Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1853-04-02
{ From .hs Ba..on Trayeller. ]

of the Music Hall, was well attended i The lee
/ ture was deeply interesting, and the relation of
winter in the northern regions, where the brig was
frozen through long months in the ice, enlisted the
deepest attention Of the audience The cold in
that region, he said, intense that dried APP
Piles broke in the fingers sugar had 60 be cut with
an axe, butter with a chse, and beef with an axe
| and crowbar.
The thermometer was from 80 to so degrees
below Zero and in going out one breathed pun
gent and agreeable atmosphere. The eyebrows,
beard whiskers and hair, soon became frosted with
ice, and if the tongue was put out upon the chin,
it would at once be frozen fast that it would be
necessary to use the hand to relieve it. Quick
walking would produce glow and perspiration,
when if slight wind should remove or dissipate
the misty vapor which surrounded the body with
steam and penetrate closer, the skin would at once
feel in thousand places pricking sensation.
The difference between heat and cold to the sensa-
ton is not SO great as might be imagined. Metals
blistered the hand rs if they were hot and all con-
ductors had to he handled with mttens or holders.
The study of our lives the best method Of
avoiding the cold, yet it was with as commonplace
and natural feeling would take the shady
side of a street on hot summers day. On our
return from perambulating expedition to the
brig, every man would undergo examination,
and if there appeared the least white spot on his
face indicative Of the cold having seized upon him.
|
snow
| The passing hours were sometimes enlivened
with the theatricas, and on one occasion while our
| bodies thicky enveloped in vapor and the
| lights had their mist in the same way that the
breath of man becomes visible anywhere of
winter morning, one of our female actresses, a
tall Irishman named Daley, while performing a
character, had occasion to do some ironing when
suddenly he dropped his iron, and exhbi ted some
gestures which did not belong to the occasion.
The cold iron had blistered his hand-burnt it, as
we may say-he handled it without holder.
A painful feature CT our stay was the perpetual
darkness of the long winter night, which came on
gradually, but during which we were 81 days with
out seeing the sun, not knowing in the gloom but
that fatal catastrophe might destroy our frail
ice bound barque. And from one to another often
passed the heartfelt, longing, earnest words, 81
wish the sun would come again" The night came
on in the southern sky peculiar illumination
blended with rich tnts, while in the north the sky
was tlarkIy blue. But the zone of day gradually
diminished. The bright starry vault overhead
giittered with perpetual brilliancy. The aurora
boreals came nightly, but was not the beautiful
meteor of this climate but had the appearance of
white moonlight cloud condensed nebua.
All this was in Lancaster Sound not far from Par
rvs centre of polar gravity. The moon shone with
untiring brightness, and was sometimes repeated
again and again, so that there many mock
moons with circles around them.
But ut last the day began to dawn, and we then
saw an immense change in our field of vision,
where ruin and Gesolation were predominant, and
the ice broken hero, forced up into hills and
piled into fragments there And it showed, too
that every thing in the brig was covered with
black pigment, the deposit of the SCOT and dust
falling from the lamps and fires; and we became
aware, too, that our countenances had become
bleached, and that we presented corse-iike APP
pearance AS the day advanced, we paced our
cage like wild beasts confined, growing paler and
paler, weaker and weaker, on each successive day.
The scurvy made fearful ravages, for out of % on
board % were down with the disease. The light
increased, and on the 23d of January the sun APP
peared above the horizon, and we assembled
ghastly crew to hail him with three cheers. At
first he appeared with his disk partially assuming
all kinds of shapes, and sunrise, sunset, and
day were in short few minutes. But soon he
came nearer and nearer we could see all his course
at last the stars faded out, roseate tnts were in
the sky, and we had entered our long arctic day.
The boundless field of shadows became glowing
with purple splendor.
The polar landscape is strangely distorted by
mirage. You become conscious that veil of
por is rising here and there that there is no APP
parent horizon, and splendid scenes break upon
our view. But strange phantasmc heights appear
visions Of promontories and bays. On one &C.
casion splendid band of light SPAWNED the hori
ION, under which appeared inverted hills and land
masses, while from beneath stretched up other
hills, the points of these touching the points of the
inverted hills. Yet the nearest land was eighty
miles distant. Again it seemed as if grand wall
encircled the horizon.
On the 5th of June having foated thousand
miles, suddenly the great field of ice began to
split and break, and in some twenty minutes we
were in sea of troublous ice But for five days |,
the great mass of ice in which we were imbedded |
chung to us. 1t 80 feet deep beneath our
stern. At the end of that time, by Is feet saws,
we cleared ourselves from the mass. Having |
reached Labrador we returned again NORTH and on |
the coast of Greenland soon recovered from our
scorbutic affections springing and fresh
food giving strength. Greenland is in fact
collection of islands bound together by masses of
ice. And here the great iceberg is formed.
Icebergs seem Opaque, often like chased silver,
and are indeed floating mountains, having in them
every feature on landtabe surfaces, chasn1s,
peaks One of them that was measured was three |
miles in circumference 800 feet above water, and |
was consequently times much under wa
ter. Some move two miles an hour, and sweep
along with asublime nertia ploug Ching and tearing !
up the thick icefelds like thin film. Over 800 Of
these gigantic moving masses were counted at one
time.
After six weeks of effort we had made but % |
miles, and at evening we entered little cove
where we were blocked up by masses of foes, and
for weeks we were frozen ND in the month of