TALES OF A VOYAGER.*
LITERARY SPECTATOR.
THIS is one of that heteroclite genus of publication which one knows not how to designate : it is a real voyage if the framework be considered ; it is a collection of tales if we regard the fictitious part of its contents. These two portions are, however, much more equally balanced than is usual in such literary contrivances. Usually, the framework is a mere dull black line edging a buoyant tale of invention ; but here, most readers will hesitate in deter- mining whether they prefer the interest of the Voyage or of the Tales. As for ourselves, we do not pause a moment in selecting for our amusement the real events that occurred to our author, before the stories which it would appear that he had in-vented to relieve the tedium of an Arctic winter. Doubtless the author con- siders that such a choice would indicate a very bad taste; neverthe- less we believe that we should exercise a sound discretion in pre- ferring the real incidents of a Polar pilgrimage to the creations of any ordinarily clever person. Under such circumstances, a man can see much more out of his eyes than he can spin in his brain : besides, every man has eyes to behold the wonders of Nature, while few persons have that productive, or at least that well-fed cerebral machine capable of producing fictions worthy of attentive perusal. It is true that several of these stories are even better than com- mon tales ; but there are few persons who have approached the Pole with an apter pen for the description, and, as the Methodists say, for the inzprovement of scenery such as meets the eye on the outskirts of nature. We believe that when a few years are over, it will be for this alone that these volumes are remembered, when at the same time it will he lamented that the youth or the inexperience of the writer should have betrayed him into a forced gaiety and an hyperbolical expression of plain sentiments or plain facts. Let one instance serve for all : he says of a man filling his pipe, that he proceeded to " replenish his clay associate from his odorous store" (of tobacco). This is as bad as GODWIN'S circumlocutory description of the " Indian tube" in his Life of CHAUCER. In the selections we shall make from the Voyager, we shall en- tirely confine ourselves to the interstitial notices of Arctic scenery, which we have prepared our readers for considering good. We will begin with an example of a picture of the icy regions in summer "The water was,like glass, clear and smooth, and reflecting the hea- vens, and the images of a thousand elevations and grotesque variations of the marble shore. Not a breeze played over its brilliant surface, nor did a wave ripple beneath the hollow margin of the floe. We could per- ceive medusa trailing their scarlet fibrils deep within the transparent element, while the tongues or jutting bases of the ice were seen extend- ing out from the main body in magnificent expansions ' full fathom five' below the spectator. The awful depth to which the sight can penetrate by the assistance of these irregular projections, is a source of the sub- lime to be found only in these regions of grandeur and peculiar beauty. Under a bright clear sky, the alabaster whiteness of the tongues reflects the light, though buried far beneath the surface of the water ; and the visual faculty seems to acquire power as it desc6nds from shelf to shelf and from point to point, into the profound abyss of the ocean....This view ofj icy precipices and crystal grottoes, amid the depths of the sea, though correct to some extent,. is greatly increased by the irregularly re- fractive and reflective qualities of the medium through which it is seen. In addition to the steep basement of the floe, sunk deeply beneath the surface and spread out into broad shelves and fantastic buttresses, the images of the upper edge and the impending hummocks of the floating mass are mingled with the vision, while all beyond appears a wide chasm of ethereal blue, chequered with fleecy clouds, the counterpart of the heavens above.... When the sea is but faintly coloured, its tints are most evident while flowing over the projections of the flaw ; and the beauty of a sapphirine liquid foiled by a sheet of snowy ice is transcendent. Green tinted water affords a sight less pleasing; but a splendid medusa sailing slowly above the marble rock glitters like a brilliant jewel, com- posed'of a thousand jems."—Vol. I. p. 30.
It may be inconsistent with popular notions of climate to suppose excessive heat upon the ice,—that persons repose upon snowy banks under the sun's heat, and when taking violent exercise actu- ally strip themselves for relief: it is nevertheless the fact in the short and glowing summers of the Polar regions.
"As we continued our progress along the floe, the heat of the sun, re- flected from its surface, became oppressive. Forgetful of my former condition, I first threw off my coat, and next flung open my vest, to ad- mit the refreshing ittmosphere to my bosom. I felt as thirsty as if I were toiling along a dusty road ; copious perspiration bedewed my limbs ; my back seemed to burn in the noontide rays; and I looked around on the wild realm of ice and the wide expanse of water, half doubting that I was in the latitude of Spitzbergen."
The Voyager goes on to describe, in a very beautiful manner, one of the principal features of an island of ice in summer—its variety of lakes and rivulets. "The sun having now for the space of several days and nights shone without the interposition of one cloud, the number and extent of the pools that diversified the regions round the Leviathan had considerably increased. Along the base of the ridge of hummocks before described, a torrent of large size flowed rapidly, formed by the union of several stream- lets, which, shooting over the abrupt edge of the ancient floe, came tumbling down upon the newer field : the broken waters gathered into one hasty current, foaming and hurrying onward through arched cavities and narrow channels with a murmur almost rural. In its course it filled a superficial hollow, caused by the fall of a crystal pinnacle across its path, then burst in a single sheet over the prostrate barrier, and with increased velocity hastened to precipitate itself into the sea. This brook, which would scarcely have attracted the notice of ramblers in other countries, was an object of admiration to our party, but not on account of its vo- lume. Its charms lay in the novelty of its banks and the translucent pu- rity of its waters. Its bed, its borders, the valley through which it ran, and the hills whose feet it washed—were all of ice—unsullied sparkling
* Tates of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean, Second Series. 3 vols. London, 1629. ice. The lights which glanced along its streaming surface, or danced among its bickering eddies, were brilliant as the brightest diamonds ; and the soft shades that repose within its recesses were more azure than the unclouded sky."—Vol. 1. p. 34:
The author's contrast between salt-water ice and fresh-water ice will serve to inform Cocknies (that is to say persons of a confined experience) that there is as great a difference between the one and the other as between salt and fresh butter.
" The appearance of ice in the Arctic Ocean is not the same with the general look it bears in more southern climes : and this may be accounted for at once, when we recollect, that the waters from which each is formed are different in their composition,—one being charged with the saline matter of the sea ; the other containing, if any thing, chiefly a small portion of lime. Salt-water ice, however, does not comprise the salts which were dissolved in the fluid before it became frozen, the crystalli- zation of the water excluding them almost entirely as it proceeds; but there is a brackish, nauseous taste in this ice, which shows that some of the saline particles are retained; and it does not possess the trans- parency of fresh water ice. The opaqueness of salt-water ice gives it the look of marble, and allows the eye to deceive itself with fancied resem- blances to works of sculpture, in the infinite variety of shapes that appear before it, more completely than if the material were teanslucent ; while the vivid blue and violet shades which lurk amongst its recesses, are ren- dered intensely beautiful by their contrast with the alabaster fabric they inhabit. Fresh-water ice, on the contrary, presents none of these at- tractions to the sight. It is beheld sometimes detached amongst masses of its rnanine congener, and is easily distinguished by its solid, dark, glassy, green appearance, and its heavy mode of floating : most frequently, how- ever, it is to be found upon the floes, where it is formed from the melted snow congealed into sheets upon the pools, or depending in icicles from inland elevations and the edges of the fields. In these latter situations, fresh and salt water ice combined, afford, at times, splendid exhibitions of grotto work, which enchant the beholder with their exuberant design and brilliant lustre."—Vol. i. p. 224.
It seems that good people have wondered that the Polar voyagers do not amuse the leisure hours of their dark winter with skating. This exercise is impracticable : there is invariably on the surface of the floes a prismatic crystallization of fluid, arising either from sleet or the percolation of water, which render skating impossible. They who wish to see this question satisfactorily demonstrated, and at length, may turn to Vol. i p. 228, et seq. With respect to the heat of the Arctic regions, we have met with another passage with which to astonish the natives.
" I have often provided myself with a little vessel of snow-water, caught as it descended from the margin of a floe, to bear me company when I pushed off on the bosom of a lake, that I might from time to time indulge my palate with its refreshing coolness. For the same purpose, I have car- ried with me small fragments of frozen snow to hold in my mouth as I plied the oar ; and with similar design, to moderate the fervent effects of exercise in the warm climate of this hyperborean realm, I have gladly stripped myself to my shirt sleeves, flung open my waistcoat, and used every other mode of obtaining refreshment to which we are accustomed to resort during superabundant heat of weather."—Vol. id. p. 44.
The scene, and the writer's feelings, are however sadly changed in August, the commencement of the Arctic winter; as 'nay be seen from the following picturesque passage.
" It is beyond the powers of imagination to conceive the dismal aspect that presents itself on all sides and in all situations to the Arctic voyager, durins, this portion of his wanderings. On deck, he sees his ship moored almost constantly to a ahem of ice, whose dull white margin is just perceptible beneath the storm of a murky cloud, which hangs like a cumbrous curtain over the floe. Above him, the slackened cordage, half hidden in mist, gathers a heavy load of moisture, which it lets fall in sudden showers upon his head, as the vessel rolls and heaves lazily upon the sullen tide. Close around him the damp fog spreads its chilling wreaths, as if wrapping him in a wet embrace. He feels his warmth abstracted while the drizzly atmosphere clings coldly to his frame, seeming to penetrate his garments and apply itself immedi- ately to his skin. He hears nothing but the dreary echoes of the sea, swelling up beneath the hollowed edges of the ice, and breaking in mo- notonous and regularly-repeated murmurs amongst its labyrinths; or if, occasionally, sounds of animation strike his ear, they are but the sudden dropping of a mallemuk unseen into the water, and its succeeding noisy paddling towards him, to discover what food may be obtained in his vici- nity. Below, all is dulness, gloominess, and want of cheer. He still finds the cold denk air around him, even at the fireside ; he sees its heavy charge deposited on the walls or bulkheads of his retreat, and trickling down in countless streams towards the deck or floor."—Vol. iii. p. 53.
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