CHAPTER VII.--"HERE'S TO THE LOVED ONES AT HOME."

Captain Talbot was a brave man, but the ice for the present looked far too dangerous to venture in through. So he kept "dodging" along the great barrier-edge or cruising eastwards, and away towards what is known as Enderby Land.

Sometimes he encountered a storm, brief but terrible, and dangerous in the extreme. They saw around them great bergs coming into collision, their green, towering, wall-like sides dashed together by the force of wind and waves; heard the thunder of the encounter, and witnessed the mist and foam as they fell to pieces in a chaos of boiling surf.

At times dense fog would envelop the whole sea, and then sail had to be taken in, for the icebergs went floating past and past like mysterious ghosts.

But clearer weather prevailed at last, and two more monster whales were captured.

Three great leviathans! Nearly a voyage in itself. No wonder that the spirits of the men rose higher and higher, as they thought of those who would press them to their hearts on their return home from this adventuresome cruise. And--happiest thought of all!--they would have plenty of money to spend on fathers or mothers, wives or children. For my experience is that so long as they are unallured by the drink demon, British sailors are not really improvident.

But the good luck of the _Flora_ did not continue. Talbot had expected to find sea-elephants in great evidence in these regions.

They are so called, it will do you no harm to know, reader, first on account of their immense size and unwieldiness, many of the males attaining a length of twenty feet or over, and from the fact that they have a kind of proboscis which, when alarmed or angry, they inflate till it looks almost like the trunk of an elephant. They are dangerous then, and, though as a rule peaceable, can give a good account of anyone daring enough to attempt an attack upon them, armed with the spiked seal-club alone.

They usually, however, go further north during the spring or pupping season, but now having returned, they ought to have been about somewhere. But they had evidently chosen fresh ground, and Captain Talbot was unable to find a trace of them.

He was not easily cast down, however, and taking advantage of a splendid westerly and north-westerly wind, he daringly set every inch of canvas--remember it was the long Antarctic day--and flew eastwards on its wings.

But his object was not only to get a paying voyage, but to do some good also to science and to geographical knowledge as well.

It was the duty of Duncan himself, and of Frank as well, not only to keep a log, but to enter therein, along with the ship's sailings, adventures, &c., the temperature of air and water twice a day.

The vessel again appeared to imagine herself a clipper-built yacht and to fly along, and by good luck she not only had a fair wind, but a clear sea, having only now and then to steer away from floating icebergs.

But now and then a boat was lowered to pick up some unusual form of seal, that might be observed floating along on a morsel of snow-clad ice. So tame were these that they only gazed open-mouthed at the advancing boat, and thus fell an easy prey to the gunner.

Very few more Right whales were seen, and none captured.

For a time the course held was about east with a bit of northerly in it, then on reaching the sixties they bowled along in fine style, and in the first week in February they were daringly--far too daringly as it turned out--steering almost directly south through a comparatively open sea towards the great southern ice-barrier in the seventies, which lies east of a mighty volcanic hill well-named Erebus.

It was autumn now--early autumn in these regions, but still a delightful time.

Do not imagine that this distant ocean was uninhabited. Far from it.

There were still millions on millions of birds about, that later on would fly far away to nor'land lands and islands. Petrels of many sorts, especially the snow-white species, Cape pigeons, the smaller penguins on point ends of land, and gulls of such beauty and rarity that it would have puzzled cleverer men than our heroes to cla.s.sify them.

Many of these were carefully shot and made skins of, to be set up when they reached once more their dear native land, if G.o.d in his mercy should spare them.

Mount Sabine itself is pa.s.sed, and soon after, to the east of that mountain, they lie for a day or two at Coulman Island. Strangely enough, though floating icebergs are heaving about all around, this rocky and storm-tossed isle is bare, and they can land.

The captain, with Frank and Conal, go off on a lichen hunt inland. They take their rifles with them, but no wild creature is here that can hurt them.

They find beautiful mosses, however, and strangely beautiful lichens.

Indeed, some parts of the rising ground are crimson or orange with these latter, and the green of the mosses stand out in lovely and striking contrast.

They continued their journey far inland, and although the rocks and the sea all about the sh.o.r.e was alive with birds, here it was solemn and still enough. The scene was indeed impressive and beautiful, and with the blue of the sky above and the bright blue of the ocean beyond, dotted over with green and lofty snow-capped ice-blocks, the whole seemed a little world fresh from the hands of the great Creator of all.

Captain Talbot took specimens not only of the flora--if so I may call the scanty vegetation of this island--but of its rocks as well, and the height of its chief hills, with many soundings around it, to say nothing of collecting marine algae.

All the way southwards, as far as the great ice-barrier to the eastward of the land wherein was Mount Terror, he was at the pains of surveying and charting out for the benefit of future generations, for as laid down in the charts that he possessed the coast was very indolently described indeed.

He was a very ambitious mariner, this skipper of the _Flora M'Vayne_, and at the same time a bold, daring, true-blue sailor.

Now would be the time, therefore, to make his great aerial journey still farther to the southward. But could such a thing be successfully accomplished? That was the question that he and he alone had to answer for himself. There was no one to consult.

And he took a whole long day to consider it, keeping himself very much alone in his state-room that he might come quietly to a correct conclusion.

Thus far to the south had he come with the intention of penetrating still farther by balloon. But he had calculated on getting here much sooner.

He had no intention of doing anything foolishly rash. Had he reached 75 south lat.i.tude when the summer was still in its prime he might have reckoned on perpetual sunshine and constant shifting of wind, but now the breeze blew mostly from the south, and although by rising into the higher regions he might get a fair wind if he descended one hundred miles nearer to the Antarctic Pole, was there any certainty that he should ever return? Indeed, it was the reverse. It seemed as though there was not the ghost of a chance of his ever seeing his ship again.

Life is sweet, and so at long last he gave up all thoughts of his aerial voyage for the present season.

He communicated this resolve to his mates and youngsters that day at dinner.

But the sun had already begun to set to the south'ard, though so brief was the night that scarce a star was even visible.

"We shall now," he told them, "bear up for the north and the west once more, and if we reach the lone isles of Kerguelen in time, we may yet fall among old sea-elephants enough to pay us handsomely. For though I have never been there, I am told that they make that lone region a habitat throughout the greater part of the year."

"And then we shall be homeward-bound, sha'n't we, sir?" said Frank.

"Yes," was the reply. "But I say, young fellow, you are not tired of a sailor's life, are you?"

"Oh no! I would like to see all--all the world first, and then return and dream of my wild adventures, and fight my battles with the stormy main o'er and o'er and o'er again."

"Bravo! lad, though you are just a little effusive. Well, you are pretty strong in wind and limb, Frank, aren't you?"

"Fairly, sir. I haven't got real Highland legs like Duncan there, but they've always served me well on a pinch."

"Well, as soon as we get into the neighbourhood of Mount Terror again I mean to make an ascent, and I shall want the a.s.sistance of all you young fellows, and a hand or two besides. There are scientific instruments to take along, besides plenty of food, drink, and sleeping-bags, for I guess it will take us the greater part of three days to accomplish the journey to the top and back.

"What is the height, sir?"

"It is said to be nearly eleven thousand feet high, and it is volcanic."

"Don't you think," said Morgan the mate, "that the adventure is almost foolhardy?"

"It is risky enough, I daresay; but really, Morgan, my dear fellow, I hate the idea of going back home without having accomplished something out of the common."

And so, after some further conversation of an after-dinner style, the ascent was determined on.

This was Sat.u.r.day night, and as usual wives and sweethearts were toasted, for Captain Talbot was a man who dearly loved to keep up old customs.