Chapter 42 Chapter 19 Bering Sea

In this way, the small island was pushed forward by the ice floes, and when it passed through the strait, it entered the Bering Sea without getting close to the land!Pushed by the ice floes and the deep-sea currents, the small island has been drifting towards the warm water area, where the real abyss is!The ship that was just built is crushed and unusable! After fully regaining her senses, Lady Polina Barnett gave a brief account of their 64-hour burial.Thomas Blake, March, and the Eskimo girl were awakened by the sudden snowfall, and they ran to the door and the window.There was no way out, and the sand and mud that had been Bathurst Point had been rolled up and pressed all over the house.Almost immediately after, they heard a huge ice block lifted by the ice floes and crushed on the trading station.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Mrs. Barnett and her companions felt the house suddenly sinking into the ground of the island under tremendous pressure.The ice shell at the bottom of the island was crushed and crushed, and the sea water flooded in immediately. After only a moment, they grabbed some food in the storage room and instinctively hid in the attic.For these troubled people, there is always a glimmer of hope!In any case, the attic seemed to have withstood the pressure, probably because the arched angles of two large slabs of ice resting on the roof prevented the attic from collapsing quickly.

When they were surrounded in the attic, they heard the sound of huge pieces of ice and snow collapsing from the roof.And below, the sea water poured in continuously.If it goes on like this, if you don't get smashed, you'll have to drown! It should be said, thankfully, that the roof, supported by strong trusses, withstood the pressure, and the house sagged to a point where it stopped, except that the sea water rose about a foot above the attic floor. Lady Polina Barnett, March, Calluma, and Thomas Blake hid among the crossing trusses of the attic.That's where they've been for so long.The loyal Kaluma actively serves everyone, wading through the standing water over and over to deliver food to everyone.Now if you want to be saved, you have no choice but to rely on the inner man, and you can only rely on the outside!

It was a terrible feeling!Everyone in such a space soon felt more and more difficult to breathe.The oxygen-deficient air was filled with carbon dioxide, and everyone would soon be unable to support them... If it was a few hours later, Lieutenant Hobson would probably only find their bodies! Moreover, the physical torture is not counted, what is even more unbearable is the mental torture.Mrs. Barnet almost understood what had happened.She guessed that the ice floes squeezed and smashed onto the small island, and from the roar of the torrent coming from under the house, she judged that the small island was being irresistibly brought south.So, when she opened her eyes, she looked around first, and said these few words: "Sea! Sea!", and at this time the ship had been destroyed. Such a discovery was too great for them. Cruel!

But all those around her want to see and know now is that they finally rescued the man for whom they would have given their lives, along with March, Thomas Black, and Karuma .And, despite the perils and the trials that followed one after another, not a single soldier led by Lieutenant Jasper Hobson on this disastrous expedition disobeyed orders and rose to the occasion. Now, however, the situation has never been more serious, and there is no doubt that the final disaster is approaching, and loyalty will not solve the problem. On this day, the first thing Hobson had to do was to determine the position of the island.Leaving the island was now impossible, for the ship was wrecked, the ocean was all around, and there was no firm foothold around the island.Even if it were an iceberg, all that remained was now only a part of the ice pack whose peaks shattered Bathurst Point, and whose base, deep in the sea, was pushing small The island drifts south.

In the ruins of the main house, all of the astronomer's instruments and maps were found, luckily none of them were damaged.The sky was covered with dark clouds, but the sun sometimes showed its head. Lieutenant Hobson seized the opportunity to measure the height of the sun and obtained quite accurate data. The result of observation at noon on May 12 was that Victoria Island was located at 168°12′ west longitude and 63°37′ north latitude.The island is at this point on the map near Norton Bay, between Chapellin, the tip of Asia, and Cape Stephens, America, and more than a hundred miles from the coasts of both continents.

"It seems that it is impossible to log in now?" Mrs. Barnett asked. "Yes, ma'am," replied Lieutenant Hobson, "there is no hope in that direction. The current is carrying us out to sea at such a high speed that we can only hope to meet a whaler passing the island." .” "But," said the traveler, "if we can't reach land, why doesn't the current take us to some small island in the Bering Sea?" It was their ray of hope, and all these desperate people hoped for this to happen, like a drowning man trying to cling to a life-saving plank.There are many small islands in the Bering Sea, such as St. Lawrence Island, St. Matthew Island, Nuniwak Island, St. Paul Island, St. George Island and so on.Indeed, the drifting island is not too far from St. Lawrence Island. The size of this island is not small, and there are some small islands around it. Anyway, even if you can’t touch this island, there is still an Aleutian island at the southernmost end of the Bering Sea. Archipelago, where a series of islets would hold back their drifting islet.

Yes, St. Lawrence Island could be a lifesaver for those wintering in the Arctic.If they didn't come across St. Lawrence, St. Matthew's and a group of islets around it might be in their path.And the Aleutian Islands were 800 miles away, and it was best not to pin their hopes there.Before that, Victoria Island may have been surrounded by warm sea water, then melted, disintegrated, and finally, silently sank into the ocean! The problem must be considered in this way.In fact, the distances from the ice packs to the equator are quite different.This distance is shorter in the southern hemisphere than in the northern hemisphere.Sometimes people will see ice floes near the Cape of Good Hope, that is, at 36 degrees south latitude, but the icebergs going south from the Arctic Ocean have never crossed the 40 degrees north latitude.The melting of icebergs must be directly related to the temperature, mainly due to climatic conditions.In cold winters, icebergs may drift to lower latitudes without melting, but in early spring, the opposite is true.

And 1861 happened to be an early spring year, and this warm season would melt Victoria Island quickly.The sea water of the Bering Sea is turquoise, unlike the blue water near the iceberg, which is the result of the observation of the former navigator Hudson.Since there are no ships, people are always worried about disaster. In case of disaster, Hobson decided to build a large raft that could hold everyone, so that he could barely sail to land.People gathered the required wood to make this big floating raft, so that they didn't have to be afraid of disasters.In short, it was the season for whalers to sail northwards in pursuit of whales, and they were likely to encounter such ships.Mike Knapp was again tasked with building the wide and strong raft in case Victoria Island sank.

Before that, the residence must be solved first, so that the residents on the island can have a place to escape from the cold.The easiest thing to do would be to clear out the rooms where the soldiers used to live, which used to adjoin the main house, where the walls still stand.We all worked together, and after a few days, the house was repaired and cleaned up, and we were able to live in it to shelter from the wind and rain, and it was often windy or rainy on the island for a few days. They also went to the main house to search again, and found a lot of tools, guns, several pieces of furniture, air pumps, gas storage tanks, etc. from the flooded room.

On the second day, May 13, people had to give up hope of drifting to St. Lawrence Island.Observations showed that Victoria Island had drifted far to the east of the island, and indeed the current did not usually meet any natural obstruction; it always went round, as Lieutenant Hobson was well aware Any hope of landing on the island in this way must be given up.Only the Aleutian Islands, half-curved like cast nets at a distance of several degrees of longitude, could hold the islet in check, but, as we have just said, would they be able to get there?The island is drifting forward very fast, and when the icebergs that push it forward are gradually melting and disintegrating under the sunlight, will it slow down in a strange way? Lieutenant Hobson, Mrs. Barnett, Sergeant Long, and Master Carpenter have often talked about these matters, and after some careful consideration they have come to the unanimous opinion that, at any rate, whether the speed of the island drift is slowed down, pushed out Outside the Bering Sea, or under the action of the sun and warm water, the ice shells under the islands are melted, and they will not touch the Aleutian Islands. On May 14, Master Mike Knapp and his men began to build a large raft.The raft must be kept at a certain height above the water so as not to be swallowed by the waves.It was a big project, but people didn't flinch and started working with great enthusiasm.Blacksmith Lei found a lot of iron nails in the warehouse connected to the old house, which were brought from Lilinesburg before, and can be used to connect various parts of the large raft. The construction site should also be mentioned here.According to Lieutenant Hobson's suggestion, Mike Knapp took measures in advance.Instead of laying the girders and girders on the ground, he placed them on the water of the lagoon from the start.Then drill holes on the shore, make tenons, and then assemble the parts one by one on the spot, and assemble them directly on the lake.This working method has two advantages: first, the master carpenter can immediately know the height of the waterline and the stability of the raft; The impact of the impact that occurs when the attack is opened.These are two very important reasons for the master carpenter to adopt this effective method. Jasper Hobson, sometimes alone and sometimes accompanied by Mrs Barnett, walked along the bank while the work was in progress.He observed the state of the sea and the crookedness of the coast as the waves crashed and gnawed away.His eyes turned to the distant horizon from time to time.In the north, icebergs are no longer visible on the horizon.Like all the victims, he expected a boat to appear in front of him, but the boat "never appeared!" On the silent ocean, only a few dolphins appeared in the blue waves, looking for food.Then came some wood, trunks, and branches, which seemed to have been carried all the way from the tropics to the sea here by the great ocean currents. On the 16th of May, Lady Paulina Barnett and March came to walk in the area between what used to be the Old Port and Bathurst Point.The weather is nice and warm.The weather has been like this for some days, and there is no trace of snow on the island.Only in the northern part of the island are there ice packs piled up there, reminiscent of the polar landscape.However, these ice cubes are also melting day by day, and some small waterfalls are formed every day on the halfway and top of the iceberg.It is certain that the sun will melt all these remaining snow and ice before long. Victoria Island is really a strange scenery!If you are in a good mood, this beautiful scenery will definitely make the viewers linger.Spring has exuded an unusual breath.In this land that has returned to warmer regions, plants have begun to sprout, and there is a lot of vitality everywhere.Moss, small flowers of all kinds, and plants that Madame Jolly had carefully cultivated flourished.The great vitality contained in the land, which used to be hidden in the harsh polar climate, is now bursting out with the arrival of spring.The plants on the ground have sprung up like mushrooms, not only in various varieties, but also in bright colors.Under the sunlight, their hues are extraordinarily bright and warm.Trees of all kinds, wild strawberry bushes, willows, pines and birches, are already showing their new greenery and sprouting new shoots from their branches in the 68-degree Fahrenheit temperature.The natural landscape of the poles has now turned into a green scene in temperate regions like Christiania and Stockholm at the same latitude in Europe. However, Mrs. Barnet is not willing to see the spring scenery brought by nature.Can nature change their current difficult situation?Can this drifting island be closely connected with the solid land on the earth again?No, but she always has a premonition of imminent disaster in her heart, which is an instinct of hers, just like the instincts of those animals who have been staying around the trading station.The fox, the marten, the ferret, the lynx, the beaver, the muskrat, and even the wolf became much tamer with an instinctive sense of calamity, and they came closer and closer to their former enemy—man. As if one could rescue them!This is like an instinctive acquiescence to the superiority of human beings. Unfortunately, in this situation, this superiority is powerless! No!Mrs. Barnet didn't want to see all this, and she never took her eyes off this vast, unfeeling sea. "My poor March," she said, "you have followed me, but I have led you into the abyss. Your loyalty and friendship have given me a second life. Will you forgive me?" "There's only one thing in the world I won't forgive you, my girl," March answered, "and that's if I don't live with you, and I can't die with you!" "March! Madge!" the female traveler shouted excitedly, "If I could save these distressed people with my own life, I would give it without hesitation." "My girl," March asked, "have you lost all hope?" "Yes..." said Mrs Barnet bitterly, and threw herself into the arms of her companion. This strong woman also felt hopeless at this time. In such a dangerous situation, who would not lose heart for a while. Mrs Barnet's throat whimpered!As if her heart was about to jump out immediately, tears welled up in her eyes. Madge comforted her while kissing her. "March! March!" said the traveler, looking up, "don't tell them I cried!" "No," said March, "and they wouldn't believe it, too. You're in the moment. Take heart, my girl, you're the soul of everybody! Take heart, take courage again! " "And you think there's still hope?" cried Polina Barnett, looking her faithful companion in the eyes. "I've been holding out hope!" March said firmly. But what hope was there a few days later, when the island had drifted past St. Matthew's and there was no longer a landmass to come to in the Bering Sea? !