuffin' to come out o' my brain--sep w'en it's knocked out by accident. You's hard to please, massa. S'pose you mix de two,-- dis'pintment an' content,--an' call 'im Half-an'-half Island." "Home is in sight now," said Chingatok, who had taken no interest in the abo... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588696 | in English. "A few days more and we should be there if we only had our kayaks." "There's the name," exclaimed the Captain eagerly when this was translated, "`Home-in-sight,' that will do." Rising quickly, he bent a Union Jack to the halyards of his primitive flag-staff, ran it up, and in the name of Queen Victoria took... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588697 | Island_. After having given three hearty British cheers, in which the Eskimos tried to join, with but partial success, they buried the ginger-beer bottle under a heap of stones, a wooden cross was fixed on the top of the cairn, and then the party sat down to supper, while the Captain made a careful note of the latitude... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588698 | which he had previously ascertained. This latest addition to Her Majesty's dominions was put down by him in latitude degrees minutes, or about geographical miles from the North Pole. CHAPTER TEN. A SKETCHER IN IMMINENT DANGER. DIFFICULTIES INCREASE, AND ARE OVERCOME AS USUAL. The first night on Home-in-sight Island was... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588699 | gulls did indeed go to sleep at their proper bed-time, which, by the way, they must have ascertained by instinct, for the sun could be no certain guide, seeing that he shone all night as well as all day, and it would be too much to expect that gulls had sufficient powers of observation to note the great luminary's exac... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
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