Chapter 40 CHAPTER VIII JOURNEY NORTH OF VICTORIA BAY

The next day, before the first rays of the sun, Crowburne climbed over the steep slope of the rocky wall upon which the doctor's house leaned;The Doctor had not climbed easily to the top, from which he looked down upon a heaving land that looked like the result of some volcanic tremor; a vast white curtain covered land and sea, almost indistinguishable from one another. . Realizing that this highest point dominates all the surrounding plains, the doctor had an idea, which did not surprise anyone who knew him. His idea, he matured it, mulled it over, racked his brains, and when he got back to the igloo it had taken hold in his consciousness, and he told his companions.

I think, he said to them, build a lighthouse on top of the cone that stands above our heads. a lighthouse?Everyone shouted. Yes, a lighthouse!It had the double benefit of showing us our way in the dark when we returned from a long journey, and of illuminating the plain during the eight months of winter. Obviously, replied Altamon, such a device would be a useful thing, but how do you build it? Use a lantern from the Pearl Boise. No problem, but what to feed your lighthouse lights?Do you use seal oil? No!The light produced by this oil is not bright enough that it can barely pass through the fog.

Do you want to extract hydrogen from coal and light us with gas? correct!This light is not strong enough, and it has the great disadvantage of consuming part of our fuel. Well, says Altamon, I don't know It seems to me, replied Johnson, that since mercury bullets, ice lenses, and building God's fortresses, I believe Mr. Crowburny can do anything. all right!Altamon said again, can you tell us what kind of lighthouse you plan to build? Quite simply, the doctor replied, a lighthouse. A lighthouse! Surely you don't have a good Bunsen battery on board the Perboise? Yes, the Americans replied.

Obviously, having them with you, you can see how an experiment is done, because there is nothing missing, not a perfectly insulated wire, nor the acid necessary to make the elements work, and we have easy access to electro-optic.We see things more clearly, and with very little effort. That's good, said the bosun, and we'll waste less time Well, the materials are there, replied the doctor, and we'll put up a ten-foot icicle in an hour, and that's enough. The doctor went out; his companion accompanied him all the way to the top of the icicle, which was soon erected and hung with a lantern from the Pearle Boise.

So the doctor connected the wires connected to the dry battery to it, and the dry battery was placed in the living room of the snow house to prevent freezing with the heat of the fire.From there the wires go up to the navigation lights. All this was quickly settled, and they waited for the sunset to enjoy the fruits of this.At night, the coals of the two headlands kept at a suitable distance, contained in the lamp, were drawn closer, and from the lantern shot out a powerful beam which the wind could neither dampen nor extinguish.It was a majestic sight, a quivering light that rivaled the whiteness of the ice fields, outlining sharply all the raised shadows around it.Johnson couldn't help clapping his hands.

Behold, Mr. Crowburne, says he, make sunshine, now! It’s better to have some of everything, the doctor replied modestly. Due to the cold, everyone stopped praising and everyone went back to wrap up in the quilt. Life goes on as planned.In the next few days, from April 15th to 20th, the weather was unpredictable, the temperature suddenly changed by more than 20 degrees, and the atmosphere changed unexpectedly. Sometimes it snowed heavily, snowballs flew, and sometimes it was cold. And dry, they can't go outside without being careful. On Saturday, however, the wind died away; a long journey could be made under such conditions; and they decided to spend the day hunting for a change of taste.

In the morning, Altamon, the doctor, and Bell each took a two-shot long gun, enough ammunition, a small hatchet, and a snow knife for when they needed to camp, and they set off. The weather was overcast. . In their absence, Hatteras surveyed the coast and made a few statistics.The doctor turned on the lantern with care; its light reflected the splendor of the stars; for an electric light is equal to the light of three thousand candles or three hundred streams of gas, and it alone is comparable to sunlight. The weather was unseasonably cold, dry and sunny.The hunters headed for Cape Washington; the solid snow was good for them.In half an hour they were three miles away from God's Fortress, Duck bouncing around them.

The coast curves eastward, and the high peaks of Victoria Bay tend to descend on the northern coast.It makes one feel that New America is just an island; but its outline cannot yet be decided. The hunters walked along the seashore, advancing quickly.There was no trace of any dwelling, no remnant of an igloo; they walked on virgin ground where no human footstep had trod. They traveled about fifteen nautical miles in three hours, without stopping to eat.But they run the risk of missing any prey.For, they could hardly see the tracks of hares, foxes, or wolves, but a few snowbirds flew about, heralding spring and the return of arctic animals.

The three hunters were obliged to penetrate further into the land, skirting the ravines and precipices that meet Bell's Mountain, and whereupon, after a delay, they returned to the coast; the ice pack was not parted yet.Far from it, the seas are still frozen; but the tracks of the seals show that these mammals have begun to appear, they have come to the ice to breathe, and it is evident from the large tracks and new cracks in the pack ice that many The seals have recently come ashore. These animals are very sun-needed, and they like to lie on the bank and let the warm sun shine on them.

The doctor called his companion's attention to these peculiar phenomena. Watching the place carefully, he said to them, it was likely that we would encounter hundreds of seals here when summer came; they were easily accessible in this inaccessible area, and they were easy to catch.But be careful not to frighten them, because they will disappear like magic and never come back; in this way, instead of hunting one by one, those stupid hunters often attack in groups, and the movement is very loud. Big, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Are they hunted for their hide and oil?Bell asked.

The Europeans did, but, sure enough, the Eskimos ate them for a living, and their seal meat mixed with blood and fat was not at all tasty.However, there is always a way to do it, I cut the delicate rib meat, those who care about gray and black meat have nothing to complain about. We've seen yours, replied Bell, and I've decided, out of trust, to eat seal meat, if you please, do you hear, Mr. Crawburn? My honest Bell, you may say so if you please.But it's useless for you to do that, you'll never be as good as the Greenlanders, who eat ten to fifteen pounds of this meat a day. Fifteen pounds!What a stomach, says Bell! Stomach of the North Pole, replied the doctor, a marvelous stomach, voluntarily inflated, and I may add that it also shrinks enough to endure a great lack of food, and the Eskimo eats very thin at first, and by the end of it he is unrecognizable up!It's true that he usually eats all day long. Apparently, said Altamon, large appetites are characteristic of people in cold regions? I suppose so, replied the doctor, that in the polar regions one has to eat a great deal, not merely to gain strength but to survive.Likewise, the officers stationed at Hudson's Bay gave each man either eight pounds of meat, or twelve pounds of fish, or two pounds of dried meatloaf a day. It's a recipe for strength, says Carpenter. Not as you might imagine, my friend, that an Indian with such a full stomach does no more work than an Englishman who eats a few pounds of beef and a few pints of beer. Well, Mr. Crawburn, everything has to be right. No doubt, but an Eskimo meal is enough to surprise us.Likewise, John.Sir Ross always marveled at the gigantic appetite of his guide when he wintered in the Dominion of Portia, and he told somewhere that two men, two, you listen, ate a full quarter in one morning of musk-meat; they cut the meat into long pieces, and stuffed them down their throats, and each passed to his fellows what he could not fit in his mouth, near his nose, or, these gluttons, let the pieces hang down to On the ground, swallow it bit by bit, just like a boa constrictor digests a cow, and lie on the ground like it! Pooh!said Bell, disgusting savages! Everyone has a way of eating, the American replied philosophically. fortunately!The doctor calls back. Then, added Altamon, since the necessity of feeding at these latitudes is of the utmost importance, it is not surprising that my journals of polar voyagers always refer to the question of feeding. You are right, replied the doctor, and I have noticed this too; this is due to not only the need for a great deal of food, but the constant difficulty of getting it.That way, people don't stop thinking about it, and next, people often talk about it. But, says Altamon, if I remember correctly, in Norway, in the coldest regions, farmers don't need that much food: a little dairy, eggs, birch bark bread, sometimes salmon, but never meat , which does not prevent them from having a strong physique. Regarding the matter of body structure, the doctor replied, I am not responsible for explaining.However, I believe that after the second or third generation of Norwegians migrated to Greenland, they eventually followed the Greenlandic diet.Ourselves, my friends, if we stay in this promised land, we will end up living like Eskimos too.If you don't use the name of the odious glutton. Mr. Crawford, said Bell, and I'm hungry now. Absolutely not me, replied Altamon, it disgusts me, it disgusts me when I eat seal meat.Ah, but, I believe we can weather the test.There I saw, if I'm not mistaken, a mass of living things that seemed to be hiding on top of the ice. A walrus!shouted the doctor, be quiet, go on! Indeed, two hundred yards from the hunters, a gigantic mammal was at play, stretching and rolling merrily in the dim sunlight. The three hunters separated from each other, surrounded the animal, cut off its retreat, came a few meters away from it, hid behind the ice mound, and shot. The walrus fell on his back, still jumping, and crushed the ice, and tried to escape, but Altamon struck him with the ax, and severed the fin on his back.As the walrus attempted a desperate defense, another burst of gunfire killed it, lying lifeless on an ice field stained red by its blood. The beast was massive, nearly fifteen feet long from nose to tail, and must have pumped many vats of oil. The doctor cut off the tastiest part of it, leaving the carcass to a few crows that had been gliding through the sky at that time of year. Night began to fall.They considered going back to God's stronghold, the sky was perfectly clear, and the stars were shining brightly before the moon rose. Come on, say the doctor, it's too late, we haven't had much luck hunting on the whole, but a hunter can't complain if he can bring home something for supper.It's just that we have to take the shortest route, try not to get separated, and the stars will show us the way. But in these regions where the North Star shines just above the traveller's head, it is not convenient to use it as a guide; for, when the North is at the zenith, other cardinal points are difficult to ascertain; fortunately, the moon and the great constellations help the doctor Determine the route. In order to shorten the distance, he decided to avoid the crooked coast and cut directly by land; this was more direct, but less sure; They were indecisive about spending the night in the igloo, resting, and waiting for dawn to get their bearings, or returning to the coast and crossing the ice field, but the doctor, afraid of Hatteras and Johnson, insisted on going on. Duck showed us the way, he said, Duck can't make a mistake, it has an instinct that surpasses the compass and the stars.follow it. Duck walked ahead, and they believed in its intelligence.They had a point in their thinking, and soon there appeared a ray of light on the far horizon, which they could not have mistaken for a star, which does not flicker in the low mist. Our lighthouse is there!shouted the doctor. Do you believe it, Mr. Croubney?said the carpenter. I'm sure.let's go. As the travelers approached, the light grew stronger, and soon they were surrounded by a bright lane of dust; they walked in the glare, and behind them were their huge shadows, clearly outlined , stretched disproportionately across the snow field. They quickened their pace, and in half an hour they climbed the slope of God's fortress.