Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1881-10-08

ton. Sometimes the wall sleeps whit,
and still III its everlasting fetters of frost
Or a little wind will come, and whisl
vast clouds of SHOW dust down from tn,
ice cliffs. Anon the silence will be bro
ken by dcafening crash. A hill of ice
breaks off from the glacier and tumble!
: into the ocean, causing the sea TO "boi
like apot." An explorer in tins part %
the world was once walked up in the
morning by sailor, who gave him the
appalling information that the fire had
all gone ont, and that "the mercury wat
clear down to the ball." Their coffee in
the coffee pot was frozen hard as q
stone. Their biscuits were like so many
leaden bullets. 1t was a thrilling mo-
ment. After much tribulation they
managed to start fire. Even wood
was frozen and refused to burn. Final
ly, when things were getting thawed
ont, they looked at their thermometer
and found it had gone away up till il was
only 40 degrees below zero. 1t was
growing warm and comfortable.
Tho reports of the VOYAGES of Nor
dcnskjold are among the most interest
ing accounts ever given of the region Of
eternal snow. He started on his last
trip along the northern shore of Asia, III
midsummer, 1873. His ship, the Vega,
was provisioned for two years. They
laid in plentiful supply of lemon juice
and cranberry sauce, and other things
that were sour and cooling. On Aug.
10 they sighted the northernmost point
OF the old world, Northeast cape. For
several days previous they had been en-
velopcd in fog, but Suddenly on this day
the cold clouds parted. The peak of the
old cape lighted up splcnI;dly. They
nearcd the cliffs and fired cannon sa-
lutte. As they came still nearer they
saw a huge polar bear standing upon a
glittering iceberg making faces Mt them.
But a field of ice barred their prog
rcss. After trying Intellectually to
force their ship through it they finally
gave up, and anchored to an ice-foc.
Afterward it got SO hot, however, that
the temperature of the water a little
ways down into the ocean was only one
degree below zero. In these high north
ern latitudes fresh meat will stay frozen
hard as iron for untold landreds of
years. The bolies of Siberian MAN.
moths have been found, imbedded in
ice, as fresh as when the animal breathed
its last expiring sigh, though the lord
knows how many ages ago that event
actually took place. Dogs ate the flesh
of one of these mammoths with as much
relish rs though it had been frcsh-killed.
After waiting while longer, during
the interesting summer weather, Nor
lcnskjold and his men chopped the
brave little Vega ont of the ice with
axes, and got her away.
They soon aticrward were frozen in
for the winter. But ii wasn't so very
bad. Even ou the 2lst of Doccmhc.
they enjoyed five hours of blessed sun
shine. They spent Jolly Christmas
with the Thermometer only-:'5 degrees.
Indeed, it never went lower than 46 de-
grees below zero. During his voyage of
1928, the same navigator wintered at
in 80 degrees north lati-
tude. The sun disappeared Oct. %. 1t
stayed cool and dark till February. The
darkness made the temper bad. In Gin.
cinnatti it is observed that 101 degrees
above zero in the shade has the same
effect. When the light came back the
explorers looked at one another and
found that the faces of all had pale
yellowish green tint, the color of lapk
potato sprout in cellar.
Fogs of brilliant ice-crystals hung
over the ground during April. They
saw gorgeous mock suns. Beautiful ice
blocks bobbed about In frisky manner
all summer.
For really cool and refreshing reading
in hot weather, however, We can not do
better than to turn to Capt. c. L. Halls
.,rcticexplorations. He mentions sitting
up in bed, in his snow-house, and writ
ing in his journal when the mercury
outside the hut went down to 81 degrees
below zero. While his ship was frozen
in on the northern coasts, he took
pleasure tour III sledg.s across the couri-
try in the month of January. He took
three pounds of Cincinnati cracklin.s
along for soup. He says the soup VS.
excellent.
One part of the story is tolerably stiff.
as suits frozen region. The Captain
wore n long, heavy beard. His breath
coated his whiskers with frost. Finally
they froce in a solid mass together, hard
end unyieldirg as a poker. He wished
to take his reindeer jacket of over his
head, but the hard mass OF ice and beard
prevented. Finally he took out his