Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1880-04-01
VOYAGE OF THE VEGA.
Interview with NOrdenskj jOld at Naples
His Description OF the effects
OF the Cold OF the Polar
Seas.
NAPLES Letter to the Chicago Times. ]

Yesterday, through the kindness of the
Geographical society, had the pleasure OF a
short conversation with the learned naviga-
tor. Prof. Nordenskiold speaks English,
French and something of Italian. Naturally
our conversation was in the former, and
though brief, it was so full of interesting par
ticulars, recounted with the greatest simpli-
city and readiness, that believe it will be as
entertaining to others as it proved to me.
"It is impossible" said he, "to form an
idea of tempest in the polar seas. The
icebergs are like floating rocks whirled along
a rapid current. These crystal mountains
dash against each other, backward and for
ward, bursting with roar like thunder, and
returning to the charge until losing their equi-
librium they tumble over in cloud of spray,
upheaving the ice-felds which fall afterward
like the crack of a whiplash on the boiling
sea. When one of these Titans falls thus
the sea-gulls fly away screaming, and often
q black shining whale comes for an instant
putting to the surface.
1.-The midnight sun? All, yes! When
it grazes the horizon, the floating mountains
and the rocks seem immersed in wave OF
purple light. That rigid landscape seems to
wake out of its drowsy torpor, the streams
flow again.
"The cold? 1t is by no means so insup-
portable as is supposed. We passed from a
heated cabin at 30 degrees above zero to At
degrees below zero In the open air without
inconvenience. A much higher degree of
cold becomes, however, insutterable II
there is wind. At Is degrees below steam,
as if from a boiling kettle, rises from the
water. At once frozen by the wind, it falls
in fine powder. This phenomenon is called
ice-smoke. At 40 degrees the snow and hu-
man bodies also smoke, which smoke changes
at once into millions of tiny particles, like
needles of ice, which fill the air and make
a light, continuous noise, like the rustic of q
stiff silk. At this temperature the trunks OF
trees burst with loud report, the rocks break
up, and the earth opens and vomits smoking
water. Knives break in cutting butter.
Cigars go out by contact with the ice on the
beard. To talk Is fatiguing. At night the
eyelds are covered with crust of ice, which
must be carefully removed before one can
open them"
The Vega is the first vessel which has
passed through Behring's Strait coastiDg
along the entire western shore of Siberia.
She has not discovered new islands nor
touched the known points nearest the pole,
but she has demonstrated the existence of
the famous northeast passage, opening for
at least few weeks each year the treasures
of Siberia to commerce. Scientifically the
results are, according to scientists, invalu-
able. At all events, the enterprise is the first
in the long polar record of the daring ex-
ploits and dauntless courage which may be
said to have succeeded in its scope. Fortune
doubtless favored the hardy adventurers, but
prudence and skill must also have had their
share in the successful issue, and it is not
without certain fitness that the conquest of
those regions of ice and snow should be made
by the defendants of the blonde Vikings.