CHAPTER V.

THE COLD.

1. THE coldest day we had during this expedition was the 14th of March. By six o’clock on the morning of that day the Tyrolese and I stood on the summit of the precipitous face of the Sonklar-Glacier. The others remained behind to clear the tent of snow, and to bury a small depôt of provisions in an iceberg which was close at hand. The sun had not yet risen, though a golden gleam behind the glaciers of Salm Island indicated his near approach. At last the sun himself appeared, blood-red, glowing with indistinct outline through the mists, and surrounded with parhelia, which generally occur when the cold is great. The tops of the high snowy mountains were first touched with rosy light, which gradually descended and spread over the icy plains, and the sun like a ball of fire shone at length clearly through the frosty mist, and everything around seemed on fire. As the sun even at noon was but a few degrees above the horizon, this wonderful colouring lasted throughout the day, and the mountains, whose steepest sides were covered with a frosty efflorescence, shone like glass in this radiant light. The alcohol thermometer soon after we came on the glacier fell to 59° 1′ (F.) below zero,[34] and a light breeze blowing from the interior, which would have been pleasant enough on a March day in Europe, exposed me, while engaged in the indispensable work of drawing and measuring, to such danger, that though I worked under the shelter of my Tyrolese companions as a protection against the cold, I was constantly compelled to rub my stiffened and benumbed hands with snow. We had taken some rum with us, and as each took his share, he knelt down and allowed another to shake it into his mouth, without bringing the metal cup in contact with his lips. This rum, though it was strong, seemed to have lost all its strength and fluidity. It tasted like innocent milk, and its consistence was that of oil. The bread was frozen so hard that we feared to break our teeth in biting it, and it brought blood as we ate it. The attempt to smoke a cigar was a punishment rather than an enjoyment, because the icicles on our beards always put them out, and when we took them out of our mouths they were frozen. Even the shortest pipes met the same fate. The instruments I used in surveying seemed to burn when I touched them, and the medals which my companions wore on their breasts felt like hot iron.

2. The phenomena of cold which we had the opportunity of observing during this journey, and which I immediately recorded, will perhaps justify a short break in my narrative while I attempt to describe them. The horrors of a Scythian winter are an ancient belief, and it used to be counted wisdom to shun the zones where men were frozen, as well as the zones where men were scorched. But it has been assumed, with great exaggeration, that a hot climate makes men sensual and timid, while a cold climate renders them virtuous and bold. There is far more truth in the opinion held by some observers, and especially by Polar navigators, that cold is depressing in its influence, and enfeebles the powers of the will. At first it stimulates to action, but this vigour is quickly followed by torpidity; exertion is soon succeeded by the desire to rest. Persons exposed to these alternations of increased action and torpor feel as if they were intoxicated. From the stiffness and trembling of their jaws they speak with great effort, they display uncertainty in all their movements and the stupor of somnambulists in their actions and thoughts. Most of the circumpolar animals escape, as much as they can, the horrors of the frost: some migrate; others, burying themselves in holes, sleep throughout the winter. The fish, which are found in the small pools of sweet water on the land are frozen in when these pools freeze, and awake to life and movement again only when the pools are thawed.

3. The human body, with an inner warmth amounting to 95°-100° F., is exposed in the wastes of North America and Siberia to frightful cold, the extremes of which have been noted by many different observers. Back recorded in Fort Reliance, Jan. 17, 1833, the temperature -67° F.; Hayes, March 17, 1861, -69° F.; Nevérow, in Jakutzk, Jan. 31, 1838, -74° F.; Kane, -69° F.; Maclure, Jan. 1853, -73° F.; John Ross, 1831, -56° F.; and Parry, 1821, -55° F.; while the lowest temperature which has hitherto been observed in the Alpine countries of Europe is only -24° F. In consequence of the difficulty of observing the extremes of cold, lower temperatures than these can scarcely ever have been registered.

4. In order to illustrate the effect of an extraordinarily low temperature on the human frame, the best point to start from is the imagination of a man exposed without clothes to its influence. At 37° or 50° (C.) of cold a misty halo would encompass him, the edges of which would have, under certain circumstances, the colours of the rainbow. It is evident that the moisture of the body rapidly coming forth and becoming visible in the cold air would cause this mist, which would decrease with the heat of the body, and disappear on the death of the frozen man. The purpose of clothing is to counteract as much as possible this twofold loss of warmth and moisture, which is the principal cause of the fearful Arctic thirst. But even clothed men exposed to so low a temperature present a strange appearance. When they are dragging a sledge on the march their breath streams forth like smoke, which is soon transformed into a mass of needles of ice, almost hiding their mouths from view; and the snow on which they tread steams with the heat which it receives from the snow beneath. The countless crystals of ice, which fill the air and reduce the clearness of day to a dull yellow twilight, make a continual rustling noise; their fall in the form of fine snow-dust, or their floating as frosty vapour, is the cause of that penetrating feeling of damp which is so perceptible when the cold is intense, and which receives accretions from the vapours issuing from the open places of the sea. Notwithstanding all this, there is an indescribable dryness in the atmosphere, strongly contrasting with the feeling of dampness. Heavy clouds are impossible; the heavens are covered only by mists, through which the sun and the moon, surrounded by halos, glow blood-red. Falls of snow, as we understand the expression, altogether cease; the snow crystals, under the influence of cold, are so minute as to be almost invisible. The land, the real home and source of cold, acts as the great condenser of vapour, and snow and moisture of every kind, and lies under a deep covering of frozen snow till the colour of its walls and precipices reappears in April. The soil, in the stricter sense of the word, is frozen as hard as iron wherever it appears through the snow, and the mean temperature of Franz-Josef Land (about 3° F.) makes it highly probable, that the frost penetrates to the depth of a thousand feet. Great cold, calm weather, and clear atmosphere combined, are the characteristics of the interior of Arctic countries. The nearer we approach the sea, the rarer is this combination. Light breezes sometimes occur with a temperature 37° (C.) below zero,[35] but the atmosphere is then less transparent.

5. It is well known that sound is propagated far more freely in Polar regions than with us. When the cold was great, we could hear conversations, carried on in the usual tone of voice, distinctly at the distance of several hundred paces. Parry and Middendorf both assert that the voice is more audible at a distance in cold weather. The propagation of sound seems to find less hindrance from the irregular masses of ice and cushions of snow, than from the curtains of our woods and the carpets of our vegetation. In the mountainous districts of Europe many of the characteristics of Polar regions, besides intense cold, are met with; yet it is a fact, that the report of a gun can scarcely be heard in those situations. Cold, however, can scarcely be regarded as the essential condition of this phenomenon; for the propagation of sound, though in a less striking degree, may be observed even in the summers there.[36] It would seem rather that the amount of moisture in the atmosphere has a more decided influence in the production of this phenomenon.

6. When the snow becomes hard as rock, its surface takes a granular consistence like sugar. Where it lies with its massive wreaths frozen in the form of billows, our steps resound, as we walk over them, with the sound as of a drum. The ice is so hard that it emits a ringing sound; wood becomes wonderfully hard, splits, and is as difficult to cut as bone; butter becomes like stone; meat must be split, and mercury may be fired as a bullet from a gun.[37]

7. If cold thus acts on things without life, how much more must it influence living organisms and the power of man’s will! Cold lowers the beat of the pulse, weakens the bodily sensations, diminishes the capacity of movement and of enduring great fatigue. Of all the senses, taste and smell most lose their force and pungency, the mucous membrane being in a constant state of congestion and excessive secretion. After a time a decrease of muscular power is also perceptible. If one is exposed suddenly to an excessive degree of cold, involuntarily one shuts the mouth and breathes through the nose; the cold air seems at first to pinch and pierce the organs of respiration. The eyelids freeze even in calm weather, and to prevent their closing we have constantly to clear them from ice, and the beard alone is less frozen than other parts of the body, because the breath as it issues from the mouth falls down as snow. Snow-spectacles are dimmed by the moisture of the eyes, and when the thermometer falls 37° (C.) below zero they are as opaque as frost-covered windows. The cold, however, is most painfully felt in the soles of the feet, when there is a cessation of exercise. Nervous weakness, torpor, and drowsiness follow, which explains the connection which is usually found between resting and freezing. The most important point, in fact, for a sledge party, which has such exertions to make at a very low temperature, is to stand still as little as possible. The excessive cold which is felt in the soles of the feet during the noon-day rest is the main reason why afternoon marches make such a demand on the moral power. Great cold also alters the character of the excretions, thickens the blood, and increases the need of nourishment from the increased expenditure of carbon. And while perspiration ceases entirely, the secretion of the mucous membranes of the nose and eyes is permanently increased, and the urine assumes almost a deep red colour. At first the bowels are much confined, a state which, after continuing for five and sometimes eight days, passes into diarrhœa. The bleaching of the beard under these influences is a curious fact.

8. Although theoretically, the fat endure cold better than the lean, in reality this is often reversed. Somewhat in the same way it might be argued that the negro would have an advantage over the white man, for the former as a living black bulb thermometer is more receptive of the warmer waves of heat. But blackening the face or smearing the body with grease are experiments which could only be recommended by those who have never been in a position to try them. The only protection against cold is clothing carefully chosen, and contrivances to avoid the condensation of moisture. All articles of dress are made as stiff as iron by the cold. If one puts off his fur coat and lays it down for a few minutes on the ground, he cannot put it on again till it be thawed. The fingers of woollen gloves become as unpliable as if they belonged to mailed gauntlets, and therefore Arctic travellers, except when engaged in hunting, prefer to use mittens.

9. Constant precautions are needed against the danger of frost-bite, and the nose of the Arctic voyager especially becomes a most serious charge. But no sooner has its safety been secured, than the hands which have rubbed it with snow are threatened with the same fate. The ears, however, are well protected from frost by the hood. Frost-bite, which is caused by the stoppage of blood in the capillaries, evinces itself by a feeling of numbness, which, if not immediately attended to, increases to a state of complete rigidity. Slight cases are overcome by rubbing the part affected with snow. When the cold is excessive, feeling accompanied with a prickling sensation only returns after rubbing for hours. Under all circumstances, freezing water with an infusion of hydrochloric acid is the best means of restoring circulation. When the frost-bitten member is immersed in this, it is at once overspread with a coating of ice, but as the temperature of the water slowly rises the frozen limb is gradually thawed. The longer persons are exposed to a low temperature, the greater becomes their sensitiveness under it. Their noses, lips and hands swell, and the skin on those parts becomes like parchment, cracks, and is most sensitive to pain from the least breath of wind. In cases of neglected frost-bite, the violet colour of a nose or hand is perpetuated, in spite of all the efforts made to banish it. Frost-bites of a more severe character will not yield to mere rubbings with snow, but should be treated with the kind of cold bath we have described, continued for some days. The formation of blisters, the swelling of the parts affected, great sensitiveness and liability to a recurrence of the malady, are the consequences. In many cases a sensitiveness to changes of temperature lasts for several years. Amputation is inevitable in severe and neglected cases. When circulation has been restored, a mixture of iodine and collodion—10 grains to an ounce—may, according to the experience of Dr. Kepes, be advantageously applied to reduce the inflammation which generally results.

10. It is remarkable that great heat as well as great cold should generate the great evil—thirst. It is also remarkable how rapidly the demoralisation produced by thirst extends when any one of the party begins to show signs of suffering from it. Habit, however, enables men to struggle against thirst more successfully than against hunger. Many try to relieve it by using snow; which is especially pernicious when its temperature falls considerably below the point of liquefaction. Inflammation of the mouth and tongue, rheumatic pains in the teeth, diarrhœa, and other mischiefs, are the consequences, whenever a party incautiously yields to the temptation of such a momentary relief. It is in fact a mere delusion, because it is impossible to eat as much snow—say a cubic foot—as would be requisite to furnish an adequate amount of water. Snow of a temperature of 37° to 50° (C.) below zero feels in the mouth like hot iron, and does not quench, but increases thirst, by its inflammatory action on the mucous membranes of the parts it affects. The Eskimos prefer to endure any amount of thirst rather than eat snow, and it is only the Tschuktschees who indulge in it as a relish with their food, which is always eaten cold. Snow-eaters during the march were regarded by us as weaklings, much in the same way as opium-eaters are. Catarrhs of every kind are less frequent in Polar expeditions, and the chills to which we are exposed by passing suddenly from the cold of the land journey to the warmer temperature of the ship, have no evil consequences. It deserves to be investigated whether this arises from the difference of the amount of ozone in the atmosphere of the respective latitudes.—Now let us return to our journey.

11. After crossing over the Sonklar-Glacier and measuring its slight inclination of 1° 6′, we climbed an elevation to ascertain the most promising route for penetrating in a northerly direction; and none seemed better suited than that which lay over its back, which seemed free from crevasses. But we looked in vain for the fancied paradise of the interior, which had existed only in our desire to clothe in glowing colours the Land, from which we had been so long held back. The true character, however, of Kaiser Franz-Josef Land, so far as it could be explored in this and the following sledge expeditions, will be the subject of the next chapter. The accompanying sketch represents a block of snow, about the height of a man, at the foot of the Sonklar-Glacier, to which the winds had given a fanlike shape. In the afternoon, after inspecting the stakes which we had fixed for measuring the motion of the glacier, we came back to the tent and began our return march to Cape Tegetthoff and the ship. A cutting wind compelled us to make constant efforts against frost-bites. With a heavy creaking noise the sledge was dragged over the hard snow, and to our reduced strength it seemed to be laden with a double load. The night is generally the hardest part of such expeditions, and our camping out during the night under the cliffs of Cape Tegetthoff was especially bitter. Happy was he who, exhausted by the labour of dragging, fell asleep at once. As usual, we dug a deep hole in the snow and loosened it as much as possible, so that we might profit by its property of being one of the worst conductors of heat. In a short time the inside of the tent was covered with rime frost, and we ourselves with ice. The tongue only seemed to recover its former mobility with those who bewailed their loss of knives, stockings, gloves—yea, of everything, even their place in the tent. They ate their portion of bear’s flesh much as if they had been chloroformed, and dropping asleep in their stiffened icy coat of mail, they were awoke by its gradual thawing, to reiterate without cessation how cold it was; a fact which no one present was prepared to dispute. The alcohol thermometer stood at -56° F. (-48° on board the ship), and when the warmth produced by the exercise we had taken and by the effects of supper was gone, the feeling of cold was so intense that it seemed far more probable that we should be frozen to death than that we should sleep. The cook therefore received orders to brew some strong grog, and forthwith six spirit-flames burnt under the kettle filled with snow; but to make snow of such extreme coldness boil quickly we should have had to place the kettle over Vesuvius itself in the height of an eruption.

12. We now slept without stirring a limb, and about five o’clock in the morning of the 15th of March we started to compass the twenty miles which lay between us and the ship in one march, without encountering the suffering of another night’s camping out in the snow. The weather was as clear as it is possible to be at a temperature of -52° F., and going along with a light breeze from the north, we made use of our sledge sail to such advantage that we reached the gentle ascent of the west point of Wilczek Island after a march of seven hours. We formed a second depôt of provisions on the summit of a rocky promontory, whence we discerned with a telescope the masts and yards of the ship lying behind an iceberg, and our fears and anxieties lest it should have drifted away in our absence were dissipated by this glad view. Our return to the ship could no longer be a matter of choice; it had become a necessity. Lettis had been unable for some days to take any share in the labour of dragging, and walked along in shoes made of reindeer hide, on account of his frost-bitten feet. Haller also wore similar shoes to save his swollen feet; Cattarinch’s face was frost-bitten, and he too suffered from lameness; Pospischill, who could no longer wear his shrunk-up fur coat, so suffered from frost-bite in both hands, that I sent him on to the ship, that he might have the help of the doctor as soon as possible. It was with much effort that we made the last six hours’ march; and when at length, stiff with ice, we passed between the hummocks that lay around the ship, Weyprecht, Brosch, Orel, and eight sailors came to meet us, who, alarmed at the inability of Pospischill to speak in answer to their questions, had set out from the ship in order to find us.

13. As I entered my berth I heard the hard breathing of our poor comrade Krisch. For more than a week he had lain without consciousness; yet death had not come to relieve him. On the afternoon of the 16th of March a sudden cessation of all sound told us that he was no more! Next day, his body, placed in a coffin, was brought on deck, and our flag hoisted half-mast high. On the 19th, when the thermometer was at -13° F., the body was committed to its lonely grave in the far north. A mournful procession left the ship, with a sledge, on which rested the coffin covered with a flag and cross, and wended its way to the nearest elevation on the shore of Wilczek Island. Silently struggling against the drifting snow, we marched on, dragging our burden through desolate reaches of snow, till we arrived, after a journey of an hour and a half, at the point we sought on the island. Here, in a fissure between basaltic columns, we deposited his earthly remains, filling up the cavity with stones, which we loosened with much labour, and which the wind, as we stood there, covered with wreaths of snow. We read the prayer for the dead over him who had shared in our sufferings and trials, but who was not destined to return home with us with the news of our success; and close by the spot, surrounded with every symbol of death and far from the haunts of men, we raised as our farewell a simple wooden cross. Our sad and solemn task done, there rose in our hearts the thought, whether we ourselves should be permitted to return home, or whether we too should find our resting-place in the unapproachable wastes of the icy north. The wind blowing over the stiff and stark elevation where we stood, covered us all with a thick coating of snow, and caused the appearance of frost-bite in the faces and hands of some of our party. The decoration of the grave of our comrade with a suitable inscription was therefore deferred till the weather proved more favourable. We found considerable difficulty in returning to the ship through an atmosphere filled with snow.[38]