lacked for nothing, did not suffer from the cold and took no blades on boardtheir excellent canoes, at sun-up we saw a prodigiously high peak appear, which my uncle felt surpassed many of the summits in the Himalayas.
Our courage returned; but, when the night hid this giant of the world in its shadows, the fear of not being able to find it again and going past it in spite of ourselves was painful.
Only Nasias displayed no anxiety. Our canoes, tied together with ropes, were moving in convoy, but at the vagaries of chance, when the sky and the waters were filled with a light so bright that it was difficult to bear. It was the most magnificent aurora borealis our eyes had yet gazed upon, and for twelve hours its intensity did not weaken for a moment, although it presented infinitely varied phenomena of colour and shape, each more magical than the previous one. Only the famous crown, which is noticed in these palpitations of the polar moon, remained completely stable and entirely distinct, and we were able to convince ourselves that it emanated from the place where the peak was situated, for the peak had come back into sight and rose to a point in the very middle of the luminous circle, like a black needle in a gold ring.
Admiration and surprise had silenced fear. Impatient to reach this magical world, our Eskimos did their best to paddle, although the powerful current overtook their vain attempts. When daylight returned, they became discouraged again: the peak was as far off as the previous evening, and it even seemed to recede as we moved forward. We had to journey thus for several days and several nights; finally this terrifying summit seemed lower: this was a sure sign that we were getting closer. Little by little other,smaller mountains loomed up from the horizon. Behind them the principal peak was entirely masked, and a land of considerable extent was unfurled before our eyes. From that moment on, each hour we approached was an hour of growing certainty and joy. With the telescope, we made out forests, valleys, waterfalls, a land luxuriant with vegetation , and the heat became so real, that we had to take off our furs.
But how could we land there, in this promised land? When we were well within sight of it, we saw that it was surrounded by a vertical cliff two or three thousand metres high, plunging straight down into the tide, smooth as a rampart, black and shining like jade, and nowhere offering the slightest gap through which one might have hope of penetrating. Close up, it was much worse. What had seemed shiny to us in these black walls was indeed so, for this compact belt was made up of large crystals of tourmaline, some of which had attained the size of our largest towers; but, instead of in places presenting horizontal ledges where one might hope to find depressions arranged in natural steps, these bizarre rocks were planted like the quills of a porcupine, and their tips pointed towards the sea like the cannon-mouths of a fortress of giants.
These shining rocks, some black and opaque, others transparent and the colour of sea-water, were set into an impenetrable mountain, and very finely striated with delicate fluting. They offered a spectacle so strange and so rich, that I now thought of nothing but gazing at them, and yet we had already spent an entire day travelling along them, without being able to get through the furiouswaves which broke upon them, and without spotting the slightest sign of shelter on that impregnable coast.
Finally, towards evening, we entered for good or ill into a sort of channel, and we came to land at the narrow, rocky end of a small cove where our canoes were shattered like glass, and two of our men killed by the shock they received as they and their vessel beached on the ground.
This ominous landing was nonetheless hailed with shouts of joy, although the survivors were all wounded or bruised to some degree; but we were rendered almost insensible to the loss of our unfortunate
Our courage returned; but, when the night hid this giant of the world in its shadows, the fear of not being able to find it again and going past it in spite of ourselves was painful.
Only Nasias displayed no anxiety. Our canoes, tied together with ropes, were moving in convoy, but at the vagaries of chance, when the sky and the waters were filled with a light so bright that it was difficult to bear. It was the most magnificent aurora borealis our eyes had yet gazed upon, and for twelve hours its intensity did not weaken for a moment, although it presented infinitely varied phenomena of colour and shape, each more magical than the previous one. Only the famous crown, which is noticed in these palpitations of the polar moon, remained completely stable and entirely distinct, and we were able to convince ourselves that it emanated from the place where the peak was situated, for the peak had come back into sight and rose to a point in the very middle of the luminous circle, like a black needle in a gold ring.
Admiration and surprise had silenced fear. Impatient to reach this magical world, our Eskimos did their best to paddle, although the powerful current overtook their vain attempts. When daylight returned, they became discouraged again: the peak was as far off as the previous evening, and it even seemed to recede as we moved forward. We had to journey thus for several days and several nights; finally this terrifying summit seemed lower: this was a sure sign that we were getting closer. Little by little other,smaller mountains loomed up from the horizon. Behind them the principal peak was entirely masked, and a land of considerable extent was unfurled before our eyes. From that moment on, each hour we approached was an hour of growing certainty and joy. With the telescope, we made out forests, valleys, waterfalls, a land luxuriant with vegetation , and the heat became so real, that we had to take off our furs.
But how could we land there, in this promised land? When we were well within sight of it, we saw that it was surrounded by a vertical cliff two or three thousand metres high, plunging straight down into the tide, smooth as a rampart, black and shining like jade, and nowhere offering the slightest gap through which one might have hope of penetrating. Close up, it was much worse. What had seemed shiny to us in these black walls was indeed so, for this compact belt was made up of large crystals of tourmaline, some of which had attained the size of our largest towers; but, instead of in places presenting horizontal ledges where one might hope to find depressions arranged in natural steps, these bizarre rocks were planted like the quills of a porcupine, and their tips pointed towards the sea like the cannon-mouths of a fortress of giants.
These shining rocks, some black and opaque, others transparent and the colour of sea-water, were set into an impenetrable mountain, and very finely striated with delicate fluting. They offered a spectacle so strange and so rich, that I now thought of nothing but gazing at them, and yet we had already spent an entire day travelling along them, without being able to get through the furiouswaves which broke upon them, and without spotting the slightest sign of shelter on that impregnable coast.
Finally, towards evening, we entered for good or ill into a sort of channel, and we came to land at the narrow, rocky end of a small cove where our canoes were shattered like glass, and two of our men killed by the shock they received as they and their vessel beached on the ground.
This ominous landing was nonetheless hailed with shouts of joy, although the survivors were all wounded or bruised to some degree; but we were rendered almost insensible to the loss of our unfortunate
Similar Books
