THE SHORES OF THE POLAR SEA.*
TnE tale of Arctic travel has been told so often and so well, it might seem needless to multiply books on the subject, but that for some minds the question of Arctic exploration has a fascination never wholly satisfied, and to such Dr. Moss's work will doubtless prove a boon. The great weight and size of the book make it too unwieldy a companion to accompany the most ardent lover of Arctic narratives in his summer rambles, but when cosily seated by the library fire, with a little table—not on wheels—beside him, he may turn over its pages with considerable satisfaction, and while pleasing his eye with sketches which really seem to convey a very vivid idea of the scenes depicted, may quickly gather up the more salient points of a narrative told at far greater length in the volumes which have preceded it, and with which he may or may not be familiar.
Dr. Edward Moss was with the ' Alert' during her voyage of discovery in 1875-6, and the drawings with which the work be- fore us is illustrated were all made by him on the spot, often under difficulties which might have daunted less determined courage. For the benefit of the as yet uninitiated, if any such there be, we once more trace the course of the narrative. Every one is familiar with the fact that on May 29th, 1875, the English Arctic Expedition, then including her Majesty's ships ' Alert," Discovery,' and Valorous,' left Eng-
Qi:trehoe Shores gatehPolar Sea. By Edward L. Moss, Alert.' Illustrated by ',Author. London: Marcus and numerous Engravings, made on the spot by the us Ward and Co. 1878. land, with orders to attain the highest northern latitude, and if possible, reach the Pole. We had been stirred up to a somewhat tardy determination once more to undertake the work which seemed so pre-eminently ours, by the brilliant example of the Austro-Hungarian and German expeditions. The narrative of Lieutenant Payer especially, so eloquent in its simplicity, bad stirred the hearts of Englishmen, and the little squadron which left our shores on its voyage of discovery was followed by the enthusiastic sympathy of a large body of the English people. It is not possible to draw a hard-and-fast line as to the result of such expeditions. They at least foster many virtues we are in some danger of neglecting, in this too luxurious age, and the narrative of their failures and successes can hardly be studied without forcing on the reader the conviction that the men who took part in them are fit for any emergency by which their energies may be tasked in the future. Dr. Moss begins his narrative by calling attention to the little history of the valleys of the west coast of Greenland. Here, be says, "Nine centuries ago, numerous bands of Norsemen, led by Eric and his restless sons, Leif and Thorwald, found congenial homes. For three hundred years their thriving settlements studded the coast ; and while their southern brethren were building Gothic shrines in England, Normandy, and Flanders, the thir- teen Bishops of the East and West Bygds reared humbler fanes at Foss and Gardar, Steinmaer and Solfjall, and many another spot, uncertain now." It would be interesting to trace the rise and decay of these colonies, were the materials at hand, but their disappearance is as sudden and mysterious as their first establishment. In 1721, when the Moravian Missionaries landed, they found only a vague tradition of the fair-haired race, such as Longfellow has so well woven into the " Song of Hiawatha," in the minds of the pagan race who had taken their place, and " crouched round their seal-oil lamps and turf-fires, through the long winter evenings." At Disco Island, at the little harbour of Godhavn, the ships of the Expedition took in fuel and provisions, and twenty of the dogs destined to play so important a part in the history of each day's proceedings. Lieutenant Payer has made us all familiar with the value of the dog in Arctic exploration. Which of us can forget his descriptions of those long and weary expeditions, when he would fain have had us believe he rather followed than led his ever faithful allies ; and that supreme moment of pain to a brave, tender nature, when they took to the boat, their only chance of safety, and could not take the dogs, and could not abandon them to the chances of starvation. Payer draws a veil over that moment, but records the safety of the crew on board the Russian schooner in words which show how, to himself at least, there was sadness mingled with their rejoicing. " We were saved ;—ten days sooner, and the dogs might have been with us." The dogs with which—with whom, we had nearly said—Dr. Moss was brought in contact seem to have belonged to a less noble breed, or at least their virtues were at best but those of the noble savage. Payer seemed to find that so long as he was willing to run, the dogs would run too, but this clearly is not always the case. "The Eskimo dog is, as a rule, utterly destitute," says Dr. Moss, " of the ordinary virtues of his species ; he is simply a wolf, that has found slavery convenient ;" and apparently obedience without flogging was not a condition of such slavery. Among the vices to which they were addicted was a species of dog-cannibalism. In vain did any of the crew try to rear pups. " If," says Dr. Moss, " we took our eyes off them for an instant, little Samuel' or William Henry' would suddenly disappear, and some near relative look a little less hungry than before." Dog-biscuit was the only thing they steadily refused to eat, preferring " sledge-lashings, whip-thongs, or canvas harness." We have an amusing sketch of a team of dogs just unfastened from the sledge, and not yet chained to the tent-poles, starting off at full speed, dragging at their heels
the unfortunate officer in charge, who dares not let go the traces lest it should prove a final good-bye to the team.
But if the account we get of Eskimo dogs is unfavourable, that
of the Eskimos themselves, in the slight glimpse we have of them here, is very much the reverse. Dr. Moss says they appear to
have retained all the virtues Hans Egede found among their pagan ancestors. " ' Hatred and envy, strife and jars, are never heard among them ;' their governors and pastors have succeeded
in giving them a civilised education, without making it a road- way for European vices." And he says he was informed that every child in northern and southern Greenland is taught to read and write.
The Expedition left Disco on July 15th ; a day or two later, "steaming towards the midnight sun, they passed under the
magnificent cliff of Sanderson's Hope, a perpendicular wall of rock 1,000 feet high, cleft by a narrow fiord, like the portal of a colossal ruin." An excellent little sketch illustrates this position, and another gives a lively idea of Godhavn Harbour, with its little village church, and school-house, and Eskimo huts ; then, further on, we have sketches of the Iceland ice, of Greenland, and of the more varied aspect of the Twin Glacier Valley ; while a certain air of gloom which rests over all is relieved by an occasional interior of the ship's cabin, with officers reading, with artificial light and warmth around them, or " Pops " (" Pops " was a cat) tranquilly reposing in solitary possession of the most comfortable spot by the fire. We have the usual de- scription of Arctic adventure,—rare meetings with wild animals or still rarer wild flowers; minute details, always interesting, of the effects of cold on vegetable and animal life,—a piece of musk-ox meat exposed for six months on the ship's rigging, and sealed up in the cold air, remained unchanged when the tempera- ture rose, and was exhibited perfectly fresh three months after the expedition returned to England; and we find some interesting details of the coal seam discovered by Mr. Hart, the naturalist of the Discovery,' in the neighbourhood of which were found traces of some wandering hunter's camp, and a human thigh-bone. We have an illustration of a picturesque grotto, close to the scam, which in itself excited powerfully the imagination of the travellers. In that dreary, snow-clad region they found themselves suddenly called upon to realise a moment when the whole spot teemed with vegetable life ; apparently a great store of mineral wealth lay at their feet, and splitting open some of the soft, dark slates of a cliff, they found " leaves of ancient forests as perfect as when they fluttered down from the stems which bore them. The commonest were those of a cone-bearing tree, allied to the great Wellingtonia of Western America." There is not now, Dr. Moss says, a forest within a thousand miles of the spot.
Of all the hardships of Arctic travel, Dr. Moss evidently regards the winter darkness as the most unendurable. The periods of moon- light, he says, were reckoned upon as boys look forward to holi- days, for then were the moments to build snow-houses, collect fresh ice for culinary purposes, and repair the banking-up of the ship ; but few of the pages of this big volume interest us more, than those in which the writer has traced the history of the blessed ministry of regular work in dissipating ennui, and sustaining the spirits of the men during the tedious five months' night of an Arctic winter. What was there to do ? we might be disposed to inquire, but Dr. Moss has shown us a life sufficiently busy to tax the energies of all on board. We take an instance or so, out of the daily round :—" The declinometer- house is closed up with a snow-drift, and has to be dug out. Ice has to be dug out with picks from the top of a floeberg, and drawn on a sledge on board to be melted, for drink- ing, cooking, and washing. Then there are stores to be drawn on the strong, working sledge from Markham Hall ;' and the blacksmith and his assistants have always a number of shovels to repair ; and there is the daily constitutional,' under- taken amidst difficulties ; and the endless struggles with the soft snow, which presents so much more formidable a barrier to pro- gress than even the ice itself." It is a narrative pleasantly told and well illustrated, though got up in a form which will of necessity make its circulation limited ; but we have little doubt that many Arctic explorers and their friends will bend over the chromo-litho - graphs, which form the distinctive feature of the book, and by the comfortable warmth of an English fireside live over again many a not-to-be-forgotten hour.
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