WHAT ARCTIC EXPLORERS SAW.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2306, 28 May 1886, Page 2

WHAT ARCTIC EXPLORERS SAW.

Travellers (says Mr Paxton Hood) appear to be very fond of venturing into the Arctic regions, but some have veil- : : tured who have never returned to tell of the wonders they have seen—notably Sir John Franklin. Tho following singular : 'll story was reported to the Admiralty by Captain Warems:—" It was in the montb of August,' 17Y», 1 was sailing in W degrees of north latitude, wheMne mem' ing, about a mile from my v3pl, I saw the sea entirely blocked up byice. r \oth- . ing could be seen as far as the ei! Md reach, but mountains and poSr r. Bnow. The wind soon fell to a I remained for two days in the expecta* I turn of being crushed by that fearful mass j of ice, which the slightest wind would 1 force upon me. We had passed the ;| second day in such anxieties when about | midnight the wind got up, and we imme- -J diately heard horrid crackling of ice, | which broke and tossed about with a f noise resembling thunder, That was a ,'- terrible night for us; but by morning, hthe wind having by degrees become less £' violent, we saw tho barrier of ice which' §Y was before us entirely broken up, and a fk large channel extending out of sight '§'/ betweoD its two sides. The sun now 'p shone out, and we sailed away from the $ northward before a light breeze. , Sud- if denly, when looking at the sides of the ■ k ice channel, we saw the masts of a ship, ] but what was the more surprising to us • j wag the singular manner in which its sails were placed, and the dujmantled appearance of its spars; 1 aiMraFTOauceuvres. It continued to%il os4r some time,. then,. stopping'by a blook of ice, it remained muflOimW I could not then resist my feelings of curiosity. I got into my gig with gome of my Bailors, • gt and went toward the strange vessel, We n saw, as we drew near, that it was very 8 much damaged by the ice. Not a man 'f was to be seen on the'deck, which was W covered with snow. We shouted but no one replied, : Before getting up the side ■ I looked through a porthole which waa open, and saw a man seated before a ti'.ble, on which were all' tho necessary materials for writing. Arrived on the deck we opened the hatchway and went down into the cabin. There wo found the ship's clerk, as we. had before seen him through the porthole. But what wm our terror and astonishment when we saw 1 that it was a corpse, and that a green damp mould covered his cheek and forehead, and hung over his eyes which were open. He had a pen in lu3 hand, and the ship's log lying before him. Th», last lines written were as follows : " November 11,1762. —It is now seventeen days since wo were shut ih) in the ice'. The fire went out yestyJLy, and our captain has since tried to lighW An. His wife died this morning, TherffiL more hope." . ™ My sailors kept aloof in alarm from the dead body, which seemed still living. We eutewd together the state-room, and tho first object that attracted us waa the body of a woman laidon a bed, in an attitude of great and perplexed attention. Ono would have said, from the freshness of her features, that she was still in life, had not tho contraction of her limbs told us eho was dead. Before her a young man was seated on a stool, holding a steel in one hand and a flint in the other, and having bofore him several pieces of German timber. We passed on to tho first cabin, and found there several Bailors laid in their hammockß, and a dog stretched out at the foot of a ladder. It was in vain that we sought for provisions and fire-wood; we discovered nothing. Then my Bailors began to say; it was an enchanted ship, and they declared their intentions of remaining but a short time longer on board. Wo then, after having taken the ship's log, sot out for our vessel, stricken with terror at,, the awful instance we had just seon of the poril of Polar navigation in so high a,;dogree of north latitude. On my return' Lfound, by comparing the documents whAl had in my possession, that tho vessel nad been missing thirteen years, {'