fr:Les Aventures du capitaine Hatteras - Première partie - 15
Towards evening the weather cleared up, and land was clearly
to be seen between Cape Sepping and Cape Clarence, which juts
out to the east, then to the south, and is connected to the mainland
on the west by a low tongue of land. There was no ice at
the entrance of Regent's Sound; but it was densely massed beyond
Leopold Harbor, as if to form an impassable barrier to the
northward progress of the Forward.
Hatteras, who, although he carefully concealed his feelings, was
exceedingly annoyed, had to blow out a way with powder in order
to enter Leopold Harbor; he reached it at midday, on Sunday, May 27th; the brig was securely anchored to the large icebergs, which were as firm, solid, and hard as rock.
At once the captain, followed by the doctor, Johnson, and his
dog Duke, leaped out upon the ice and soon reached the land. Duke leaped about with joy; besides, since the captain had made himself known, he had become very sociable and very gentle, preserving his ill-temper for some of the crew, whom his master disliked as much as he did.
The harbor was free from the ice which is generally forced there
by the east-wind; the sharp peaks, covered with snow, looked
like a number of white waves. The house and lantern, built by
James Ross, were still in a tolerable state of preservation; but
the provisions appeared to have been eaten by foxes, and even by
bears, of which fresh traces were to be seen; part of the devastation
was probably due to the hand of man, for some ruins of
Esquimaux huts were to be seen on the shores of the bay.
The six tombs, enclosing six sailors of the Enterprise and the
Investigator, were recognizable by little mounds of earth; they
had been respected by all, by both men and beasts.
On first setting his foot on this northern earth, the doctor was
really agitated; it would not be easy to describe the emotions
one feels at the sight of these ruined houses, tents, huts, supplies, which nature preserves so perfectly in cold countries.
“There,” said he to his companions,—“there is the spot which
James Ross himself named Camp Refuge! If Franklin's expedition
had reached this spot, it would have been saved. Here is
the engine which was taken out and left here, and the furnace
which warmed the crew of the Prince Albert in 1851; everything
remains as it was left, and one might fancy that Kennedy, her
captain, had sailed away from here yesterday. This is the launch
that sheltered them for some days, for Kennedy was separated
from his ship, and only saved by Lieutenant Bellot, who braved
the cold of October to join him.”
“A brave and excellent officer he was,” said Johnson. “I
knew him.”
While the doctor eagerly sought for traces of previous winterings
there, Hatteras busied himself with collecting the scanty
fragments of fuel and provisions which lay there. The next day
was devoted to carrying them on board ship. The doctor explored
the whole neighborhood, never going too far from the brig, and sketched the most remarkable views. The weather gradually grew milder; the snow-drifts began to melt. The doctor made a tolerably large collection of northern birds, such as gulls, divers, molly-nochtes, and eider-ducks, which resemble ordinary ducks, with a white back and breast, a blue belly, the top of the head blue, the rest of the plumage white, shaded with different tints of green; many of them had already plucked from their bellies the eider-down, which both the male and the female devote to lining their nests. The doctor also saw great seals breathing at the surface of the water, but he was unable to draw one.
In his wanderings he discovered the stone on which is engraved
the following inscription:—
[E I]
1849,
which marks the passage of the Enterprise and Investigator; he
pushed on to Cape Clarence, to the spot where, in 1833, John
and James Ross waited so impatiently for the ice to thaw. The
earth was covered with the skulls and bones of animals, and
traces of the dwellings of Esquimaux were to be seen.