第68章 LETTER XI(8)

On another part of the coast we found two other corpses yet more scantily sepulchred,without so much as a cross to mark their resting-place.Even in the palmy days of the whale-fisheries,it was the practice of the Dutch and English sailors to leave the wooden coffins in which they had placed their comrades'remains,exposed upon the shore;and I have been told by an eye-witness,that in Magdalena Bay there are to be seen,even to this day,the bodies of men who died upwards of 250years ago,in such complete preservation that,when you pour hot water on the icy coating which encases them,you can actually see the unchanged features of the dead,through the transparent incrustation.

As soon as Fitz had gathered a few of the little flowering mosses that grew inside the coffin,we proceeded on our way,leaving poor Jacob Moor--like his great namesake--alone in his glory.

Turning to the right,we scrambled up the spur of one of the mountains on the eastern side of the plain,and thence dived down among the lateral valleys that run up between them.Although by this means we opened up quite a new system of hills,and basins,and gullies,the general scenery did not change its characteristics.All vegetation--if the black moss deserves such a name--ceases when you ascend twenty feet above the level of the sea,and the sides of the mountains become nothing but steep slopes of schist,split and crumbled into an even surface by the frost.Every step we took unfolded a fresh succession of these jagged spikes and break-neck acclivities,in an unending variety of quaint configuration.Mountain climbing has never been a hobby of mine,so I was not tempted to play the part of Excelsior on any of these hill sides;but for those who love such exercise a fairer or a more dangerous opportunity of distinguishing themselves could not be imagined.The supercargo or owner of the very first Dutch ship that ever came to Spitzbergen,broke his neck in attempting to climb a hill in Prince Charles's Foreland.Barentz very nearly lost several of his men under similar circumstances;and when Scoresby succeeded in making the ascent of another hill near Horn Sound,it was owing to his having taken the precaution of marking each upward step in chalk,that he was ever able to get down again.The prospect from the summit,the approach to which was by a ridge so narrow that he sat astride upon its edge,seems amply to have repaid the exertion;and I do not think I can give you a better idea of the general effect of Spitzbergen scenery,than by quoting his striking description of the panorama he beheld:--"The prospect was most extensive and grand.A fine sheltered bay was seen to the east of us,an arm of the same on the north-east,and the sea,whose glassy surface was unruffled by a breeze,formed an immense expanse on the west;the icebergs rearing their proud crests almost to the tops of mountains between which they were lodged,and defying the power of the solar beams,were scattered in various directions about the sea-coast and in the adjoining bays.Beds of snow and ice filling extensive hollows,and giving an enamelled coat to adjoining valleys,one of which commencing at the foot of the mountain where we stood extended in a continued line towards the north,as far as the eye could reach--mountain rising above mountain,until by distance they dwindled into insignificancy--the whole contrasted by a cloudless canopy of deepest azure,and enlightened by the rays of a blazing sun,and the effect aided by a feeling of danger,seated as we were on the pinnacle of a rock almost surrounded by tremendous precipices,--all united to constitute a picture singularly sublime.

"Our descent we found really a very hazardous,and in some instances a painful undertaking.Every movement was a work of deliberation.Having by much care,and with some anxiety,made good our descent to the top of the secondary hills,we took our way down one of the steepest banks,and slid forward with great facility in a sitting posture.Towards the foot of the hill,an expanse of snow stretched across the line of descent.This being loose and soft,we entered upon it without fear;but on reaching the middle of it,we came to a surface of solid ice,perhaps a hundred yards across,over which we launched with astonishing velocity,but happily escaped without injury.The men whom we left below,viewed this latter movement with astonishment and fear."So universally does this strange land bristle with peaks and needles of stone,that the views we ourselves obtained --though perhaps from a lower elevation,and certainly without the risk--scarcely yielded either in extent or picturesque grandeur to the scene described by Dr.

Scoresby.

Having pretty well overrun the country to the northward,without coming on any more satisfactory signs of deer than their hoof-prints in the moss,we returned on board.

The next day--but I need not weary you with a journal of our daily proceedings,for,however interesting each moment of our stay in Spitzbergen was to ourselves--as much perhaps from a vague expectation of what we might see,as from anything we actually did see--a minute account of every walk we took,and every bone we picked up,or every human skeleton we came upon,would probably only make you wonder why on earth we should have wished to come so far to see so little.Suffice it to say that we explored the neighbourhood in the three directions left open to us by the mountains,that we climbed the two most accessible of the adjacent hills,wandered along the margin of the glaciers,rowed across to the opposite side of the bay,descended a certain distance along the sea-coast,and in fact exhausted all the lions of the vicinity.