As to OUR getting there it was out of the question.So spake the Sea-horseman.On returning on board the "Foam"I gave myself up to the most gloomy reflections.This,then,was to be the result of all my preparations and long-meditated schemes.What likelihood was there of success,after so unfavourable a verdict?Ipse dixit,equus marinus.It is true the horse-marines have hitherto been considered a mythic corps,but my friend was too substantial-looking for me to doubt his existence:and unless I was to ride off on the proverbial credulity of the other branch of that amphibious profession,I had no reason to question his veracity.Nevertheless,I felt it would not become a gentleman to turn back at the first blush of discouragement.If it were possible to reach Spitzbergen,I was determined to do so.I reflected that every day that passed was telling in our favour.It was not yet the end of July;even in these latitudes winter does not commence much before September,and in the meantime the tail of the Gulf Stream would still be wearing a channel in the ice towards the pole;so,however unpromising might be the prospect,I determined,at all events,that we should go and see for ourselves how matters really stood.
But I must explain to you why I so counted upon the assistance of the Gulf Stream to help us through.
The entire configuration of the Arctic ice is determined by the action of that mysterious current on its edges.
Several theories have been advanced to account for its influence in so remote a region.I give you one which appears to me reasonable.It is supposed,that in obedience to that great law of Nature which seeks to establish equilibrium in the temperature of fluids,--a vast body of gelid water is continually mounting from the Antarctic,to displace and regenerate the over-heated oceans of the torrid zone.Bounding up against the west side of South America,the ascending stream skirts the coasts of Chili and Peru,and is then deflected in a westerly direction across the Pacific Ocean,where it takes the name of the Equatorial Current.Having completely encircled Australia,it enters the Indian Sea,sweeps up round the Cape of Good Hope,and,crossing the Atlantic,twists into the Gulf of Mexico.Here its flagging energies are suddenly accelerated in consequence of the narrow limits within which it finds itself compressed.So marvellous does the velocity of the current now become,so complete its isolation from the deep sea bed it traverses,that by the time it issues again into the Atlantic,its hitherto diffused and loitering waters are suddenly concentrated into what Lieutenant Maury has happily called--"a river in the ocean,"swifter and of greater volume than either the Mississippi or the Amazon.Surging forth between the interstices of the Bahamas,that stretch like a weir across its mouth,it cleaves asunder the Atlantic.So distinct is its individuality,that one side of a vessel will be scoured by its warm indigo-coloured water,while the other is floating in the pale,stagnant,weed-encumbered brine of the Mar de Sargasso of the Spaniards.It is not only by colour,by its temperature,by its motion,that this (Greek)"ron Okeanuio"is distinguished;its very surface is arched upwards some way above the ordinary sea-level toward the centre,by the lateral pressure of the elastic liquid banks between which it flows.Impregnated with the warmth of tropic climes,the Gulf Stream-as it has now come to be called,--then pours its genial floods across the North Atlantic,laving the western coasts of Britain,Ireland,and Norway,and investing each shore it strikes upon,with a climate far milder than that enjoyed by other lands situated in the same latitudes.
Arrived abreast of the North Cape,the impetus of the current is in a great measure exhausted.
From causes similar (though of less efficacy,in consequence of the smaller area occupied by water)to those which originally gave birth to the ascending energy of the Antarctic waters,a gelid current is also generated in the Arctic Ocean,which,descending in a south-westerly direction,encounters the already faltering Gulf Stream in the space between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla.Acontest for the mastery ensues,which is eventually terminated by a compromise.The warmer stream,no longer quite able to hold its own,splits into two branches,the one squeezing itself round the North Cape,as far as that Varangar Fiord which Russia is supposed so much to covet,while the other is pushed up in a more northerly direction along the west coast of Spitzbergen.But although it has power to split up the Gulf Stream for a certain distance,the Arctic current is ultimately unable to cut across it,and the result is an accumulation of ice to the south of Spitzbergen in the angle formed by the bifurcation,as Mr.Grote would call it,of the warmer current.
It is quite possible,therefore,that the north-west extremity of Spitzbergen may be comparatively clear,while the whole of its southern coasts are enveloped in belts of ice of enormous extent.It was on this contingency that we built our hopes,and determined to prosecute our voyage,in spite of the discouraging report of the Norse skipper.
