The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1877-10-26
SUNSET WITHOUT NIGHT.
AUSTRIAN PICTURES og THE wfERD AND
RUGGED POLAR REALMS.


country. and which the Hartford Times. in
IA literary review of the volume, thus epito-
mizes it I:
Carl Weyprecht, the leader of the naval
part of the expedition is q German born,
(from Hesse Darmstadt,) who took this
perllous 81 alton i'll the Austrian expeditions;
he is but 30 now, and his companion In
COR maud, Julius Payer, who took charge
of the equally perilous sledge jOurneyiug,
aud the management of everything outside
the ship is now but 80. He is the author
of THIS interesting book. All told, officers
and crew, their party consisted of twenty
four persons. Their voyage began III June,
1872, and they got back alive in Sep ember,
1874 no small feat for Polar voyagers.
They had taken the Nova Zembia route,
because the one along the west coast of
Greenland was opposed by the great polar
current, which carries down and dsposes
of the ever forming ice.
To sum up the results Of their fearful
Journey in a word-they discovered, in lat
uude SOC, the south shore of All unknown
land which they named, i'll honor of the
Emperor, Franz Josef Land they killed
many ice bears; they met with some
startling adventures made number of
interesting minor discoveries, and came 20
the very positive conclusion that if the Pole
is not. as Mares claims, ''impracticable,"
there is at least open Polar Sea-that
tS-a
of ancient ice,'' (''palcocTystic sea- re-
ported on the northwest of Greenland by
the English Capt Mares, not only extends
all the way to the Pole, but grows rougher
and rougher-worse and worse-an the
way. TO show how terrible it is in the
Nova Zembla seas it is enough to say here
that party from the Austrian ship, well
equipped, after trying for two months to
travel over l., found they bad at the end of
tI,.,t a dIstn nj nil
miles.
The cndest time in the polar regions is
at the end of February and the first part of
March. 1t was in March that Kane found
his cUldest-1GC below zero. There are
ice foes thi,teen miles in breadth, aud
eighteen feet thick but the usual thick
ness is half that. Here is a curious aud
interesting statement
"In the summer of 1873 we observed a
vertical decrease of five six feet in the
thickness of the ice but this diIDinution in
thickness was from the SURFACE downward,
while in the itself there was little or no
thawing, because the temperature of its sur
face was still below zero
Here is another curious fact
mo one who has not actually seen II cah
imagine the blaze of light in the Arctic re-
gions in clear days, or the glow which floats
sometimes over the cold, white ice foes
with their outlines in constant vibration
while refractiOn transforms the icehergs into
variety of shapes. The suns power is
sometimes so great as to blister the skin in
few hours, and the glare from snow and ice
produces Snow blindness if the eyes he not
carefully protected. At a little distance
the appears to be of very deep black
color, though ii still preserves us ultrama-
riue hues in the narrow marine leads : even
the pure blue of the heavens may be called
almost black, when compared with the daZ
zlug sheen of the ice. In the middle of
June there was an incessant dripping and
oozi lg in the ice W Orld. and streams of thaw-
water flowed into the open tssures BY the
end of the month the surface of the ice re-
sembled SHOW
In the Barentz Isles, desolate group off
the northwest coast Of Nova Zembla, in
latitude 16O-full of sharp edged rocks, so
closely rammed together that the geologist
OF the expedition said they looked as if
''macadamized'-int that ute ly foI saken
spot, under the very shadow of the AIctic
Circle, was found this form of vegetation
"Here and there, about a fathom's length
from each other, lie brownish-green masses,
like mole-hills. When we examine them
more closely each mass resolves itself into a
vast number of small plants of the same
species (SaxifraCa oppositifo.ia), whose lit
tie stalks are covered with da rk green lea res
which are alive, and also will: brown leaves
which have been dead for yelrs and years
hut wither in the cold much more gradually
than with MS. From this small heap, tender
rosy blooms raise their little heads, bidding
defiance to the bitter snowy weather which
sweeps over the miserable plain"
We will quote scene or two IN the
northern seas which can scarcely be sur
passed as picture of strange dreamy resi-
in he Arctic sumner night:
For some days we had entered into world
utterly strange to most of on board tn,
Tegetthoff. Dense msis frequently enyel
oped us, and from out oS the mantle of snow
of the distant land, rhe rocks, like decayet
hattlcmeuts, frOwned on us inhOspitabIy
There il no more melancholy sound thar
that " hich accom- pauies the decay and waste
of the ice, as il is constantly acted on by tn,
aud thaw. aud no picture more sad aut
solemn than the continuous procession of ice
beres floating like large white beirs toward
the south.
Ever and anon there arses the noise O
the ocean swell, breaking among the exca
vations of the ice-flocs, while the water
ooziDg out fruiu their icy walls falls will
monotonous sOnnd into the sea or rerhap
a mass OF snow. deprived of its sunnort
drops into the waves, to disappear with
kissing sound as of n flame. Never for ;
moment ceases the cracking AMI swapping
sound produced hy the bursting of the ex.
ternal portions of the ice Magnificent cas-
cades of ihaYwnter precipiiaie Themselves
down the sides of the icebergs. which some
times rend with noise as of thunder, a.
the beams of the sun play on them. TIL,
fall of the Titanic mass raises huge volune
ot foam and the sea-brds, which had resteC
on its summit in peaceful Confidence ris,
with terrified screams, soon to gather aCaii
ON another ice Colossus.
Bat what n change when the sun, surround
ed by glowing cirrus clouds, breaks through
the mist and the blue of the heavens sradu
nlly " idens out. The masses of yapor a.
they well up, recede 70 the horizon, and th,
cold ice-fioes hecoms In the sunlight dart
borders to the ''lesds'' which CLEAN between
them, ou the trembling surface of which tn.
midnight sun is mirrpred. Where the raw
of the sun do not directly fall on it the c,
y sutfused with faint rosy haze, which
deepens more aud more as the source o
light nears the horizon. Then the suubeam
fall drowsily and softly, as through a vel
at orange gauZe. all forms lose at a little dis
tance their definition, the shadows becom.
fainter and fainter, aud all nature assume.
dreamy aspect
In calm nights the air ia SO mild that W,
forget that in the home of ice an,
snow The deep ultra-marne sky stretches