Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-13
IN TIE FROZEN NORTH.


Strange Sights In the Icy Polar Regions
The Iufusncs Of the Harsh Climate on
the Viking Races-HRIrbFeadth Encnpes
Among the wild Cliff.
The further north you 60, the more marvels
spring up around you. No words can do jus
tice to the weird attraction Of this strange life
beyond the hounds of the living world, where
there is no sunrise and no sunset, but one end
less, unchanging day; where time, space and
established rules are alike unknowni where you
breakfast at in the morning, sup at midnight,
dine whenever you please, and never 60 to bed
at all; where men are no bigger than children,
and children no bigger than dolls; where mos
quitoes swarm beyond the arctic circle; where
you find cattle the size of sheep, sheep the
size or dogs and dogs the size Of rabbits; where
one turns from Watching the sea foam into
whirlpools around frolicsome whale to see an
eagle swoop from the brow of perpendicular
precipice 5000 feet high; where phantom ships
appear hanging upside down in mid-air, and
instead of one sun you see four or five at once;
where dwarfs live under the snow as in fairy
tales. and the day of the week or of the month
is matter of glorious uncertainty from the
beginning of the voyage to the end of it.
But when you pass from the limit of vegeta-
ton into the region of eternal emptiness be-
yond. the Polar Ocean is seen in its grImmest
and gloomiest aspect. The brightest and clear
est day can do little to soften the sternness of
IN 69e cold gray rocks and lonely lifeless waters
put when seen beneath the gloomy shadow of a
gathering storm the desolation of the whole
landscape becomes absolutely overwhelming.
Not tree, not shrub, not even blade of
grass is to be seen upon the bare, craggy sides
OF 1nnumerable precipices, heaving up their
gaunt outline against the darkening sky, and
overhupg by the cold dead whiteness of the |
eternal snow, the sullen, hfeless waters be- |
meath, the gray leaden sky overhead, the tre- |
mendous loneliness, the dead, unearthly awful |
silence, all combine to crush you with an over
poWer1ng sense OF utter and CHASTITY isolation. q
weird nightmare feeling Of being the only |
thing left living upon the face Of dispeopled |
The Stern Morse Gods.
1t is from such scenery as this that one learns |
to understand the grim, mighty. granite-hewn |
figures of Scandinavian mythology, whose very |
heaven was no place of ease and softness and |
luxury but whirl of eternal battle. One can |
fancy how mean and paltry would appear, says |
David Ker, in letter to the New York Times, |
amid the silence and loneliness Of these tre- |
nendous solitudes, the dainty divinities of |
soft sunny, sensuous Greece-a curly-bearded |
love, sleek Apollo, dapper Mercury, |
round-limbed Venus, Far different are the |
stern deities of the stormy North-Odin scat
iering the clouds of heaven before the rush of
his giant horse. Thor dashing the mountains in /
pieces at every stroke of his thunderbolt ham,
ner, Agir shaking the solid rocks to their
foundations with the shock Of his roaring |
waves, Heimdal making earth and sky echo to
'he blast of his war horn, and Surtur's fiery |
Iword melting the mountains In the day OF
lis wrath"
1t was in one of the countless rocky islets
If this ghostly sea "a mere dot in the boundless
waste OF waters) that once met with an ad-
1enture which, though I have already made
ng over again. The island, which was one
Tast precipice on all sides but the southwest,
erminated to the North In bold turret-shaped
Fond which lowered an isolated crag of equal
height. evidently torn from the main cliff by
ome mighty oonVulsion ages ago. This I |
,niy to find that the natural bridge Of rock L1
which had reached it had been covered by
ne rising tide, and that my retreat was cut
A Thrilling Escape.
So there was, so feet up dangerous preci-
ice, on a ledge just wide enough for me to
tand on, with raging sea below, and COM
ng storm blaekening the horizon, which. as
Vell knew, would whirl me of my perch like
Gather into the roaring waves beneath. Ny
ole remaining chance of life was one from the
hought of which instinctively shrank, VIZ,
o leap across the hideous ohasm that sepa-
ated me from the main cliff and alight upon
he nearest ledge of the latter. 1t was indeed
fearful risk. which nothing short of the
respect of certain death could have nerved
ny man to face. The leap was a wide one, the
helf on which stood barely large enough to |
i've me space for a spring, and the ledge on |
1hleh meant to alight was so narrow and
lippery as to make it an even chance whether
failed to reach 1t at all. or reached 1t only To ,
all back into the dreadful gulf below. But
new that every moment of hesitation would
My make matters worse, and that my only
hance was to risk the leap before my nerves I
ave way altogether. clinched my teeth and I
prang out into the empty air, and the next 7
loment was safe on the opposite leoge. :
Iere only just beginning. Far below me
pared the chahng sea. and high above me
owered grim preclp1ce, which had always '
card spoken OF as absolutely unscalable. TO I
II appearance there was no going either up or
own: yet up or down / must 60, and that !
psedily, for if I staid where I was the ap- l
storm would hurl me from my perch '
nd dash me to pieces. Just at this moment '
,pied a cleft, or rather crack, running slant :
Use up the face of the cliff above me, the !
1ges of which, frayed and roughened by spray
It or an Alpine climber A perilous scramble 1
1abled me to reach it. and up went inch by I
Ich like fly on wall \
He Startled the Artist. 4
Not without long and hard struggle. and 8
ore than one hair's-breadth escape from in /
ant destruction, did at length drag myself G
EARLY over the topmost ledge, spent. gasping, c
,uised. cut and aching in every limb. AS Q
ID so, 1 caught sight of man seated close to
le edge of the cliff only few yards away
ON me, seemingly busted with sketch of the
a view. So completely engrossed was he with /
IS work that he never heard the seraping Of
Y feet against the rock as I scrambled up.
Il, as he happened to raise his eyes suddenly
ON the paper, there stock like ghost on the
,ry brink of the precipice, a ghastly figure, |
rht between him and the red, angry glare Of t
e stormy sunset, which outlined me in all my 4
rrors. Ny face and hands were black as ink, | 4
y clothes torn and stained with blood, while :
v wet disordered hair standing wildly out in .
'ery direction and intertwisted with three or Il
ur stray tufts of seaweed, powerfully en- q
lnced the horror of my appearance. s.
For moment he stood gazing as If suddenly p
rned to stone, and then, hinging down his o
etch and implements with yell worthy Of an t
iibbeway Indian, few away with such amazing
eed that could hardly see where he went to. Z
never had chance of finding out what ac- p
uut he gave of his adventure, but can r
city easily guess it. Q