The Field of Ice Read online

  COLD AND HEAT.

  Hatteras and Johnson had been getting somewhat uneasy at theprolonged absence of their companions, and were delighted to seethem back safe and sound. The hunters were no less glad to findthemselves once more in a warm shelter, for the temperature hadfallen considerably as night drew on, and the thermometer outsidewas 73 deg. below zero.

  The poor hunters were half frozen, and so worn out that they couldhardly drag their limbs along; but the stoves were roaring andcrackling cheerily, and the big kitchen fire waiting to cook suchgame as might be brought in. Clawbonny donned his official apronagain, and soon had his seal cutlets dressed and smoking on thetable. By nine o'clock the whole party were enjoying a goodsupper, and Bell couldn't help exclaiming--

  "Well, even at the risk of being taken for an Esquimaux, I mustconfess eating is the most important business if one has to winterin these regions. A good meal isn't to be sneezed at."

  They all had their mouths crammed too full to speak, but the Doctorsignified his agreement with Bell's views by an approving nod.

  The cutlets were pronounced first-rate, and it seemed as if theywere, for they were all eaten, to the very last morsel.

  For dessert they had coffee, which the Doctor brewed himself in aFrench coffee-pot over spirits-of-wine. He never allowed anybody buthimself to concoct this precious beverage; for he made a point ofserving it boiling hot, always declaring it was not fit to drinkunless it burnt his tongue. This evening he took it so scalding thatAltamont exclaimed--

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  "You'll skin your throat!"

  "Not a bit of it," was the Doctor's reply.

  "Then your palate must be copper-sheathed," said Johnson.

  "Not at all, friends. I advise you to copy my example. Manypersons, and I am one, can drink coffee at a temperature of 131 deg."

  "131 deg.?" said Altamont; "why, that is hotter than the handcould bear!"

  "Of course it is, Altamont, for the hand could not bear more than122 deg., but the palate and tongue are less sensitive."

  "You surprise me."

  "Well, I will convince you it is fact," returned Clawbonny, andtaking up a thermometer, he plunged it into the steaming coffee. Hewaited till the mercury rose as high as 131 deg. and then withdrew it,and swallowed the liquid with evident gusto.

  Bell tried to follow his example, but burnt his mouth severely.

  "You are not used to it," said the Doctor, coolly.

  "Can you tell us, Clawbonny," asked Altamont, "what is thehighest temperature that the human body can bear."

  "Yes, several curious experiments have been made in that respect.I remember reading of some servant girls, in the town ofRochefoucauld, in France, who could stay ten minutes in a baker'slarge oven when the temperature was 300 deg., while potatoes and meatwere cooking all round them."

  "What girls!" exclaimed Altamont.

  "Well, there is another case, where eight of our own countrymen--Fordyce, Banks, Solander, Blagdin, Home, Nooth, Lord Seaforth, andCaptain Phillips--went into one as hot as 200 deg., where eggs andbeef were frizzling."

  "And they were Englishmen!" said Bell, with a touch of nationalpride.

  "Oh, the Americans could have done better than that," saidAltamont.

  "They would have roasted," returned the Doctor, laughing. "Atall events they have never tried it, so I shall stand up for mycountrymen. There is one more instance I recollect, and really it isso incredible, that it would be impossible to believe it, if it werenot attested by unimpeachable evidence. The Duke of Ragusa and

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  Dr. Jung, a Frenchman and an Austrian, saw a Turk plunge into a bathat 170 deg."

  "But that is not so astonishing as those servant girls, or our owncountrymen," said Johnson.

  "I beg your pardon," replied Clawbonny; "there is a greatdifference between plunging into hot air and hot water. Hot airproduces perspiration, which protects the skin, but boiling waterscalds. The maximum heat of baths is 107 deg., so that this Turk musthave been an extraordinary fellow to endure such temperature."

  "What is the mean temperature, Mr. Clawbonny, of animatedbeings?" asked Johnson.

  "That varies with the species," replied the Doctor. "Birdshave the highest, especially the duck and the hen. The mammalia comenext, and human beings. The temperature of Englishmen averages101 deg."

  "I am sure Mr. Altamont is going to claim a higher rate for hiscountrymen," said Johnson, smiling.

  "Well, sure enough, we've some precious hot ones among us, butas I never have put a thermometer down their throats to ascertain, Ican't give you statistics."

  "There is no sensible difference," said the Doctor, "betweenmen of different races when they are placed under the sameconditions, whatever their food may be. I may almost say theirtemperature would be the same at the Equator as the Pole."

  "Then the heat of our bodies is the same here as in England,"replied Altamont.

  "Just about it. The other species of mammalia are generally hotterthan human beings. The horse, the hare, the elephant, the porpoise,and the tiger are nearly the same; but the cat, the squirrel, therat, the panther, the sheep, the ox, the dog, the monkey, and thegoat, are as high as 103 deg.; and the pig is 104 deg."

  "Rather humiliating to us," put in Altamont.

  "Then come the amphibia and the fish," resumed the Doctor,"whose temperature varies with that of the water. The serpent has atemperature of 86 deg., the frog 70 deg., and the shark several degreesless. Insects appear to have the temperature of air and water."

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  "All this is very well," interrupted Hatteras, who had hithertotaken no part in the conversation, "and we are obliged to theDoctor for his scientific information; but we are really talking asif we were going to brave the heat of the torrid zone. I think itwould be far more seasonable to speak of cold, if the Doctor couldtell us what is the lowest temperature on record."

  "I can enlighten you on that too," replied the Doctor. "Thereare a great number of memorable winters, which appear to have comeat intervals of about forty-one years. In 1364, the Rhone was frozenover as far as Arles; in 1408, the Danube was frozen throughout itsentire extent, and the wolves crossed the Cattigut on firm ground;in 1509, the Adriatic and the Mediterranean were frozen at Veniceand Marseilles, and the Baltic on the 10th of April; in 1608, allthe cattle died in England from the cold; in 1789, the Thames wasfrozen as far as Gravesend; and the frightful winter of 1813 willlong be remembered in France. The earliest and longest ever known inthe present century was in 1829. So much for Europe."

  "But here, within the Polar circle, what is the lowest degree?"asked Altamont.

  "My word!" said the Doctor. "I think we have experienced thelowest ourselves, for one day the thermometer was 72 deg. below zero,and, if my memory serves me right, the lowest temperature mentionedhitherto by Arctic voyagers has been 61 deg. at Melville Island, 65 deg.at Port Felix, and 70 deg. at Fort Reliance."

  "Yes," said Hatteras, "it was the unusual severity of thewinter that barred our progress, for it came on just at the worsttime possible."

  "You were stopped, you say?" asked Altamont, looking fixedly atthe captain.

  "Yes, in our voyage west," the Doctor hastened to reply.

  "Then the maximum and minimum temperatures," said Altamont,resuming the conversation, "are about 200 deg. apart. So you see, myfriends, we may make ourselves easy."

  "But if the sun were suddenly extinguished," suggested Johnson,"would not the earth's temperature be far lower?"

  "There is no fear of such a catastrophe; but, even should ithappen, the temperature would be scarcely any different."

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  "That's curious."

  "It is; but Fourrier, a learned Frenchman, has proved the factincontestably. If it were not the case, the difference between dayand night would be far greater, as also the degree of cold at thePoles. But now I think, friends, we should be the better of a fewhours' sleep. Who has charge of the stove?"

  "It is my turn to-night," said Bell.

/>   "Well, pray keep up a good fire, for it is a perishing night."

  "Trust me for that," said Bell. "But do look out, the sky isall in a blaze."

  "Ay! it is a magnificent aurora," replied the Doctor, going upto the window. "How beautiful! I never tire gazing at it."

  No more he ever did, though his companions had become so used tosuch displays that they hardly noticed them now. He soon followedthe example of the others, however, and lay down on his bed besidethe fire, leaving Bell to mount guard.

  CHAPTER X.