The Paradise of the North

Front matter

n THE PARADISE OF THE NORTH THE PAEADISE OF THE NORTH BY DAVID LAWSON JOHNSTONE Author of "The Mountain Kingdom," ete. pontoon REMINGTON & CO. HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1890. [All Rights reserved.'] TO THE MEMBERS OF THE "OLD 0. B." CLUB slate of Edinburgh). To you, fellow-members with me of that Association which was known to us alone by the name of the " Old 0. B." I have ventured to dedicate this book. The Club itself is a thing of the past ; one of you may read these words in India, a second at the Gape, others here and there throughout the land ; but I know that its memory is still green in your hearts — the memory of its jollity and goodfellowship, and of the friends made there to be retained (I trust) through life. To you and to the " 0. B." I oive much ; if that which I offer now has merit of any kind, to you is due much of the credit ; and as for its faults, I know who icill be the first to point them out, and at the same time find excuses for them.

And perhaps this messenger of affection and good-will may recall to you memories of many a pleasant incident of those careless days. It may remind you of winter evenings in Princes Street, of biting east winds and driving rain ; or of summer afternoons, hot and dreamy, on the Pentlands and in Hawthornden. It may remind you also of the memorable times when, over our glasses and our pipes, we discussed George Meredith, his philosophy , and his women : decided, to our own satisfaction, every vexed question of literature and art : and, with never-failing enthusiasm, gave and accepted battle again and again for our favourites and our foibles. Often, I hope, " In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind," you see all these as I do, with pleasure that they have been, regret that they are no more ; and, seeing them, you feel your hearts warmer towards the old Club and towards the world, and the tie that binds us stronger even now than it was then.

D. L. J. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. The Last Request of Randolph Toreens 1 II. Captain Sneddon's Opinion . 12 III. Dr. Felix Lorimer joins the Expedition . . . . . .20 IV. The " Aurora " Starts . . . 30 V. In Novaya Zemlya . . . .40 VI. We Reach the Ice-Barrier . . 50 VII. Beset in the Frozen Ocean . . 59 VIII. Latitude 83° 25' . . . .68 IX. The Erection op Fort Lorimer . .77 X. The Sledge Excursion — Further Traces of the " Northern Pharos " 86 XI. The Sledge Excursion — Perils and Privations . . . . .95 XII. An Exciting Arctic Christmas . . 106 XIII. The Winter Passes Away . . . 114 XIV. A Startling Discovery ... . 122 XV. What we saw from Mount Stafford . 132 XVI. Successes and Surprises . . . 143 XVII. Eyvind CONTENTS chap. page XVIII. The Land of Isloken .... 164 XIX. Concerning the Paradise of the North . . . .173 XX.

Chapter I. The Last Bequest Op Randolph Torrens

The beginning, at least so far as I was concerned, of one of the most remarkable experiences of my life was npon a certain wild February evening not so many years ago. My younger brother Cecil and I were sitting in our smoking-room at Dreghorn Towers, listening to the wind and reflectively contemplating our cigars, when the silence was broken by a knock at the door, and a servant entered with a note. " For Mr. Cecil," he said ; " brought by one of The Grange grooms, who rode off: at once." The Grange was the manor-house of the next parish, and I remember wondering, while my brother was reading the note, what it was that had caused anyone there to send over to Dreghorn in such a storm. The rain and sleet were coming down in torrents, driven by a fierce easterly wind that was rapidly developing into a gale.

The cold was intense, and even from where we sat we could hear the boom of the surf upon the shore half-a-mile distant. But I was not kept long in sus pense. Cecil did not take a second to read the com- B munication, and then, jumping up so suddenly that he sent his chair spinning backwards, he tossed it to me. " Read that, Godfrey ! " he exclaimed. " I must get over to The Grange immediately ; there seems no time to lose." I took the note, saw that it was from Cecil's be trothed, Miss Torrens of The Grange, and at a glance mastered its contents. " Come over at once, Cecil," it ran. " Papa is taken ill. We can do nothing until you arrive, or Dr. Jeffer son. "Edith." My brother, it may be remarked in explanation, had studied medicine at Edinburgh for some time before our father's death, and at his desire, but with no in tention of practising.

When that event occurred, indeed, we found that while I came into possession of all the landed property, Cecil had been left sufficiently wealthy to do without the aid of any profession. Accordingly, though he had never taken his diploma, he knew quite enough to be able to act in any emer gency. Since that time a year had passed, during the course of which he had become engaged to the only daughter of Squire Torrens — he to whose aid he was now preparing to go. " I hope it's nothing serious," I said ; " but I'm afraid it looks like it. At any rate, I'll ride over with you, in case I may be of some use." " All right," he replied ; and five minutes later we were on our way. For the greater part of the six miles from Dreghorn to The Grange we had no shelter; and for at least half the distance the road ran close to the shore — so close, in fact, that we could see the white gleam of the surf through the pitchy darkness of the night.

As there nothing intervened between us and the full force of the gale, we were glad when at last we caught sight of a light in front of us, for it told us that we should get at least comparative shelter for the remainder of our journey. " That must be Narwhal Cottage," remarked Cecil. "It is ; and there's Captain Sneddon himself, looking as if he were enjoying the beauty of the evening ! " The cottage was occupied by a retired seaman, who had been for thirty years the commander of Greenland or Spitsbergen whalers (alternated, in the earlier part of his career, with occasional voyages as ice-pilot to Franklin Search and other Arctic expeditions) before, in his own words, saving enough to come to an anchor on land. As we came abreast, we saw that he was making signals to us from his post in the doorway.

"Ahoy!" he shouted, as if hailing a vessel some where on the German Ocean. "Is that you, Mr. Oliphant ? Whither bound in a gale like this ? " " Both of us, captain," I answered, as we passed, slackening rein a little that he might hear the more readily ; " but we haven't time to stop — the squire's seriously ill. We're going there now." " I don't ask you to stop," was his reply. " But look in on me on your return voyage. I'll wait up till you come." What more he said, if anything, was lost in a gust of wind which swept down at that moment, and when it was over we were out of sight of the cottage, having struck sharply inland just after leaving it behind. In a quarter of an hour thereafter we were at The Grange gates. They were open, and we galloped up the avenue without stopping, eager to reach the house as quickly as possible.

But when we came in sight of it we were struck by a feeling almost indefinable — that feeling of dread and apprehension which one so often experiences in the vicinity of death. The door was standing wide open, as if in expectation of an arrival ; there were lights in many of the windows. As we pulled up, several servants came running down the steps to help us to dismount, and from their faces we could gather that the worst had happened — there was no need for words. " He died not ten minutes after he was took ill, sir, said the butler, with a mournful shake of the head, in answer to my interrogation. " It was sudden ; heart disease, Dr. Jefferson says." " And Miss Torrens ? " inquired Cecil. " Is waiting you in the library, sir." We accordingly dismounted, went indoors, and divested ourselves of our dripping overcoats.

All over the house there was the same deep and sugges tive silence. But it was only, I think, when we entered the library, and Edith Torrens came forward to meet us, that I realized to the full that which had occurred. It was evident how keenly she had felt it ; she had the look of one who had undergone some great trial, and was still under the influence of the shock. " I'm glad you've come, for many reasons," she simply said. " It was very good of you to think of us, Godfrey." Cecil, of course, required no distinctive mention. " Aunt has quite broken down — it was so sudden." Since our boyhood, for as long as we could remember, the dead man had been our best and dearest friend ; and so, in the circumstances, any commonplace ex pression of condolence would have been absolutely superfluous.

But Edith required no assurance of sympathy, or how much we felt his loss : even had she not known it, she was too deeply wrapped up in her own to notice anything else. It was with an effort that she told us of her father's death. He had complained of weakness and oppression all day, but she and her aunt had no suspicion of danger until they were at dinner, when he spoke of feeling very ill, and desired to be removed to his room. This was done at once, and messengers dispatched for Cecil and Dr. Jefferson, the latter of whom was found not far distant. But by the time he arrived the squire was dead, having expired so suddenly that his daughter had not had time to take farewell. "And," concluded Edith, with a burst of tears, " he must have expected it, for his last wish was for us, Cecil — he hoped we should be happy when he was gone."

Before this I had retired into the background, know ing well that there was only one person at that moment who could console Edith, and that that person was not the present writer. Even then, incongruous as the thought apparently was, I could not help thinking how lucky Cecil had been to win such a girl as Edith Torrens. Standing there together, united by the dying words of her father, as it were, they seemed made " each for the other, in the good Providence of life," as the old chronicler quaintly has it. Cecil — tall and handsome (I don't mind confessing that all the traditionary good looks of the family have somehow missed its present head, un fortunately for that gentleman), in a word, as good a specimen of young English manhood as one could wish to meet ; and Edith, a perfect match — her beauty enhanced by the look of pathos in her dark eyes, the drooping of her figure, and the expression eloquent of her grief.

Death had laid his icy fingers on her heart for a moment, but the world was still before her, and ■she had Cecil. Little could be done that night, but next morning the family lawyer was telegraphed for, and when he arrived he undertook to carry out all the necessary arrangements. This he did ; and four days later, on a gloomy and typical February morning, the remains of Randolph Torrens, of The Grange, were consigned to their last resting-place. The funeral over, most of the party assembled again in the library of The Grange to hear the will of the deceased read. There were not many present ; Edith and her aunt, Cecil and I, one or two neighbours, a few of the servants, present on Edith's invitation, and Mr. Smiles, of Paterson, Smiles, and Paterson, the family lawyers, made up the company.

THE PARADLSE OF THE NORTH. " The will I am about to read," began the solicitor, " was drawn up in June last. Mr. Torrens had just been informed by his physician that he might be carried off at any moment by the disease of the heart from which he eventually died. Accordingly, he called upon me and gave me instructions to prepare this will, which was signed next day. With your permis sion, Miss Torrens, I shall now proceed to read it.' The will commenced in the usual way ; bequests of small sums were made to the servants and others, and a larger amount to Mr Smiles ; an annuity of seven hundred and fifty pounds was left to his sister, and five thousand pounds each bequeathed to my brother and me, " as a slight mark of appreciation of the coming con nection between^the Oliphants of Dreghorn Towers and my family, and of personal friendship towards the said Godfrey Oliphant, Esq., and Cecil Oliphant, Esq.'' Then the residue of the estate, consisting of landed property in various counties, articles of value, &c, and the sum of one hundred and ten thousand pounds in vested in the Three per Cents., were left unreservedly to his daughter, Edith Belhaven Torrens, Mr Smiles and myself being named as executors.

At the same time a sealed packet was to be handed to Miss Torrens ; and, the will went on, it was the wish of the testator that his daughter should exercise her own judgment whether the directions therein conveyed should be carried out. " And this packet," concluded Mr. Smiles, "it is now my duty to hand to you, Miss Torrens, with the remark that it was given to me at the time the will was signed." The servants and strangers here retired, and Edith, who had abstained from examining it while they were present, now took it up with some curiosity. On the cover was the following inscription — " To my Daughter, Edith Torrens. — To be opened after my death, and read in the presence of my executors and Mr. Cecil Oliphant, and such other persons as she may desire to be present." " All those mentioned being here," said Edith, " I suppose there is no reason why this should not be opened now."

" None whatever," said the lawyer ; and so the seals of the packet were broken, and its contents found to be several manuscripts in the hand-writing of Randolph Torrens, of which the principal was evidently one headed in the same manner as the envelope. " May I ask you to read this, Mr. Smiles ? " inquired Edith, after glancing over it ; and the lawyer, who was apparently as anxious as any of us to know what it said, answered in the affirmative, and forthwith com menced — " To my Daughter, — It is my earnest desire that you carry out the directions contained in this note, and it is only in case it seems to you and to those whose advice you take that to do so would be egregious madness, that I leave the matter to your discretion. It is because I am confident that my last wish will be sacred to you that I do not take other means of ensuring that the hope of my life shall at length be converted into a certainty.

"I have left you a sum of money amounting to one hundred and ten thousand pounds, invested in the Three per Cents. — the result of fortunate speculation, animated by one aim. My wish is that this money, or as much of it as may be necessary, should be used for the special purpose of an Arctic Expedition. To this end my instructions are : Accompanying this you will find details (drawn up by one of the greatest living authorities on polar exploration) to guide whoever may undertake the enterprise, as to the buying or building of a suitable steam-vessel, and its equipment in the most thorough manner with every Arctic necessary. The captain appointed must have experience, and the crew be well chosen and amenable to discipline. Let the vessel be provisioned for three years. " It is my wish that your future husband should accompany the expedition as your representative ; and I hope his brother Godfrey may also go.

" The vessel will sail in the course of the July following its preparation to the Novaya Zemlya Sea, and, if the season be a good one (if bad, the expedition to be postponed until the following year), penetrate north-east to latitude 83° 25', and longitude 48° h' E. At this point, if the party should be fortunate enough to reach it, will be found a land-locked bay, on a mountainous coast which has never been visited but once, but which I now anticipate to be either a part of Gillis Land, or of the land lately discovered by Lieutenant Payer and the Austrian Expedition, and called by them Kaiser Franz-Josef Land. It was here that I and others wintered thirty years ago ; and although, for many reasons into which I cannot enter, no account of this voyage was published, it is a fact that our party penetrated farther north than any other has yet done.

Here, as there are extensive coal-fields, the expedition may winter in comfort. Then a thorough search will be made within a radius of twenty miles of the bay, and especially in a N.E. direction, towards the mountains which will be seen in the distance. This is to be the principal motive of the expedition : To examine the ground carefully for traces of white men, and to follow up any such traces to an end. My reason for this step I am precluded from giving, but I hope it will be enough that I consider it of such importance that I should not care to die without taking means to have it carried through. " The search over, those engaged in it are at liberty to undertake any other project they may have in their minds. It is to be remembered that this point, if thev gain it, is nearer the North Pole than has up to the present time been reached.

I have every reason for believing that this route is much more practicable than that generally advocated — viz., via Smith's Sound and Robeson Channel ; and so, if that be an inducement, those who go will have a better chance of attaining the goal which so many have striven to reach in vain than has yet fallen to the lot of any other party ! " I have only to request, further, that the strictest secrecy be kept regarding these proceedings. This is more necessary than may be thought. " You have now my directions before you, Edith, and it remains for you to say whether this expedition will • or will not be despatched ; whether the hope I have long cherished is to come to naught or is to be carried out ; and whether a mystery which I have never been able to solve myself is to be solved after my death through the agency of my daughter.

The choice is before you, and it may not be long before you will have to decide, for I have just heard from the doctor that I may die at any moment. "Randolph Torrens. " June 14, 188—. As the lawyer finished reading this extraordinary document the five of us simultaneously gave a gasp of astonishment. Had Randolph Torrens really meant what he had written ? or had he been acting under a temporary aberration of the mind ? But the instruc tions were plain enough, and all doubt as to how they would be received by the one principally concerned were put to an end by Edith. " I don't know what you think of papa's directions," she said, in a tone of determination, as if she expected opposition, " but I mean to carry them out, if it costs every penny of the hundred and ten thousand pounds and everything else I have !

I know now what he meant just before he died," she went on, her eyes filling with tears at the recollection, " when he said, ' Edith, be sure and obey me, even after my death.' And I will, so far as I can ! " " But, Edith," interrupted her aunt, " think of wasting such a sum of money as that — a hundred thousand pounds ! " She stopped as if stupefied by the mere thought, and the lawyer chimed in. " Consider, my dear Miss Torrens ! Don't rush into a decision all at once ! " " Then what do you think of it, Mr. Smiles ? " she asked. " What do you advise ? " " My hands are in a way tied," he answered. " Some time before your father's death he called upon me and took me in a manner into his confidence. He strictly enjoined me not to influence your decision in any way, nor, particularly, to do or say anything against the project, but merely to acquiesce in the decision you arrive at.

But I could see that his mind was thoroughly bent on this work being undertaken after his death — why, I cannot even suspect." " I am equally in the dark," said Edith. " All I know is that before his marriage he had been several voyages to the Arctic Seas. Of this one he never said a word to me ; but I remember his excitement when, in 1874, he heard of the discovery of Franz-Josef Land, and of his disappointment that the explorers had not penetrated further north. And often while he has been asleep after dinner I've heard him mutter about ' ice ' and ' open water ' and ' treachery.' ' Treachery ' was a word he often used. Perhaps it had some connection with the mystery he speaks of." " That we must discover," said Cecil. " We must reach the place mentioned by some means or other ; your father's directions leave us no other alternative.

If we didn't, it would be like a breach of trust. We must go ! " Edith gave him a glance of gratitude, and then asked what my opinion was. " That we should first take technical advice — consult somebody who has been to the Arctic. Then we may know our ground. And, by Jove ! " — as a thought suddenly entered my mind — " we've got the authority ready to our hand ! " " Where ? " " In Captain Sneddon, who knows as much about these matters as anyone alive ! " " Then let us see him at once ! " said Edith ; and by her tone I knew she reckoned on the captain as a recruit — though, even if he were to turn out the opposite, it would not change in the very least the determination to which she had obviously brought her mind. To a woman of Edith's stamp a request of this kind was a matter of duty ; and duty (especially duty to the dead) was to her as the law of the Medes and Persians, for it admitted of no changing and of no double inter pretation.

Chapter II. The Opinion Of Captain Sneddon

Captain Sneddon, however, was not consulted just at the moment. Edith in her impulsiveness wished to see him without loss of time ; but the lawyer had one or two remarks to make before the meeting broke up. " Tour suggestion is a very sensible one, Mr. Oliphant," he said, approvingly, " and I am only sorry that I cannot accompany you on your visit to this gentleman. I am compelled to return to London by the first train, but I shall await your decision with the greatest interest. Whatever it may be, I have full confidence in your wisdom and discretion. As to the details Mr. Torrens has referred to, I have been looking over them, and I find that, so far as I am a judge, they are very comprehensive and complete. But I presume their discussion may be postponed until you finally decide." And, after some further talk, he took his departure for London, while Cecil and I looked over the details of which he had spoken.

They covered nearly a hundred pages of closely-written manuscript, and embraced, as the lawyer had indicated, every imaginable point con nected with an Arctic expedition. Meanwhile Edith and her aunt had been whispering together. " Now that Mr. Smiles has gone," finally said the former, " I don't see why we shouldn't get this decided as quickly as possible. And there is only one decision we can come to. Of course I can't go out to-day, but if you wouldn't mind, Godfrey, you and Cecil might see Captain Sneddon, and tell me what he thinks." " Certainly we will," I replied. " And at once, please. Somehow, I feel that the longer we wait the more I am disobeying papa's last wish. I'm sure I shall never be easy in my mind until this expedition has started. For it must go ; if I didn't obey that letter I'd feel like a criminal all the rest of my life !

" " But a hundred thousand pounds to be spent in that way ! " reiterated Miss Torrens the elder, as if the fact were still beyond her. " Yes," answered Edith, a little fiercely ; " two hundred thousand, if I had it ! " Then, more gently, " What does it matter, aunt ? Haven't I, without this, more than enough already ? Anyhow, rich or poor, the expedition starts. As to that there can be no other thought ! " " Then what was the use of this show of delibera tion ? " I asked myself. But I saw that the events of the day had put Edith into a state of nervous excite ment, and so, as the best means of calming her, Cecil and I resolved to pay our visit to the captain at the moment. Besides, we were burning with curiosity to have a chance of talking over the matter with one who had experience at his back.

So in a short time we took our leave, and, as may be supposed, our conversation between The Grange and Narwhal Cottage was of nothing save the dying request — command, one might say — of Randolph Torrens. We discussed it from every point of view, and with more or less enthusiasm, and I was not surprised to find that Cecil was quite determined to go. As for myself, I succeeded better in concealing my real feelings. Narwhal Cottage stood a little back from the road, sheltered by a cliff from the sea winds, and within a hundred yards of a tiny cove that harboured the captain's boat. Upon the cliff stood a mast bearing a genuine " crow's-nest," one used by its owner during many a hazardous voyage in the frozen seas. Above this tapered the flagstaff, the Union Jack this day at half-mast. The cottage itself was a small but cosy house, "For," as the captain was wont to say, "it's like killing more whales than you can carry to have a bigger dwelling than you need."

His maiden sister, and only relative, was his housekeeper, and, in sight and earshot of the sea as he was, he was as thoroughly happy as he could be while not upon that element. He was in the crow's-nest — in which he spent most of the day, and, it was rumoured in the district, most of the night also — when we came up ; and seeing us, he descended with the agility of a sailor, and advanced to meet us. He was a man of between fifty and sixty. tall, strong, and unmistakably a seaman ; his face baked brick-colour by thirty or forty years' exposure to sea-breeze and sun ; his eyes shrewd, intelligent, and those of a man who is conscious of having done his duty, and of being capable of doing it again; and his voice loud, hearty, and as free of affectation as lifelong shouting of orders could make it.

" Glad to see you, Mr. Oliphant, and you, Mr. Cecil," he said, " and sorry, too, in those clothes. You will come in and sit down a minute ? Thank ye. Mr. Torrens' death was as sudden as the fall of an iceberg. I saw him that morning, looking as healthy as you or me. When you didn't come back that night — I waited up for you — I said to myself it was serious. Poor Miss Edith ! How does she take it, Mr. Cecil ? Maybe I shouldn't mention it, and you'll excuse me doing it in my rough way, but it's now your duty to look after her as if she was a vessel on her return voyage, with every barrel full. And," he went on, with a kindly glance at Cecil, " you'll do it, I'm sure of that." " Please Heaven I will," answered Cecil, sincerely, giving the old sailor a cordial hand-shake. By this time we had entered the cottage, and passed into the captain's cabin, as he called it — a small, circular room, fitted up as nearly as possible like a ship's cabin.