THE FUR COUNTRY by Jules Verne
[Redactor’s Note: The Fur
Country(Number V010 in the T&M numerical listing of Verne’s works) is
a translation of Le Pays de fourrures (1873) first published in England
by Sampson and Low and in the United States by James Osgood (1874). The
translation is by N. d’Anvers, a pseudonym for Mrs. Arthur Bell (d.
1933) who also translated other works of Jules Verne. Other translations
of this work are by Henry Frith (George Routledge, 1879) and Edward
Baxter (New Canada Press, 1987).
THE FUR COUNTRY or Seventy Degrees North Latitude Translated from the
French of Jules Verne
BY N. D’ANVERS
1874
TO MY NEPHEWS HERBERT, EDGAR, AND ROBERT
This Translation
is
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED,
N. D’ANVERS
Clapham, 1873
CHAPTER I. A SOIRÉE AT FORT RELIANCE. On the evening of the 17th March
1859, Captain Craventy gave a fête at Fort Reliance. Our readers must
not at once imagine a grand entertainment, such as a court ball, or a
musical soirée with a fine orchestra. Captain Craventy’s reception
was a very simple affair, yet he had spared no pains to give it éclat.
In fact, under the auspices of Corporal Joliffe, the large room on the
ground-floor was completely transformed. The rough walls, constructed of
roughly-hewn trunks of trees piled up horizontally, were still visible,
it is true, but their nakedness was disguised by arms and armour,
borrowed from the arsenal of the fort, and by an English tent at each
corner of the room. Two lamps suspended by chains, like chandeliers,
and provided with tin reflectors, relieved the gloomy appearance of the
blackened beams of the ceiling, and sufficiently illuminated the
misty atmosphere of the room. The narrow windows, some of them mere
loop-holes, were so encrusted with hoar-frost, that it was impossible
to look through them; but two or three pieces of red bunting, tastily
arranged about them, challenged the admiration of all who entered. The
floor, of rough joists of wood laid parallel with each other, had been
carefully swept by Corporal Joliffe. No sofas, chairs, or other modern
furniture, impeded the free circulation of the guests. Wooden benches
half fixed against the walls, huge blocks of wood cut with the axe,
and two tables with clumsy legs, were all the appliances of luxury
the saloon could boast of. But the partition wall, with a narrow door
leading into the next room, was decorated in a style alike costly and
picturesque. From the beams hung magnificent furs admirably arranged,
the equal of which could not be seen in the more favoured regions of
Regent Street or the Perspective-Newski. It seemed as if the whole fauna
of the ice-bound North were here represented by their finest skins. The
eye wandered from the furs of wolves, grey bears, polar bears, otters,
wolverenes, beavers, muskrats, water pole-cats, ermines, and silver
foxes; and above this display was an inscription in brilliantly-coloured
and artistically shaped cardboard--the motto of the world-famous
Hudson’s Bay Company--
“PROPELLE CUTUM.”
“Really, Corporal Joliffe, you have surpassed yourself !” said
Captain Craventy to his subordinate.
“I think I have, I think I have !” replied the Corporal; “but
honour to whom honour is due, Mrs Joliffe deserves part of your
commendation; she assisted me in everything.”
“A wonderful woman, Corporal.”
“Her equal is not to be found, Captain.”
An immense brick and earthenware stove occupied the centre of the
room, with a huge iron pipe passing from it through the ceiling,
and conducting the dense black smoke into the outer air. This stove
contained a roaring fire constantly fed with fresh shovelfuls of coal by
the stoker, an old soldier specially appointed to the service. Now and
then a gust of wind drove back a volume of smoke into the room, dimming
the brightness of the lamps, and adding fresh blackness to the beams of
the ceiling, whilst tongues of flame shot forth from the stove. But the
guests of Fort Reliance thought little of this slight inconvenience; the
stove warmed them, and they could not pay too dearly for its cheering
heat, so terribly cold was it outside in the cutting north wind.
The storm could be heard raging without, the snow fell fast, becoming
rapidly solid and coating the already frosted window panes with fresh
ice. The whistling wind made its way through the cranks and chinks of
the doors and windows, and occasionally the rattling noise drowned every
other sound. Presently an awful silence ensued. Nature seemed to be
taking breath; but suddenly the squall recommenced with terrific fury.
The house was shaken to its foundations, the planks cracked, the beams
groaned. A stranger less accustomed than the habitués of the fort to
the war of the elements, would have asked if the end of the world were
come.
But, with two exceptions, Captain Craventy’s guests troubled
themselves little about the weather, and if they had been outside
they would have felt no more fear than the stormy petrels disporting
themselves in the midst of the tempest. Two only of the assembled
company did not belong to the ordinary society of the neighbourhood,
two women, whom we shall introduce when we have enumerated Captain
Craventy’s other guests: these were, Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson,
Sergeant Long, Corporal Joliffe, and his bright active Canadian wife,
a certain Mac-Nab and his wife, both Scotch, John Rae, married to an
Indian woman of the country, and some sixty soldiers or employés of
the Hudson’s Bay Company. The neighbouring forts also furnished their
contingent of guests, for in these remote lands people look upon each
other as neighbours although their homes may be a hundred miles apart.
A good many employés or traders came from Fort Providence or Fort
Resolution, of the Great Slave Lake district, and even from Fort
Chippeway and Fort Liard further south. A rare break like this in the
monotony of their secluded lives, in these hyberborean regions, was
joyfully welcomed by all the exiles, and even a few Indian chiefs, about
a dozen, had accepted Captain Craventy’s invitation. They were not,
however, accompanied by their wives, the luckless squaws being still
looked upon as little better than slaves. The presence of these natives
is accounted for by the fact that they are in constant intercourse with
the traders, and supply the greater number of furs which pass through
the hands of the Hudson’s Bay Company, in exchange for other
commodities. They are mostly Chippeway Indians, well grown men with
hardy constitutions. Their complexions are of the peculiar reddish black
colour always ascribed in Europe to the evil spirits of fairyland.
They wear very picturesque cloaks of skins and mantles of fur, with a
head-dress of eagle’s feathers spread out like a lady’s fan, and
quivering with every motion of their thick black hair.
Such was the company to whom the Captain was doing the honours of Fort
Reliance. There was no dancing for want of music, but the “buffet”
admirably supplied the want of the hired musicians of the European
balls. On the table rose a pyramidal pudding made by Mrs Joliffe’s
own hands; it was an immense truncated cone, composed of flour, fat,
rein-deer venison, and musk beef. The eggs, milk, and citron prescribed
in recipe books were, it is true, wanting, but their absence was atoned
for by its huge proportions. Mrs Joliffe served out slice after slice
with liberal hands, yet there remained enough and to spare. Piles of
sandwiches also figured on the table, in which ship biscuits took the
place of thin slices of English bread and butter, and dainty morsels of
corned beef that of the ham and stuffed veal of the old world. The sharp
teeth of the Chippeway Indians made short work of the tough biscuits;
and for drink there was plenty of whisky and gin handed round in little
pewter pots, not to speak of a great bowl of punch which was to close
the entertainment, and of which the Indians talked long afterwards in
their wigwams.
Endless were the compliments paid to the Joliffes that evening, but they
deserved them; how zealously they waited on the guests, with what easy
grace they distributed the refreshments! They did not need prompting,
they anticipated the wishes of each one. The sandwiches were succeeded
by slices of the inexhaustible pudding, the pudding by glasses of gin or
whisky.
“No, thank you, Mr Joliffe.”
“You are too good, Corporal; but let me have time to breathe.”
“Mrs Joliffe, I assure you, I can eat no more.”
“Corporal Joliffe, I am at your mercy.”
“No more, Mrs Joliffe, no more, thank you!”
Such were the replies met with on every side by the zealous pair, but
their powers of persuasion were such that the most reluctant yielded in
the end. The quantities of food and drink consumed were really enormous.
The hubbub of conversation increased. The soldiery and employés became
excited. Here the talk was of hunting, there of trade. What plans were
laid for next season! The entire fauna of the Arctic regions would
scarcely supply game enough for these enterprising hunters. They already
saw bears, foxes, and musk oxen, falling beneath their bullets, and
pole-cats by hundreds caught in their traps. Their imagination pictured
the costly furs piled up in the magazines of the Company, which was this
year to realise hitherto unheard of profits. And whilst the spirits thus
freely circulated inflamed the imagination of the Europeans, the large
doses of Captain Craventy’s “fire-water” imbibed by the Indians
had an opposite effect. Too proud to show admiration, too cautious to
make promises, the taciturn chiefs listened gravely and silently to the
babel of voices around them.
The captain enjoying the hurly burly, and pleased to see the poor
people, brought back as it were to the civilised world, enjoying
themselves so thoroughly, was here, there, and everywhere, answering all
inquiries about the fête with the words
“Ask Joliffe, ask Joliffe !”
And they asked Joliffe, who had a gracious word for every body.
Some of those employed in the garrison and civil service of Fort
Reliance must here receive a few words of special notice, for they were
presently to go through experiences of a most terrible nature, which no
human perspicacity could possibly have foreseen. Amongst others we must
name Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson, Sergeant Long, Corporal and Mrs Joliffe,
and the two foreign women already alluded to, in whose honour Captain
Craventy’s fête was given.
Jaspar Hobson was a man of forty years of age. He was short and slight,
with little muscular power; but a force of will which carried him
successfully through all trials, and enabled him to rise superior to
adverse circumstances. He was “ a child of the Company.” His father,
Major Hobson, an Irishman from Dublin, who had now been dead for some
time, lived for many years at Fort Assiniboin with his wife. There
Jaspar Hobson was born. His childhood and youth were spent at the foot
of the Rocky Mountains. His father brought him up strictly, and he
became a man in self-control and courage whilst yet a boy in years.
Jaspar Hobson was no mere hunter, but a soldier, a brave and intelligent
officer. During the struggles in Oregon of the Hudson’s Bay Company
with the rival companies of the Union, he distinguished himself by his
zeal and intrepidity, and rapidly rose to the rank of lieutenant. His
well-known merit led to his appointment to the command of an expedition
to the north, the aim of which was to explore the northern shores of
the Great Bear Lake, and to found a fort on the confines of the American
continent. Jaspar Hobson was to set out on his journey early in April.
If the lieutenant was the type of a good officer, Sergeant Long was
that of a good soldier. He was a man of fifty years of age, with a
rough beard that looked as if it were made of cocoa-nut fibre.
Constitutionally brave, and disposed to obey rather than to command.
He had no ambition but to obey the orders he received never questioning
them, however strange they might appear, never reasoning for himself
when on duty for the Company-a true machine in uniform; but a perfect
machine, never wearing out; ever on the march, yet never showing signs
of fatigue. Perhaps Sergeant Long was rather hard upon his men, as he
was upon himself. He would not tolerate the slightest infraction
of discipline, and mercilessly ordered men into confinement for the
slightest neglect, whilst he himself had never been reprimanded. In a
word, he was a man born to obey, and this self-annihilation suited
his passive temperament. Men such as he are the materials of which a
formidable army is formed. They are the arms of the service, obeying a
single head. Is not this the only really powerful organisation? The two
types of fabulous mythology, Briareus with a hundred arms and Hydra
with a hundred heads, well represent the two kinds of armies; and in
a conflict between them, which would be victorious? Briareus without a
doubt !
We have already made acquaintance with Corporal Joliffe. He was the busy
bee of the party, but it was pleasant to hear him humming. He would have
made a better major-domo than a soldier; and he was himself aware of
this. So he called himself the “ Corporal in charge of details,” but
he would have lost himself a hundred times amongst these details, had
not little Mrs Joliffe guided him with a firm hand. So it came to pass,
that Corporal Joliffe obeyed his wife without owning it, doubtless
thinking to himself, like the philosopher Sancho, “a woman’s advice
is no such great thing, but he must be a fool who does not listen to
it.”
It is now time to say a few words of the two foreign women already
alluded to more than once. They were both about forty years old, and
one of them well deserved to take first rank amongst celebrated female
travellers. The name of Paulina Barnett, the rival of the Pfeiffers,
Tinnis, and Haimaires of Hull, has been several times honourably
mentioned at the meetings of the Royal Geographical Society. In her
journeys up the Brahmaputra, as far as the mountains of Thibet,
across an unknown corner of New Holland, from Swan Bay to the Gulf of
Carpentaria, Paulina Barnett had given proof of the qualities of a great
traveller. She had been a widow for fifteen years, and her passion for
travelling led her constantly to explore new lands. She was tall, and
her face, framed in long braids of hair, already touched with white, was
full of energy. She was near-sighted, and a double eye-glass rested upon
her long straight nose, with its mobile nostrils. We must confess that
her walk was somewhat masculine, and her whole appearance was suggestive
of moral power, rather than of female grace. She was an Englishwoman
from Yorkshire, possessed of some fortune, the greater part of which was
expended in adventurous expeditions, and some new scheme of exploration
had now brought her to Fort Reliance. Having crossed the equinoctial
regions, she was doubtless anxious to penetrate to the extreme limits of
the hyperborean. Her presence at the fort was an event. The governor of
the Company had given her a special letter of recommendation to Captain
Craventy, according to which the latter was to do all in his power to
forward the design of the celebrated traveller to reach the borders of
the Arctic Ocean. A grand enterprise! To follow in the steps of Hearne,
Mackenzie, Rae, Franklin, and others. What fatigues, what trials, what
dangers would have to be gone through in the conflict with the terrible
elements of the Polar climate! How could a woman dare to venture where
so many explorers have drawn back or perished? But the stranger now shut
up in Fort Reliance was no ordinary woman; she was Paulina Barnett, a
laureate of the Royal Society.
We must add that the celebrated traveller was accompanied by a servant
named Madge. This faithful creature was not merely a servant, but
a devoted and courageous friend, who lived only for her mistress. A
Scotchwoman of the old type, whom a Caleb might have married without
loss of dignity. Madge was about five years older than Mrs Barnett, and
was tall and strongly built. The two were on the most intimate terms;
Paulina looked upon Madge as an elder sister, and Madge treated Paulina
as her daughter.
It was in honour of Paulina Barnett that Captain Craventy was this
evening treating his employés and the Chippeway Indians. In fact,
the lady traveller was to join the expedition of Jaspar Hobson for the
exploration of the north. It was for Paulina Barnett that the large
saloon of the factory resounded with joyful hurrahs. And it was no
wonder that the stove consumed a hundredweight of coal on this memorable
evening, for the cold outside was twenty-four degrees Fahrenheit below
zero, and Fort Reliance is situated in 61° 47’ N. Lat., at least four
degrees from the Polar circle.
CHAPTER II. THE HUDSON’S BAY FUR COMPANY. “Captain Craventy?”
“Mrs Barnett?”
What do you think of your Lieutenant, Jaspar Hobson?”
“I think he is an officer who will go far.”
“What do you mean by the words, Will go far? Do you mean that he will
go beyond the Twenty-fourth parallel?”
Captain Craventy could not help smiling at Mrs Paulina Barnett’s
question. They were talking together near the stove, whilst the guests
were passing backwards and forwards between the eating and drinking
tables.
“Madam,” replied the Captain, “all that a man can do, will be done
by Jaspar Hobson. The Company has charged him to explore the north of
their possessions, and to establish a factory as near as possible to the
confines of the American continent, and he will establish it.”
“That is a great responsibility for Lieutenant Hobson !” said the
traveller.
“It is, madam, but Jaspar Hobson has never yet drawn back from a task
imposed upon him, however formidable it may have appeared.”
“I can quite believe it, Captain,” replied Mrs Barnett, “and we
shall now see the Lieutenant at work. But what induces the Company to
construct a fort on the shores of the Arctic Ocean?”
“They have a powerful motive, madam,” replied the Captain.
“I may add a double motive. At no very distant date, Russia will
probably cede her American possessions to the Government of the United
States. [*1] When this cession has taken place, the Company will find
access to the Pacific Ocean extremely difficult, unless the North-west
passage discovered by Mc’Clure be practicable. [*1 Captain
Craventy’s prophecy has since been realised.] Fresh explorations will
decide this, for the Admiralty is about to send a vessel which will
coast along the North American continent, from Behring Strait to
Coronation Gulf, on the eastern side of which the new-Art is to be
established. If the enterprise succeed, this point will become an
important factory, the centre of the northern fur trade. The transport
of furs across the Indian territories involves a vast expenditure of
time and money, whereas, if the new route be available, steamers will
take them from the new fort to the Pacific Ocean in a few days.”
“That would indeed be an important result of the enterprise, if this
North-west passage can really be used,” replied Mrs Paulina Barnett;
“but I think you spoke of a double motive.”
“I did, madam,” said the Captain, “and I alluded to a matter of
vital interest to the Company. But I must beg of you to allow me to
explain to you in a few words how the present state of things came
about, how it is in fact that the very source of the trade of this once
flourishing Company is in danger of destruction.”
The Captain then proceeded to give a brief sketch of the history of the
famous Hudson’s Bay Company.
In the earliest times men employed the skins and furs of animals as
clothing. The fur trade is therefore of very great antiquity. Luxury in
dress increased to such an extent, that sumptuary laws were enacted to
control too great extravagance, especially in furs, for which there
was a positive passion. Vair and the furs of Siberian squirrels were
prohibited at the middle of the 12th century.
In 1553 Russia founded several establishments in the northern steppes,
and England lost no time in following her example. The trade in
sables, ermines, and beavers, was carried on through the agency of the
Samoiedes; but during the reign of Elizabeth, a royal decree restricted
the use of costly furs to such an extent, that for several years this
branch of industry was completely paralysed.
On the 2nd May, 1670, a licence to trade in furs in the Hudson’s Bay
Territory was granted to the Company, which numbered several men of high
rank amongst its shareholders : the Duke of York, the Duke of Albemarle,
the Earl of Shaftesbury, &c. Its capital was then only £8420. Private
companies were formidable rivals to its success; and French agents,
making Canada their headquarters, ventured on hazardous but most
lucrative expeditions. The active competition of these bold hunters
threatened the very existence of the infant Company.
The conquest of Canada, however, somewhat lessened the danger of its
position. Three years after the taking of Quebec, 1776, the fur trade
received a new impulse. English traders became familiar with the
difficulties of trade of this kind; they learned the customs of the
country, the ways of the Indians and their system of exchange of goods,
but for all this the Company as yet made no profits whatever. Moreover,
towards 1784 some merchants of Montreal combined to explore the fur
country, and founded that powerful North-west Company, which soon became
the centre of the fur trade. In 1798 the new Company shipped furs to the
value of no less than £120,000, and the existence of the Hudson’s Bay
Company was again threatened.
We must add, that the North-west Company shrank from no act, however
iniquitous, if its interests were at stake. Its agents imposed on their
own employés, speculated on the misery of the Indians, robbed them
when they had themselves made them drunk, setting at defiance the Act
of Parliament forbidding the sale of spirituous liquors on Indian
territory; and consequently realising immense profits, in spite of the
competition of the various Russian and American companies which had
sprung up--the American Fur Company amongst others, founded in 1809,
with a capital of a million of dollars, which was carrying on operations
on the west of the Rocky Mountains.
The Hudson’s Bay Company was probably in greater danger of ruin than
any other; but in 1821, after much discussion, a treaty was made,
in accordance with which its old rival the North-west Company became
amalgamated with it, the two receiving the common title of “The
Hudson’s Bay Fur Company.”
Now the only rival of this important association is the American
St Louis Fur Company. The Hudson’s Bay Company has numerous
establishments scattered over a domain extending over 3,700,000 square
miles. Its principal factories are situated on James Bay, at the mouth
of the Severn, in the south, and towards the frontiers of Upper Canada,
on Lakes Athapeskow, Winnipeg, Superior, Methye, Buffalo, and near the
Colombia, Mackenzie, Saskatchewan, and Assiniboin rivers, &c. Fort York,
commanding the course of the river Nelson, is the headquarters of the
Company, and contains its principal fur depôt. Moreover, in 1842 it
took a lease of all the Russian establishments in North America at an
annual rent of £40,000, so that it is now working on its own account
the vast tracts of country between the Mississippi and the Pacific
Ocean. It has sent out intrepid explorers in every direction: Hearne,
towards the Polar Sea, in 1770, to the discovery of the Coppermine
River; Franklin, in 1819 to 1822, along 5550 miles of the American
coast; Mackenzie, who, after having discovered the river to which he
gave his name, reached the shores of the Pacific at 52° 24’ N. Lat.
The following is a list of the quantities of skins and furs despatched
to Europe by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1833-34, which will give an
exact idea of the extent of its trade:--
Beavers . . . . . . . . . . . 1,074
Skins and young Beavers,. . 92,288
Musk Rats,. . . . . . . . . 694,092
Badgers,. . . . . . . . . . 1,069
Bears,. . . . . . . . . . . 7,451
Ermines,. . . . . . . . . . 491
Foxes, . . . . . . . . . . . 9,937
Lynxes, . . . . . . . . . . 14,255
Sables, . . . . . . . . . . 64,490
Polecats, . . . . . . . . . 25,100
Otters, . . . . . . . . . . 22,303
Racoons,. . . . . . . . . . 713
Swans, . . . . . . . . . . 7,918
Wolves, . . . . . . . . . . 8,484
Wolverines, . . . . . . . . 1,571
Such figures ought to bring in a large profit to the Hudson’s Bay
Company, but unfortunately they have not been maintained, and for the
last twenty years have been decreasing.
The cause of this decline was the subject of Captain Craventy’s
explanation to Mrs Paulina Barnett.
“Until 1839, madam,” said he, “the Company was in a flourishing
condition. In that year the number of furs exported was 2,350,000, but
since then the trade has gradually declined, and this number is now
reduced by one-half at least.”
“But what do you suppose is the cause of this extraordinary decrease
in the exportation of furs?” inquired Mrs Barnett.
“The depopulation of the hunting territories, caused by the activity,
and, I must add, the want of foresight of the hunters. The game was
trapped and killed without mercy. These massacres were conducted in the
most reckless and short-sighted fashion. Even females with young and
their little ones did not escape. The consequence is, that the animals
whose fur is valuable have become extremely rare. The otter has almost
entirely disappeared, and is only to be found near the islands of the
North Pacific. Small colonies of beavers have taken refuge on the shores
of the most distant rivers. It is the same with many other animals,
compelled to flee before the invasion of the hunters. The traps, once
crowded with game, are now empty. The price of skins is rising just
when a great demand exists for furs. Hunters have gone away in disgust,
leaving none but the most intrepid and indefatigable, who now penetrate
to the very confines of the American continent.”
“Yes,” said Mrs Paulina Barnett, “the fact of the fur-bearing
animals having taken refuge beyond the polar circle, is a sufficient
explanation of the Company’s motive in founding a factory on the
borders of the Arctic Ocean.”
“Not only so, madam,” replied the Captain, “the Company is also
compelled to seek a more northern centre of operations, for an Act of
Parliament has lately greatly reduced its domain.”
“And the motive for this reduction?” inquired the traveller.
“A very important question of political economy was involved, madam;
one which could not fail greatly to interest the statesmen of
Great Britain. In a word, the interests of the Company and those of
civilisation are antagonistic. It is to the interest of the Company to
keep the territory belonging to it in a wild uncultivated condition.
Every attempt at clearing ground was pitilessly put a stop to, as
it drove away the wild animals, so that the monopoly enjoyed by the
Hudson’s Bay Company was detrimental to all agricultural enterprise.
All questions not immediately relating to their own particular trade,
were relentlessly put aside by the governors of the association. It was
this despotic, and, in a certain sense, immoral system, which provoked
the measures taken by Parliament, and, in 1837, a commission appointed
by the Colonial Secretary decided that it was necessary to annex to
Canada all the territories suitable for cultivation, such as the Red
River and Saskatchewan districts, and to leave to the Company only
that portion of its land which appeared to be incapable of future
civilisation. The next year the Company lost the western slopes of the
Rocky Mountains, which it held direct from the Colonial Office, and you
will now understand, madam, how the agents of the Company, having lost
their power over their old territories, are determined before giving up
their trade to try to work the little known countries of the north,
and so open a communication with the Pacific by means of the North-west
passage.”
Mrs Paulina Barnett was now well informed as to the ulterior projects of
the celebrated Company. Captain Craventy had given her a graphic sketch
of the situation, and it is probable he would have entered into further
details, had not an incident cut short his harangue.
Corporal Joliffe announced in a loud voice that, with Mrs Joliffe’s
assistance, he was about to mix the punch. This news was received as it
deserved. The bowl--or rather, the basin--was filled with the precious
liquid. It contained no less than ten pints of coarse rum. Sugar,
measured out by Mrs Joliffe, was piled up at the bottom, and on the top
floated slices of lemon shrivelled with age. Nothing remained to be
done but to light this alcoholic lake, and the Corporal, match in hand,
awaited the order of his Captain, as if he were about to spring a mine.
“All right, Joliffe !” at last said Captain Craventy.
The light was applied to the bowl, and in a moment the punch was in
flames, whilst the guests applauded and clapped their hands. Ten minutes
afterwards, full glasses of the delightful beverage were circulating
amongst the guests, fresh bidders for them coming forward in endless
succession, like speculators on the Stock Exchange.
“Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! three cheers for Mrs Barnett! A cheer for the
Captain.”
In the midst of these joyful shouts cries were heard from outside.
Silence immediately fell upon the company assembled.
“Sergeant Long,” said the Captain, “go and see what is the
matter.”
And at his chief’s order, the Sergeant, leaving his glass unfinished,
left the room.
CHAPTER III. A SAVANT THAWED. Sergeant Long hastened to the narrow
passage from which opened the outer door of the fort, and heard the
cries redoubled, and combined with violent blows on the postern gate,
surrounded by high walls, which gave access to the court. The Sergeant
pushed open the door, and plunging into the snow, already a foot deep;
he waded through it, although half-blinded by the cutting sleet, and
nipped by the terrible cold.
“What the devil does any one want at this time of night?” exclaimed
the Sergeant to himself, as he mechanically removed the heavy bars of
the gate; “none but Esquimaux would dare to brave such a temperature
as this!”
“Open! open! open!” they shouted from without.
“I am opening,” replied Sergeant Long, who really seemed to be a
long time about it.
At last the door swung open, and the Sergeant was almost upset by
a sledge, drawn by six dogs, which dashed past him like a flash of
lightning. Worthy Sergeant Long only just escaped being crushed, but he
got up without a murmur, closed the gate, and returned to the house at
his ordinary pace, that is to say, at the rate of seventy-five strides a
minute.
But Captain Craventy, Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson, and Corporal Joliffe
were already outside, braving the intense cold, and staring at the
sledge, white with snow, which had just drawn up in front of them.
A man completely enveloped in furs now descended from it,
“Fort Reliance?;” he inquired.
“The same,” replied the Captain.
“Captain Craventy?”
“Behold him! Who are you?”
“A courier of the Company.”
“Are you alone?”
“No, I bring a traveller.”
“A traveller! And what does he want?”
“He is come to see the moon.”
At this reply, Captain Craventy said to himself the man must be a fool.
But there was no time to announce this opinion, for the courier had
taken an inert mass from the sledge, a kind of bag covered with snow,
and was about to carry it into the house, when the Captain inquired
“What is that bag?”
“It is my traveller,” replied the courier.
“Who is this traveller?”
“The astronomer, Thomas Black.”
“But he is frozen.”
“Well, he must be thawed.”
Thomas Black, carried by the Sergeant, the Corporal, and the courier,
now made his entrance into the house of the fort, and was taken to a
room on the first floor, the temperature of which was bearable, thanks
to a glowing stove. He was laid upon a bed, and the Captain took his
hand.
It was literally frozen. The wrappers and furred mantles, in which
Thomas Black was rolled up like a parcel requiring care, were removed,
and revealed a man of about fifty. He was short and stout, his hair
was already touched with grey, his beard was untrimmed, his eyes were
closed, and his lips pressed together as if glued to one another. If he
breathed at all, it was so slightly that the frost-work on the windows
would not have been affected by it. Joliffe undressed him, and turned
him rapidly on to his face and back again, with the words--
“Come, come, sir, when do you mean to return to consciousness?”
But the visitor who had arrived in so strange a manner showed no signs
of returning life, and Corporal Joliffe could think of no better means
to restore the lost vital heat than to give him a bath in the bowl of
hot punch.
Very happily for Thomas Black, however, Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson had
another idea.
“Snow, bring snow!” he cried.
There was plenty of it in the court of Fort Reliance; and whilst the
Sergeant went to fetch the snow, Joliffe removed all the astronomer’s
clothes. The body of the unfortunate man was covered with white
frost-bitten patches. It was urgently necessary to restore the
circulation of the blood in the affected portions. This result Jaspar
Hobson hoped to obtain by vigorous friction with the snow. We know that
this is the means generally employed in the polar countries to set going
afresh the circulation of the blood arrested by the intense cold, even
as the rivers are arrested in their courses by the icy touch of winter.
Sergeant Loin soon returned, and he and Joliffe gave the new arrival
such a rubbing as he had probably never before received. It was no
soft and agreeable friction, but a vigorous shampooing most lustily
performed, more like the scratching of a curry-comb than the caresses of
a human hand.
And during the operation the loquacious Corporal continued to exhort the
unconscious traveller.
“Come, come, sir. What do you mean by getting frozen like this. Now,
don’t be so obstinate !”
Probably it was obstinacy which kept Thomas Black from deigning to show
a sign of life. At the end of half an hour the rubbers began to despair,
and were about to discontinue their exhausting efforts, when the poor
man sighed several times.
“He lives; he is coming to !” cried Jaspar Hobson.
After having warmed the outside of his body, Corporal Joliffe hurried
to do the same for the inside, and hastily fetched a few glasses of
the punch. The traveller really felt much revived by them; the colour
returned to his cheeks, expression to his eyes, and words to his
lips, so that Captain Craventy began to hope that he should have an
explanation from Thomas Black himself of his strange arrival at the fort
in such a terrible condition.
At last the traveller, well covered with wraps, rose on his elbow, and
said in a voice still faint
“Fort Reliance?”
“The same,” replied the Captain.
“Captain Craventy?”
“He is before you, and is happy to bid you welcome. But may I inquire
what brings you to Fort Reliance?”
“He is come to see the moon,” replied the courier, who evidently
thought this a happy answer.
It satisfied Thomas Black too, for he bent his head in assent and
resumed--
“Lieutenant Hobson?”
“I am here,” replied the Lieutenant.
“You have not yet started?”
“Not. yet, sir.”
“Then,” replied Thomas Black, “I have only to thank you, and to go
to sleep until to-morrow morning.”
The Captain and his companions retired, leaving their strange visitor to
his repose. Half an hour later the fête was at an end, and the guests
had regained their respective homes, either in the different rooms of
the fort, or the scattered houses outside the enceinte.
The next day Thomas Black was rather better. His vigorous constitution
had thrown off the effects of the terrible chill he had had. Any one
else would have died from it; but he was not like other men.
And now who was this astronomer? Where did he come from? Why had he
undertaken this journey across the territories of the Company in the
depth of winter? What did the courier’s reply signify?-- To see the
moon! The moon could be seen anywhere; there was no need to come to the
hyperborean regions to look at it!
Such were the thoughts which passed through Captain Craventy’s mind.
But the next day, after an hour’s talk with his new guest, he had
learned all he wished to know.
Thomas Black was an astronomer attached to the Greenwich Observatory, so
brilliantly presided over by Professor Airy. Mr Black was no theorist,
but a sagacious and intelligent observer; and in the twenty years
during which he had devoted himself to astronomy, he had rendered great
services to the science of ouranography. In private life he was a simple
nonentity; he existed only for astronomy; he lived in the heavens, not
upon the earth; and was a true descendant of the witty La Fontaine’s
savant who fell into a well. He could talk of nothing but stars and
constellations. He ought to have lived in a telescope. As an observer
be had not his rival; his patience was inexhaustible; he could watch for
months for a cosmical phenomenon. He had a specialty of his own, too; he
had studied luminous meteors and shooting stars, and his discoveries in
this branch of astronomical science were considerable. When ever minute
observations or exact measurements and definitions were required,
Thomas Black was chosen for the service; for his clearness of sight was
something remarkable. The power of observation is not given to everyone,
and it will not therefore be surprising that the Greenwich astronomer
should have been chosen for the mission we are about to describe, which
involved results so interesting for selenographic science.
We know that during a total eclipse of the sun the moon is surrounded by
a luminous corona. But what is the origin of this corona? Is it a real
substance? or is it only an effect of the diffraction of the sun’s
rays near the moon? This is a question which science has hitherto been
unable to answer.
As early as 1706 this luminous halo was scientifically described.
The corona was minutely examined during the total eclipse of 1715 by
Lonville and Halley, by Maraldi in 1724, by Antonio de’Ulloa in
1778, and by Bonditch and Ferrer in 1806; but their theories were so
contradictory that no definite conclusion could be arrived at. During
the total eclipse of 1842, learned men of all nations--Airy, Arago,
Keytal, Langier, Mauvais, Otto, Struve, Petit, Baily, &c.--endeavoured
to solve the mystery of the origin of the phenomenon; but in spite
of all their efforts, “the disagreement,” says Arago, “of the
observations taken in different places by skilful astronomers of one and
the same eclipse, have involved the question in fresh obscurity, so that
it is now impossible to come to any certain conclusion as to the cause
of the phenomenon.” Since this was written, other total eclipses have
been studied with no better results.
Yet the solution of the question is of such vast importance to
selenographic science that no price would be too great to pay for it.
A fresh opportunity was now about to occur to study the much-discussed
corona. A total eclipse of the sun--total, at least, for the extreme
north of America, for Spain and North Africa--was to take place on
July 18th, 1860. It was arranged between the astronomers of different
countries that simultaneous observations should be taken at the various
points of the zone where the eclipse would be total. Thomas Black was
chosen for the expedition to North America, and was now much in the same
situation as the English astronomers who were transported to Norway and
Sweden on the occasion of the eclipse of 1851.
It will readily be imagined that Thomas Black seized with avidity the
opportunity offered him of studying this luminous halo. He was also to
examine into the nature of the red prominences which appear on different
parts of the edge of the terrestrial satellite when the totality of the
eclipse has commenced; and should he be able satisfactorily to establish
their origin, he would be entitled to the applause of the learned men of
all Europe.
Thomas Black eagerly prepared for his journey. He obtained urgent
letters of recommendation to the principal agents of the Hudson’s
Bay Company. He ascertained that an expedition was to go to the extreme
north of the continent to found a new fort. It was an opportunity not
to be lost; so he set out, crossed the Atlantic, landed at New York,
traversed the lakes to the Red River settlement, and pressed on from
fort to fort in a sledge, under the escort of a courier of the Company;
in spite of the severity of the winter, braving all the dangers of a
journey across the Arctic regions, and arriving at Fort Reliance on the
19th March in the condition we have described.
Such was the explanation given by the astronomer to Captain Craventy. He
at once placed himself entirely at Mr Black’s service, but could not
refrain from inquiring why he had been in such a great hurry to arrive,
when the eclipse was not to take place until the following year, 1860?
“But, Captain,” replied the astronomer, “I heard that the Company
was sending an expedition along the northern coast of America, and I did
not wish to miss the departure of Lieutenant Hobson.”
“Mr Black,” replied the Captain, “if the Lieutenant had already
started, I should have felt it my duty to accompany you myself to the
shores of the Polar Sea.”
And with fresh assurances of his willingness to serve him, the Captain
again bade his new guest welcome to Fort Reliance.
CHAPTER IV. A FACTORY. One of the largest of the lakes beyond the 61st
parallel is that called the Great Slave Lake; it is two hundred and
fifty miles long by fifty across, and is situated exactly at 61° 25’
N. lat. and 114° W. long. The surrounding districts slope down to it,
and it completely fills a vast natural hollow. The position of the lake
in the very centre of the hunting districts. once swarming with game,
early attracted the attention of the Company. Numerous streams either
take their rise from it or flow into it-the Mackenzie, the Athabasca,
&c.; and several important forts have been constructed on its
shores--Fort Providence on the north, and Fort Resolution on the south.
Fort Reliance is situated on the north-east extremity, and is about
three hundred miles from the Chesterfield inlet, a long narrow estuary
formed by the waters of Hudson’s Bay.
The Great Slave Lake is dotted with little islands, the granite and
gneiss of which they are formed jutting up in several places. Its
northern banks are clothed with thick woods, shutting out the barren
frozen district beyond, not inaptly called the “Cursed Land.” The
southern regions, on the other band, are flat, without a rise of any
kind, and the soil is mostly calcareous. The large ruminants of the
polar districts--the buffaloes or bisons, the flesh of which forms
almost the only food of the Canadian and native hunters--seldom go
further north than the Great Slave Lake.
The trees on the northern shores of the lake form magnificent forests.
We need not be astonished at meeting with such fine vegetation in this
remote district. The Great Slave Lake is not really in a higher latitude
than Stockholm or Christiania. We have only to remember that the
isothermal lines, or belts of equal heat, along which heat is
distributed in equal quantities, do not follow the terrestrial
parallels, and that with the same latitude, America is ever so much
colder than Europe. In April the streets of New York are still white
with snow, yet the latitude of New York is nearly the same as that of
the Azores. The nature of a country, its position with regard to
the oceans, and even the conformation of its soil, all influence its
climate.
In summer Fort Reliance was surrounded with masses of verdure,
refreshing to the sight after the long dreary winter. Timber was
plentiful in these forests, which consisted almost entirely of poplar,
pine, and birch. The islets on the lake produced very fine willows. Game
was abundant in the underwood, even during the bad season. Further
south the hunters from the fort successfully pursued bisons, elks, and
Canadian porcupines, the flesh of which is excellent. The waters of the
Slave Lake were full of fish; trout in them attained to an immense size,
their weight often exceeding forty pounds. Pikes, voracious lobes, a
sort of charr or grayling called “ blue fish,” and countless legions
of tittamegs, the Coregonus of naturalists, disported themselves in the
water, so that the inhabitants of Fort Reliance were well supplied with
food. Nature provided for all their wants; and clothed in the skins of
foxes, martens, bears, and other Arctic animals, they were able to brave
the rigour of the winter.
The fort, properly so called, consisted of a wooden house with a
ground-floor and one upper storey. In it lived the commandant and his
officers. The barracks for the soldiers, the magazines of the Company,
and the offices where exchanges were made, surrounded this house.
A little chapel, which wanted nothing but a clergyman, and a
powder-magazine, completed the buildings of the settlement. The whole
was surrounded by palisades twenty-five feet high, defended by a
small bastion with a pointed roof at each of the four corners of the
parallelogram formed by the enceinte. The fort was thus protected from
surprise, a necessary precaution in the days when the Indians, instead
of being the purveyors of the Company, fought for the independence
of their native land, and when the agents and soldiers of rival
associations disputed the possession of the rich fur country.
At that time the Hudson’s Bay Company employed about a million men on
its territories. It held supreme authority over them, an authority which
could even inflict death. The governors of the factories could regulate
salaries, and arbitrarily fix the price of provisions and furs; and as
a result of this irresponsible power, they often realised a profit of no
less than three hundred per cent.
We shall see from the following table, taken from the “ Voyage of
Captain Robert Lade,” on what terms exchanges were formerly made with
those Indians who have since become the best hunters of the Company.
Beavers’ skins were then the currency employed in buying and selling.
The Indians paid--
For one gun,
10 beavers’ skins
“ half a pound of powder,
1 “
“ four pounds of shot,
1 “
“ one axe,
1 “
“ six knives,
1 “
“ one pound of glass beads,
1 “
“ one laced coat,
6 “
“ one coat not laced,
5 “
“ one laced female dress,
6 “
“ one pound of tobacco,
1 “
“ one box of powder,
1 “
“ one comb and one looking glass,
2 “
But a few years ago beaver-skins became so scarce that the currency had
to be changed. Bison-furs are now the medium of trade. When an Indian
presents himself at the fort, the agents of the Company give him as many
pieces of wood as he brings skins, and he exchanges these pieces of wood
for manufactured articles on the premises; and as the Company fix the
price of the articles they buy and sell, they cannot fail to realise
large profits.
Such was the mode of proceeding in Fort Reliance and other factories;
so that Mrs Paulina Barnett was able to watch the working of the system
during her stay, which extended until the 16th April. Many a long talk
did she have with Lieutenant Hobson, many were the projects they formed,
and firmly were they both determined to allow no obstacle to check their
advance. As for Thomas Black, he never opened his lips except when his
own special mission was discussed. He was wrapped up in the subject of
the luminous corona and red prominences of the moon; he lived but to
solve the problem, and in the end made Mrs Paulina Barnett nearly as
enthusiastic as himself. How eager the two were to cross the Arctic
Circle, and how far off the 18th July 1860 appeared to both, but
especially to the impatient Greenwich astronomer, can easily be
imagined.
The preparations for departure could not be commenced until the middle
of March, and a month passed before they were completed. In fact, it was
a formidable undertaking to organise such an expedition for crossing the
Polar regions. Everything had to betaken with them-food, clothes, tools,
arms, ammunition, and a nondescript collection of various requisites.
The troops, under the command of Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson, were one
chief and two subordinate officers, with ten soldiers, three of whom
took their wives with them. They were all picked men, chosen by Captain
Craventy on account of their energy and resolution. We append a list of
the whole party:--
1. Lieutenant Jaspar Hobson.
11. Sabine, soldier.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000