Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1852-03-26
life In the Arctic Sea.


es.ing lectures on the Arctic Exploring Expe-
dltion in the New York Tabernacle, presents
vivid picture of a winter in those ATTITUDES -
Speaking OF the intense cold he says:
We had no fire, but the mercury was for weeks
together many degrees below zero. As late as
July, over $50 miles from the North Pole, gath
cred Towering fQnunculus imbedded in snow
and ice. In the second week of September
our ice casks were frozen, and we could get no
water except by manufacture. We quarried the
icebergs and melted them Soon the sea began
TO freeze, our decks became dry, covered with
Jumps of ice, and the rigging was beautifully
crystalized As the cold increased, the scene
was talrer.-1cicles hung around the deck
peaches became a mass of calcedone-butter
was cut with Chisel-beef with pick.aXe and
croW-bar. Walking ont, you are concious OF q
bracing atmosphere. Whiskcrs and face are
glazed with ice. Put out your tongue, and it is
frozen to your chin. Walking on you get into
fine glow, often into perspiration but if the
wind rises, then you have a sensation of prick
ing pins. Extremes meet. Extremes of heat
and cold are alike. In our new life, cold gave
positive character to our existence, almost i'm
possible to describe. We protected ourselves
from metals with fur and buckskin. The crawI
the chiN--whlch is with US at home, the indCa-
ton OF varying temperaurc-1caS there ufltnOWn.
I'm fact it was only by the direct attack of cold
that we were aware OF it, and officers and men
agreed that ue had suffered more at home from
cold. With such an inVeterGtc enemy, however,
we could not hope to escape scars, but we all
returned alive On one occasion a poor fellow
recovering from inflammation of the lungs, be-
ing asked how his frost bitten ear came on, pro-
duced it in piece Of paper, and said "Doc-
tor, didn't want to trouble you, but it dropped
off last night"
One of the phenomena, attending the six
months day, is thus described:
The parhcIion, or mock sun, was constantly
beautiful, giving us loZenge-shaped limitations of
the sun. The effect of sky with manifold
Suns may be imagined OF relraction, the most
famous form is the mirage. This is occasicned
by the diversion of the visual ray, when passing
through different layers of mir. 1t is indeed an
optical illusion, not distingUishabc from rctlec-
ton:
Looking at the polar landscape, you become
conscious of strange distortion, nothing is still
For few months before the return of the sum-
the horizon seemed lifted up; then the land
scape was like a hollow cone. You are in the
midst OF a vast area, which You were always the
center. Ii seemed massive prison always clos
ing around you. It's only in the night of sum-
mer that the mirage at,ans its full phantasmago-
rial splendor.
The extraordinary effect of refraction are al
so noticed
One evening, after the end Of February,
plain dark streak was seen to stretch several
leagues in the sky; along it were inverted hills.
1t was like great tunnels in the sky, yet each
was of the massiyeness of the mountains. The
land was then more than 80 miles off, and again
subsidized, leaving us with an ice-bound horizon
C,,rr th-D nil he 1rift cd
sand miles.
OF the terrible glaciers, he says:
The glacier is composed of fresh water. Its
elements are modified more or less by the char
meter of its base. The fracture and disruption
i9 caused by wave action, by gravitaton and
temperature. The iceberg is liberated glacier.
| know not how to describe it, In color It's
Wilderness is opaque, like frosted silver, Its
base is cobalt blue, and its edges flash and spar
kle. Its shape depends upon the influence
around it. You find all landscape forms and
features upon it. Mingled with these pleasing
associations are higher feelings Of grandeur.
have measured them and have found them to be
300 feet and the entire height of one such is
therefore :, 100 feet. Millions of tons are en-
braced in il, and it moves sometimes miles
an hour. There is something infinitely impos-
ing III its march through the ice fields.
TIE WuEE1- BARRow EMIGRASr RETURyED
Many Of our readers VII! remember the ac-
count published in all the newspapers, nearly
TWO years ago, Of California emigrant, who
crossed the plains "on foot and alone" with a
wheel barrow, conveying all his earthly goods,
that is, his provisions, clothes tools, &c. in that
humble vehicle and outstripping in his march,
! numbers who started for the land Of gold, with
| more snowy and expensive appointments. His
name is Brookmire and he is an Irishman by
birth. His residence is at Warren in Peusy Iva
mia. where he left wife and family Of children
in very INDECENT circumstances, when he went
over the Rocky Mountains to TRY bis fortune
Brookmire has lately returned from California,
with about $4,000 of the dust all Of which
he dug and washed out with his own hands. As
it is very apt to pour when it rains, his wife re-
ceived lagacies during his absence to the amount
Of $4,000, falling to her upon the death OF some
1 relatives in Scotland.