The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-10-03
LIFE IN THE ICE KINGDOM.

I
Whaling, in its details one of the
most repuIsive of human industries,
has associations incomparably fascinat-
ing to the imagination, apart from the
terrible toll, the courage, the endur-
ance, and the danger, involved in the
| pursuit. All these come into the pic
ture, and underlie it's charm, enhanced
by the great distance, the parting from
home and friends, the absolute silence,
the complete isolation. No news comes
to the homes of the whalers until
they bring it, with ease and plenty
or the grim blank of failure nc
passing ships hail the voyagers tC
the far north, to the region
where mans dominion has never been
acknowledged, where he is no moro
than persevering invader, who snat
es, with inconceivable toll and difficulty,
a few swift victories, and then a stead /
Iy, inexorably beaten back by the float
ing forces of the ice king. The giant
barriers of the ice-realm are closed
against him, and the mysterious night
of the arctic winter bids defiance to his
puny daring. When the darkness com es
down upon the polar world, does the
strange calm that brOods over the great
wastes of water within the great
wastes of ice which form the Spitzber-
gen islands remain untroubled, or do
the winds howl over the black waves
until the ice-barriers shiver, and moan,
and split themselves into frantic frag
ments, careering wildly under the rush
ing lash of the tempest, and anon clos
ing up for long spells of their inexora-
BILE ward The whole region, during
the brief season for which man can
look upon it and live, is one of enchant-
ment and delight, but he leaves it with
the lingering longing to learn the mys-
teries of its winter unfulflled. No
wonder that the good people of Hull
watched with patient curiosity the lading
of a schOoner-yacht which sailed from
Hull on the 11th May, 1872, with
small party of English gentlemen and
an exclusively English crew, for it was
bound for Spitzbergen, was to sail
round the island, and was fitted with all
the requirements for whaling and seal
ing. A large fishing feet was sailing,
but the schooner soon outsailed them
all, and as the fishermen hauled toward
their fishing banks, and she stood on her
course alone, the talk on board her was
of the hyperborean seas ahead, whose
dread and danger the men knew and
had dared and of the great whales,
whose capture is such fierce excitement
and large profit. Many days sail pass
by before the " finners appe ar, but at
length the gentlemen see them, and
their ill-cOncealed admiration seems un-
called for by the crew, to whom these
wonderful creatures are very small deer,
indeed, the mere outlying "wilde
fowle of the ice-realn, gliding on the
surface of the calm, clear sea with
sudden, gentle motion, and heaving
loud "p-o-o-f" as they come by the
ship, whence they are watched in strict
est silence. The marvels of the north
ern seas come quickly; Van Mayen's
island lies in the ships course, and as
they near it, the whole air is alive with
whitewinged armies of sea-birds, the
high cliffs being tenanted by another
host at rest; two rocks stand out from
the land, exactly resembling swift-sail-
ing ships, coming on with all sails set,
and heeling over to the gale; and the
icy peak of Beerenberg rises above the
sea-level $3.50 feet. The beach had
history to tell full of warning, and yet
of weird attraction, for here were bits
of whale boats reduced to match-wOod
by the frightful action of the boisterous
seas; fragments of wrecks of ships that
had fought bravely against the ice, but
had been beaten bits of masts of mer-
chant-vessels huge piles of driftwOOd,
once stately trees on the side of some
Siberian river, now stranded on the
which the sea-wOrms had perforated it
in every direction tenantless for the
woOd-bOrers cannot i've in the tempera-
ture of the awful artic seas. The wild
duck and the white-fox have the island
to themselves, and beyond it lies the
true commencement of the west ice, the
surge of the heavy sea breaking upon
the outer edge of the huge floating
masses, and the illimitabIe distance
laden With heavy blocks, iuterspersed
with flat snow. Surely here is the end
of all things, and no ship can ever get
/ beyond this beautiful barrier, this spray
/ sprinkled diadem on the brow of the
awful ice king, shining with almost
unbearable lustre of rubies, diamonds,
emeralds, and sapphires and the thun-
dering sound of the disrupted masses
which strew the sea is the warning Cf
! dismissal. They heed neither, but sail
/ toward the densest part, through a
| fringe of broken ice in a heaving sea,
/ forcing the schooner at all speed, and
/ charging the most likely place for an
entrance, as the surge rises and falls
with awful fury. They get through,
/ for they have men on board who are ac
! custOmed to deal with ice, to hit it care
/ fully, and turn it gently from its way :;
and the wonderful operation succeeds.
/ the schooner stands out 30 sea ia broad
+ channel, with ice-walls on either side.