Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-01-23
Life in the Ice Kingdom.

Life in the Ice Kingdom.
THE London Spectator paints some of
the dangers and destinations of whaling
and life in the far frozen regions of the
North
Whaling, in some of its details one of
the most repulsive of human industries,
has associations incomparably fascinat-
ing to the imagination apart from the ter
rible toll, the courage, the endurance and
the danger involved in the pursuit. All
these come into the picture and underlie
its charm, enhanced by the great dis
tance, the parting from home and friends,
the absolute silence, the complete isola-
tion. No news comes to the homes of
the whalers until they bring it, with ease
and plenty, or the grim blank of failure;
no passing ships hail the voyagers TO the
far North, to the region where mans do
minion has never been acknowledged,
where he Is no more than persevering
invader, who snatches, with inconcev8-
BILE toll and difficulty, a few swift victo.
ries and then is steadily, ineXorably
beaten back by the floating forces of the
Ice King. The giant barriers of the ice
realm are closed against him and the
mysterious night of Arctic Winter bids
defiance to his puny daring. When the
darkness comes 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 Spitz-
bergen 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 closing
up for long spells of their inexorable
wardP
The beach had a history to tell, full of
warning, and yet of weird attraction, for
here were bits of whale boats reduced to
matchwOod 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
merchant vessels; huge piles of drift
wood, once stately trees on the side of
some Siberian river now stranded on the
Arctic coast, and the little tunnels with
which the sea-worms had perforated it in
every direction, tenantless, for the wood
borers cannot live in the temperature of
the awful Arctic 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
lllimitable distance laden with heavy
blocks interspersed 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 al.
most unbearable luster of rubies, dia.
monds, emeralds and sapphires; and the
laundering sound of the disrupted masses
which strew the sea is the warning of dis.
missal. They heed neither, but sail to.
ward the densest part, through a fringe of
| broken ice in heaving sea, forcing the
schooner at full 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 accustomed to deal with
ice, to hit it carefully and turn it gently
from its way and the wonderful opera.
ton succeeds, the schooner stands out to
sea in broad channel, with ice walls on
either side, and the first terrific barrier
lies between them and all life that is less
than Arctic.
AT first it is little difficult TO crow &C
customed to the absence of darkness, then
the perpetual light becomes pleasant; but
there must always be some confusion
about time, especially when occupation
is either severe toll or strong excitement
when danger is never absent for long, and
every object is absolutely strange and
novel. To drift off into the indistinguish
able fog on an ice layer, when in pursuit
of family of seals, waricst and most tan
talizing Of creatures, is only an incident
and then the sailors begin to recall dis
NAL precedents. The whaling boats are
in requisitiOn and the shoals of whales
multiply, as the schooner sails northward
under the never-setting sun, amid a scene
of silent desolation and frequently muffied
in a dense fog; awfully insignificant
alien, and alone. Suddenly they are
beset with ice" and find themselves con
templating an aspect of nature such as
"the painter might imagine, or the poet
with his lying license, might invent, OF
the Imagination of sleeper could fancy
in dreams of night" A great storm il
blowing over the unfrozen sea far away
but the schooner, fastened to bit of ice
whose two projecting tongues keep of
the pressure of the outer ice, which has
closed them up within 200 yards, lies il
deep calm. A boat is lowered, and the
men sit in dead silence in it, watching
for the narwhal, which are blowing near
and throwing up little Jets of vapor from
the blowholes on either side of the head
The harpooner is ready, the tubs and the
line are prepared; but the narwhal is
difficult game; he goes at tremendous
speed and his range of vision is wide
so that when he is dragged on to the
ice with his spotted hide and hi
polished horn, he is a trophy of the frs
class. Great hordes of this curious mann
NAL travel through the Arctic seas, tusk t.
tusk and tail to tail, like regiment O
cavalry, thousands strong, and their play
in great ice-encircled water-wastes i
wonderful to see, as their dappled side
curve close to the surface, and the tiltinj
swords are thrust above the waves in thei
reckless lunges; or they suddenly skin
along the surface, curve their backs, ant
plunge headlong down, following tn
vagaries of some chosen leader. When
crew of the schooner had killed the frs
narwhal, they made vast fireplace out O
his remains, the openings between tn
ribs serving for a CRATE, packed in witt
wood and oakum and set fire to the mate
rials in order that the odOrous fume
might attract any bears that might be il
the neighbOrhoOd. But neither narwha
nor bear causes such excitement as th
real right whale" the tremendous gian
of the seas, with the likeness of man
head and face in the roof of his mouth
whose coming is waited for in speeches
expectation, whose capture is the hardes
work that men can do, whose value II
pays for all the labor and all the risk eve
men who have no eyes for beauty and n
sense for the sublimity of the scene. The
are sailing on a silver sea, in the wonder
ful Arctic sunlight, which is unlike ligh
III any other region, in the still, intoxlc,
ting air which fills their veins with lii
and thrills them with strange happiness
past iridescent caves rising out of tn
pure water, they can see far back int
them where the upper edges are festoone
with dazzling ornament like networ
of lace composed of fine gems, the firing
CLEANS in the prismatic light with ever
motion of the waves and the fairy hall
are filled with awful soLnd. What ma
velous constant beauty and life, wher
man is only brief accident
A few days more and a herd of wa
| ruses is rpDOrtp1 (sOma Of tho indiyidVol