Farthest North - The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic Expedition by Charles Lanman

Author:Charles Lanman [Lanman, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anboco
Published: 2017-01-17T23:00:00+00:00

Taking Observations at Lockwood Island.

They took advantage of this to bring out hand-gear, foot-gear, bags, and rubber blankets to dry, everything having been damp or wet for nearly a week. Lockwood and Brainard got but a few short naps after supper, for it was necessary for one of them to be awake to insure their getting up at the right time to take “double altitudes,” etc. They secured a complete set of observations, thirty-six in all. A few hours later, Lockwood and Brainard started to make the ascent of the cliffs and of the height beyond. They gained a considerable elevation, and stood on a little plateau overlooking both sides of the promontory, the sea, and a large extent of mountainous country to the south thickly covered with snow. Lockwood unfurled Mrs. Greely’s pretty little silk flag to the breeze, and felt very proud that, on the 15th day of May, 1882, it waved in a higher latitude than was ever before reached by man. By careful astronomical observations under peculiarly favorable circumstances, they found themselves in latitude eighty-three degrees and twenty-four and a half minutes north, longitude forty degrees and forty-six and a half minutes west of Greenwich, thus surpassing the English, who sent the Nares Expedition of 1875-’76, costing upward of a million dollars, for the express purpose of reaching the north pole, and which expedition sent its chief sledge-party directly north over the ice for the purpose of making latitude alone. The view from their lofty station was grand beyond description. At their feet, toward the east, wa s another of those innumerable fiords, a bald headland forming its farther cape, bearing northeast. Seemingly projecting from its foot was a low point of land, doubtless separated from another by still another fiord. This was as far as Lockwood could see in that direction—probably fifteen miles. Thence round toward the north and in the direction of Cape Britannia lay the vast Polar Sea, covered with ice and desolate in the extreme. Toward the south lay a vast panorama of snow-capped mountains, so overlapping and merging one into another that it was impossible to distinguish the topography of the country. They stayed on the top only twenty minutes, and at 4.50 reached camp again, greatly to the delight of Frederick. He had seemed a good deal “down at the mouth” of late, which Brainard thought was caused by their long distance from home and the absence of dog-food and “skaffer.” Hastily packing up their small load, they started on their return at 5.30 P. M. Though taking a more direct course across the first fiord, they met with soft snow, which was very tiresome to pass through. The weather now commenced to cloud up again, threatening another storm. It was very fortunate that they reached their farthest just in time to take advantage of the thirty hours of fine weather. However, they were now homeward bound, and did not care for storms or anything else, provided they could “ move on,” nor did they require any policeman to help them in that particular.

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