Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1877-02-17

to be left behind; the seamen of the
Alert went forward as band of men
who compose forlorn hope. AS the
Alert steamed out of sight of her com.
panion ship along the cost of Grant
Land, and was lost to view as she
turned the northeast corner of that
desolate and unexplored portion OF
terra firma, the crews of both ships
received q paraly ysing surprise. From
the deck and rigging of the Discov-
cry the seamen and officers saw the
Alert suspended in the air in
AN INVERTED POSITION,
| traced on the horizon in the clearesI
colors, and with the most distinct
and perfect representation. The
officers explained that this was a
common optical deception, attributa'
bic to a certain condition of the
atmosphere. But the forecastlemen
regarded it as the wrath of the ship,
and in low voices wondered and dis
cussed the probabilities of the caul-
men having survived the revealed
catastrophe.
On board the Alert, meantime, an
equally demoralizing state OF affairs
existed. Instead of finding a con-
tinous coast-lins leading 100 miles
northward, as the commanders and
every one on board had been taught
to expect, the ship was on the bor-
der Of what was unquestionably a
very extensive sea, with impenetrable
ice in every direction. This was dis
heartening; but when encountering
the same atmospheric conditions as
had struck terror into the seamen
of the Discovery, they beheld on the
horizon real cities, where towers and
battlements and spires
BoSoMED HIGH IN TUFrED TREES,
we're clearly cmblazoned, they could
not be persuaded that what they be-
held was an optic illusion, produced
by the hugh misshapen icebergs.
"We have seen mirage before" said
they" but mirage does not create
cities whero none exist. The
Alert was pushed as far north as
possible, and secured inside shell
tering barrier Of grounded ice, and
here she for eleven months remained.
Before her was apparently sea of
ancient ice, composed of gigantic
angular blocks towering over fifty
feet in the air, ard with diameter
of a mile-a wilderness of floating
ice islands, whose savage depths lay
hidden forty yards beneath the sur
face. Amid this whirling chaos
these rotating ice mountains with
mists-it is not surprising that as
darkness came OH until it overshad-
owed them in gloom, and the sun
was seen no more for even a short
half hour above the southern hori-
zon, the men began to ponder and
to be alarmed, and to dream dreams.
The crew of the Alert envied the
crew of the Discovery-they were
at least near the open sea and safety.
The seamen of the Discovery, on
the other hand, believed that their
comrades of the Alert had perished
to a man. Besides, on the bleak
hillside near the ship, was there not
cairn and grave? And was there
not a tablet-a " headstone," the
men called it on board--to be erec-
ted over Capt. Halls lonely resting
place, when the sun should again
fling his rays athwart the dreadfully
enduring darkness? Then there was
the mystery of poor Halls fate.
Was he poisoned, or did he commit
suicide? Or did his heart fail him,
as their hearts had already failed
them, and did he die heartbroken
in consequence?
Then there were the early Dutch
ships spoken of by Darlington and
Beaufoy, Fellows of the Royal So
ciety of England, who had reached
within two or three degrees of the
Pole, and of finding there an open
sea and destruction-all except one
man, miraculously saved by a wal
rus. Aud there was q record Of
another Dutch ship going two de-
grees beyond the Pole, recorded by
The late Admiral Fitzroy before the
Geographical Society of London, in
April, 1865. The Esquimaux, who
had seen the ship enter the sea, and
another band Of Esquimaux who
had seen on the Asiatic side, agreed,
the Admiral said, IN declaring the
disappearance of the daring naviga.
tor.
Tho Esquimaux on Smiths Sound
or rather on the mountain, 2, 900 fee,
high, re-discovcred by Lieut.. Aid.
rich, in latitude SO deg. Z min.. saw
the vessel steer through an oper
channel and enter the mild open sea
At first she answered her helm, bu
as she sailed northward she DETECTED
considerably from the normal route
Finally, like dancing dsrvish, sh'
began to whirl round the outer rim
of the irresistible eddy. like mat
ship in IN ocean circus. "No doubt
said the Admiral, this is o correc
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