Chapter 39 Chapter 16 Thawing

Two hours later, everyone returned to Fort Hope.The next day, March 10, the sun first fell on this side of the coast, which turned out to be the western part of the island.Bathurst was facing north, but now it is facing south.The girl Karuma is right, she knows this phenomenon, if the sun can't be wrong, then the compass can't be wrong either! Thus Victoria Island changed direction again, and more radically.Since the island broke away from the American continent, the island has rotated half a circle, not only the island, but also the huge ice sheet that surrounds it.This rotation around the center shows that the ice sheet is no longer connected to the mainland, but separated from the coast. It seems that the thawing is just around the corner.

"In any case," said Lieutenant Hobson to Mrs. Barnett, "the change of direction can only be to our advantage. Bathurst Point and Fort Hope are oriented to the south-east, which means that they are closest to the mainland, and the great ice pack The Herd, which had only made a narrow and difficult way for our ships, now no longer exists between us and America." "So everything is all right?" Mrs. Barnet asked Hobson happily. "All is well now, ma'am," replied Hobson, who had just made a correct estimate of the change in direction of Victoria Island.

From March 10th to 20th, nothing happened, but people already felt that a new season was coming.Temperatures have remained constant between 43 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit (6 to 10 degrees Celsius).Due to thawing, the ice sheet can break off suddenly.New cracks keep forming, and water keeps rushing to the surface of the ice sheet.To use the metaphor of the whaler, these cracks are wounds in the ice sheet that are now "bleeding."The sound of the ice breaking was like the roar of a cannon.Warm rain has been falling for several days, which hastened the process of thawing the frozen sea.

The birds that left the island in the early winter of last year, such as ptarmigans, puffins, fulmars, mallards, etc., have returned in large numbers.Marbor and Sabine had shot some, some of which still bore the marks tied to them by the lieutenant and the traveler some months earlier.Groups of white swans have also returned, and the sky is echoed with the trumpet-like sound they made when they flapped their wings.As for the quadrupeds, rodents, and carnivores, like domestic animals, they still like to come around from time to time and hang around the trading post. Almost every day, weather permitting, Lieutenant Hobson measured the altitude of the sun.Mrs. Barnett was already proficient in using the sextant, and sometimes she helped the lieutenant take measurements, and even took measurements alone.It is very important to keep an eye on small changes in the longitude and latitude of the island.Serious questions about the two currents remained unresolved, and what worried Lieutenant Hobson and Mrs Barnett most was whether the current would carry them south or north after the thaw.

It must be admitted that this woman was in all respects more courageous and resourceful than other women.The companions saw that she was not afraid of fatigue and wind and rain, bravely went to any place on the island in all kinds of bad weather, and even ventured to explore on the half-thawed ice field; The inner life of the Merchant, constantly caring and caring for others, always helped by Madge, who is always with her. Mrs Pauline Barnett always faced the future bravely, and if she sometimes feared it, and harbored indelible premonitions, she never let it out.She was known to be the sort of woman who could be relied upon and who inspired confidence, but no one could see in her peaceful disposition her lingering anxieties.Jasper Hobson admired her character very much.

He also completely trusted Karuma.He trusted the innate instincts of an Eskimo girl as much as a hunter trusts his hounds.Karuma is very intelligent and knows everything about the arctic region and all natural phenomena.On a whaling ship, she would have taken the place of the "ice doctor navigator," the person responsible for navigating ships in the ice.Every day, Karuma went to learn about the situation of the ice sheet. She could guess the extent of the iceberg's thawing just by hearing the sound of the iceberg cracking in the distance.Walking on the ice, no one's feet are more sensitive to the situation below than hers. She can instinctively feel where the ice has been "loose", but it is still barely enough for people to stop. On the ice sheet full of cracks, advance like walking on flat ground.

From March 20th to 30th, the thawing progressed rapidly.It rained heavily, which accelerated the thawing of the ice.One could count on the disintegration of the ice sheet before long, and Lieutenant Hobson would be able to launch the ship in less than a fortnight, perhaps.He was by no means an indecisive man, but he worried that if the Kamchatka Current carried the island into the Bering Current, it would be carried north. "But," Karuma used to say, "it's not terrible. Thawing doesn't go upstream, it always goes downstream, and that's the danger!" she said, pointing to the south, There is the vast and boundless Pacific Ocean.

The Eskimo girl was quite sure of that, and Lieutenant Hobson was well aware of her views on this point.He felt reassured because he thought the entry of the island into the Pacific would pose no danger to them.Moreover, before this, all the staff of the trading station have already boarded the ship, no matter which continent they go to, the distance is not far, because between the Oriental Cape on the Asian coast and the Prince of Wales Cape on the American coast, the shape of the strait is like a funnel. Now everyone understands the reason to pay attention to even the slightest movement of the island.The position was to be taken every day, weather permitting, and, from this time on, Lieutenant Hobson and his companions were ready to embark at all times, lest there should be any haste and mishap.

Hunting at trading posts, maintaining hunting traps, etc., have been completely stopped.Most of those stored furs may have to be given up.The hunters have nothing to do.The master carpenter and his men had already built the boat.While they waited for the waves to calm down for the boat to launch, they worked on reinforcing the main house of the castle so that it would hold out for a while in case Bathurst Point struggled to withstand the pressure of the huge coastal ice.They used a lot of strong wooden posts to support the wooden walls of the house.Inside the house, they erected reinforced columns between the ground and the beams.The trusses on the roof are also reinforced with feet and buttresses to allow it to withstand greater stress.These jobs all ended in early April, and it won't be long before people know how useful and timely they are.

The signs of a new season are evident day by day.This year's spring came very early, because it was followed by a warm winter that is rarely seen in the polar regions.The buds on the branches have begun to appear.The thawing of the sap in the birch, willow, and wild strawberry trees makes them tender.A pale green lichen had appeared on the sunlit slopes, and the rodents congregating around the trading post were starving for food and had eaten them up long before they grew up. If there is any misfortune, it is undoubtedly the honest corporal.He was in charge of the field his wife sowed, and in the old days he had only to guard against birds like puffins and fulmars to peck at sorrel and horseradish.He erected a scarecrow and kept guard in the field himself, so that the greedy birds would not dare to come.But now, in addition to the birds, the rodents and ruminants also join the foraging team here; they can no longer leave here in winter, and their instinct drives them to gather around the trading station.Those reindeer, arctic hares, muskrats, foxes, minks and the like challenged the sergeant constantly.This blow made the corporal confused. He ran to one side of the field for a while, but the other side was gnawed off again.

In fact, since the commercial station can't be kept, it's better to leave some of the unwanted crops to these animals.Whenever Corporal Jolliffe complained about it to Mrs Barnett, she advised him to do so, but the Corporal would not listen to her at all. "All for nothing!" he kept repeating, "and having to go away when the store is booming! To lose what my wife and I have worked so hard for... Ah, madam! I sometimes really I want you all to leave, my wife and I stay here alone! I'm sure the company will agree to leave this thriving island to me..." Mrs Barnet could not help laughing out loud at such wild thoughts.She sent the corporal back to his wife, who was more sensible than he, and was already ready to give up the sorrel and horseradish dishes that were no longer of much use. It must also be explained that these winter people, no matter men or women, are in good health and no one is sick.The child was fully restored to health, looking strong in the spring sunshine. On April 2, 3, 4, and 5, the thaw continued and the weather was warm.But suddenly it became overcast again, and it rained often and heavily.The blowing southwest wind brings heat from the land.However, in this foggy day, the work of observing the azimuth cannot be carried out normally.Above the misty sky, neither the sun nor the stars nor the moon could be seen.It's really worrying, because it's really important to grasp the changes in the orientation of the island now. On the night of April 7th and 8th, the thaw really began.In the morning, Lieutenant Hobson, Mrs Barnett, Calluma, and Sergeant Long came to the top of Bathurst Point and observed another change in the great ice pack.The huge ice barrier had broken almost down the middle, forming two distinct chunks, and it looked like the upper one was moving north. Is this the result of the influence of the Kamchatka Current?Is the island also drifting in this direction?This was what worried the lieutenant and his companions the most.Their fate would be decided in a few hours, and if they were destined to be carried another few hundred miles north, it would be difficult for them to return to the mainland in such a small boat. Unfortunately, these winterers had no means of judging the significance and nature of this drift.Now, however, it has been observed that the island has not moved—at least not with the ice pack, whose movement is evident.It seems likely that a part of the ice-field has left and drifted northward, while the part of the ice-field which surrounds the island remains stationary. However, the movement of this tall ice barrier failed to shake the Eskimo girl's opinion.Karuma still insists that the direction of thawing is from north to south, and the ice floes will be affected by the Bering Sea current in a short time.Karuma used a wooden stick to draw the location of the strait in the sand so that people could understand what she meant.She marked the direction, pointing out that the island would approach the coast of America as it followed the Bering Current.No point of view can sway her opinion.Hearing the affirmative explanation of this smart girl, everyone felt a lot more relieved. However, the events of April 8, 9, and 10 seemed to prove Kaluma wrong.The part on the north side of the ice pack is drifting more and more northward.The thawing is continuing on a larger scale with the loud sound of breaking.All over the coast the ice was thawing and there was a deafening noise.The voices of people talking outside were drowned out by the great thaw.The sound was roaring continuously, like the roar of continuous shelling.All around Bathurst Point, half a mile from shore, the ice piles began to pile up.The ice floes have broken into small pieces, forming small icebergs and starting to drift north.At least that's how the surface motion of these icebergs is.Although Lieutenant Hobson didn't say anything, he became more and more worried in his heart. Kaluma's words didn't reassure him.He offered a different view.But the Eskimo girl still stubbornly insisted on her own opinion. Finally one day, on the morning of April 11, Jasper Hobson pointed out to Karuma the last iceberg drifting north, and he made his own opinion, which seemed irrefutable. of. "Oh, no! No!" Karuma replied, her tone becoming firmer. "No! It's not that the ice pack is moving north, but our small island is drifting south!" Karuma might have a point!Jasper Hobson was moved by her words.Indeed, the movement of the ice floes they saw may only be a superficial phenomenon, but in fact, Victoria Island is now being carried by a large ice sheet to drift towards the channel.It's just that even if this is correct, people can't observe it now, and they can't make an estimate, because people can't determine the latitude and longitude of the island. In fact, the weather at this time is not only overcast and impossible to observe, but even more unfortunately, a unique celestial phenomenon in the Arctic makes the sky appear darker, which greatly restricts people's vision. During the thaw, the temperature dropped several degrees.A dense fog quickly blanketed this part of the Arctic Ocean, and it was no ordinary fog.The surface of the earth was covered with a layer of white shell, but it was obviously different from freezing, it was a layer of condensed water vapor.Particles of the mist cling to the branches, the bushes, the walls of the castle, and to every protruding place, and in the direction of the wind, soon form a thick layer of fibrous prisms. Jasper Hobson recognized this climatic phenomenon as the natural phenomenon of spring which whalers and polar dwellers had told him about. "This is not fog," he said to his companions, "this is called frost, which is a thick condensation of water vapor, in a completely frozen state." However, whether it is fog or frost, this kind of weather is always unpleasant.The phenomenon, which occurs at altitudes from above the surface of the sea to more than 100 feet, makes the entire weather so drowsy that no one can be seen more than three steps away. This makes these winter people very depressed.Nature seemed unwilling to free them from their troubles.At the time of thawing, when the island was about to be freed from the ice for several months, when the drift of the island should be the most concerned, we encountered this heavy fog that made it impossible for people to make any observations! And it went on for 4 days!The frost did not spread until April 15.A strong southerly wind blew up this morning, blowing the frost away in a flash. The sun was back to its former glory.Lieutenant Hobson immediately picked up his instrument.He measured the altitude of the sun and calculated the position of the island as follows: Latitude: 69 degrees 57 minutes north latitude; Longitude: West longitude 179 degrees 33 minutes. Karuma is correct.Victoria Island has been carried into the Bering Current and is drifting south.