Chapter 20 Chapter 20 Where Mercury Frozen

The dry climate and quiet air provided the hunters with convenient conditions for a few more days.However, they never stray too far from the fort.In addition, there are a lot of prey here, which allows them to move in a small area.Therefore, Lieutenant Hobson was very fortunate to have built the trading station in this place.Traps trap a large variety of fur animals.Sabine and Marbor hunted and killed many arctic rabbits.Another twenty or so wolves were killed with guns.These predators were extremely aggressive and swarmed around the fort in packs, and on such a long night the air was filled with hoarse wolf howls.Among the ice mounds on the other side of the ice field, there are often big bears passing by, and people carefully monitor the approach of the bear.

On December 25, I was forced to give up my plan to go out again.The wind turned to the north, and severe cold raged.A person is in danger of freezing instantly if he stays in the open air.It had dropped to minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 28 degrees Celsius).The wind roared like machine gun fire.Before shutting himself out, Jasper Hobson took care to feed his livestock enough to last them a few weeks. December 25th is Christmas Day, a time of family reunion that the British hold dear.The celebration of the festival is filled with religious fervor.The winter dwellers thanked God for having kept them till now; and then the laborers, who were all rested on the holy day of "Christmas," sat around to share a feast, and a large pudding was served at the feast.

At night, when the punch sparkled in the glasses on the great table, the lights were extinguished, and the hall, illuminated by the white light of the schnapps, presented a dreamlike spectacle.Soldiers come alive in the quivering light, and the hot liquor will cheer them up even more. Then, the flame died down, and many small yellowish tongues of flame were scattered around the big cake, and then went out. Unexpected phenomenon!Although the lights had not yet been turned on, the hall was not dark.A strong light came in from the window, and a reddish light, because of the light, I couldn't see it before.

Everyone at the dinner table stood up in astonishment, asking each other with their eyes. "Fire!" several people yelled. But unless this house catches fire, there won't be any fires around Bathurst Point! The lieutenant rushed to the window, and he understood at once why.This is a volcanic eruption. Indeed, at the western cliffs, beyond Walrus Bay, Skyrim was on fire.It was impossible to see the fiery summit, 30 miles from Bathurst Point, but the flames shot up into the sky, covering the whole area in its tawny reflection. "It's more beautiful than the Northern Lights!" exclaimed Lady Paulina Barnett.

Thomas Blake disagreed with this view.How can the phenomena on land be more beautiful than those in the sky!But the subject was left undiscussed, and despite the cold and the wind, everyone went out of the hall to see the splendor and splendor that unfolded in the darkness of the sky. If Jasper Hobson and his companions had not wrapped their ears and mouths in thick furs, they would have heard the muffled volcanic eruption in the air.They would perhaps talk to each other about the impressions the spectacle had made on their minds.But, wrapped up like this, they can neither speak nor hear.They just watched, but what a spectacle they saw!What an impression it made on their minds!Between the deep darkness of the sky and the whiteness of the endless blanket of snow, the effect of the sparks blooming on the volcanoes is beyond description!Strong reflections lit up the sky, and all the constellations lost their brilliance.The white earth was covered with golden light.The ice mounds on the ice field and the large icebergs in the distance are like mirrors reflecting all kinds of light.These beams are fragmented or refracted at every corner, and every sloping surface makes them shine more brilliantly in new colors.Truly a magical blend of light!It's like an ice palace in fairyland, specially built for this bright festival!

But the bitter cold quickly brought the viewer back to the warm room.In such severe cold, the price of feasting your eyes is almost freezing your nose. In the next few days, the severe cold intensified.It was felt that an alcohol thermometer was needed. On the night of December 28-29, the mercury dropped to minus 32 degrees (-37 degrees Celsius). The stove was full of firewood, but the room temperature still couldn't keep at 20 degrees (minus 7 degrees Celsius).It was cold even in the bedroom, ten steps away from the stove, and the heat disappeared completely.Therefore, the warmest place was reserved for the baby, and everyone took turns around the fire, rocking the cradle.It is absolutely forbidden to open the doors and windows, because once the door is opened, the water vapor in the hall will immediately turn into snowflakes.The breathing of the people in the hallway has produced the same phenomenon.There are crunchy popping sounds here and there that will startle anyone not used to the climatic phenomena here.These are the tree sections that make the interior walls of the house, rattling with the cold.Stored drinks, schnapps and gin in the attic had to be brought into the hall.

The alcohol has solidified, and the ethanol is concentrated at the bottom of the bottle in the form of nuclei.The beer brewed with fir buds freezes and cracks the casks.All solids act like stones, resisting the entry of heat.The firewood failed to light, and Jasper Hobson had to sacrifice a certain amount of walrus oil to help the fire.Fortunately, the chimney is well ventilated, so that there is no choking smoke in the room.But outside, the choking, foul-smelling smoke would have exposed Fort Hope from afar, and should have properly classified it as an unsanitary building. One notable symptom is that the severe cold makes everyone extremely thirsty.But to drink water, you must often defrost the drink on the stove, because ice does not quench your thirst.Another symptom that Lieutenant Jasper Hobson specifically asked us to ward off was persistent lethargy.There are a few people who can't restrain themselves.Always strong, Mrs. Polina Barnett counseled, chatted, and walked up and down the room, keeping herself awake and stirring up those around her.She often read travel books or sang some old English ballads, and everyone sang with her.These songs somehow awakened the sleepy, and they immediately sang along.The long days were spent in total closure like this.Jasper Hobson looked through the glass at the thermometer outside and observed the increasing intensity of the cold. On December 31, the mercury was completely frozen in the thermometer, so it should have been below minus 44 degrees (minus 42 degrees Celsius).

The next day, January 1, 1860, Lieutenant Jasper Hobson wished Lady Polina Barnett a New Year's greeting and praised her for her courage and good spirits in enduring the hardships of the winter residence.Greeted the year to the astronomer too, but he saw only one thing in this change from 1859 to 1860, and that was, he entered his famous year of eclipses.All the people in this little settlement greet each other, they are so harmonious, and, by God's blessing, everyone is in good health.If there were some signs of sepsis, they disappeared quickly due to the timely use of orange juice and lime pills.

But it's not too early to rejoice!Winter will last another three months.Perhaps, the sun will appear on the horizon soon, but there is no proof that the cold has reached its peak. Generally speaking, February is the coldest time in the Arctic region.In any case, the severe cold did not abate at the start of the new year, and on January 5, alcohol thermometers placed outside passage windows dropped to minus 66 degrees (minus 52 degrees Celsius).A few more degrees down, and the lowest temperature recorded in Relianceburg in 1835 may be caught up, maybe surpassed! The continuation of such severe and severe cold made Jasper Hobson more and more apprehensive.He feared that the fur animals would be forced south in search of less cold weather, which would affect his spring hunting plans.In addition, he heard a dull sound from under the ground, which obviously had some connection with the volcanic eruption.The southern sky is always burning with underground fires, and it must be doing something important in the belly of the earth.Does being next to an active volcano pose a threat to the new commercial station?That's what the lieutenant thought when he was startled to hear the ringing in the center of the earth.But this kind of worry, which was still very vague, remained in his heart.

As one might imagine, no one thinks of going outside when it's this cold.There is no shortage of food for the dogs and reindeer, and these animals have long been accustomed to being hungry in winter, and they do not require the care of their owners.Therefore, there is no reason to go out to catch the cold.Enough in the house, wood and oil to make the room temperature just bearable.Despite all preparations, moisture slipped into the unventilated room, leaving a shiny layer of ice on the beams, which grew thicker with each passing day.The condensers froze, and one even cracked under the pressure of the freezing.

Under the circumstances, Lieutenant Hobson had no intention of saving fuel.He even wasted a bit in order to raise the temperature.When the fire is a little lighter, the temperature sometimes drops to 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 9 degrees Celsius).Accordingly, watchmen, who rotated every hour, were tasked with tending the fires. "We're running out of firewood," Sergeant Long said to the lieutenant one day. "We're short of firewood!" cried Jasper Hobson. "I mean," continued the sergeant, "we're running out of stock in the room, and we're going to have to get it from the vault soon. But I know from experience that it's really risking your life to go out in this cold weather." .” "Yes!" replied the lieutenant. "It was a mistake we made in not connecting the wood house to the main house, and there was no direct access. I found out a bit late. I should not forget that we were going to the 70th latitude." Winter north of the line! But that's the way it is, and that's the way it is.—Tell me, Ron, how much firewood is left in the house?" "Two or three days at most," replied the sergeant. "Hopefully in the meantime," continued Jasper Hobson, "the cold will subside a little, and people will be able to cross the yard without danger." "I have some doubts, Lieutenant," said the sergeant, shaking his head. "The atmosphere is pure, the starry sky is bright, and the north wind is howling. I am not surprised that the cold will last for half a month until the full moon." "Then, brave Lang," continued Lieutenant Hobson, "we shall not be frozen to death when the day comes when we must risk..." "People just take risks, Lieutenant," Sergeant Long replied. Jasper Hobson held the sergeant's hand firmly, knowing the sergeant's loyalty. One might think that Jasper Hobson and Sergeant Long were exaggerating in their belief that a sudden cold would cause death.However, they are used to the harshness of the Arctic climate, and they have long experience.They had seen, in the same situation, some able-bodied men pass out on the ice as soon as they were outside.They were having difficulty breathing and were suffocating when they were lifted up.This seemingly unbelievable thing has happened many times in the case of polar winters.When they traveled along the Hudson Bay coast in 1746, William Moore and Smith recorded several such accidents, and they also lost several companions, all of whom died of freezing.Undoubtedly, to face this kind of severe cold whose intensity cannot even be measured by the mercury column is to risk sudden death! Such was the unsettling situation of the inhabitants of Fort Hope, now made more difficult by yet another unexpected turn of events.

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