CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
AT THE NORTH POLE.
The opening was so low and so narrow, that for the first fifty or sixtyfeet the explorers were I obliged to creep forward on their hands andknees; then it widened and became gradually higher, so that by the timethey had penetrated a couple of hundred feet they were able to resume aperpendicular attitude. The cavern, if such it could be called, stillhowever remained so narrow that it was only here and there possible forthem to walk side by side. It was also very tortuous; and the heightsvaried momentarily, at one time compelling them to stoop almost doublein order to pass beneath some immense projection, and anon increasing sogreatly that the light of their torches failed to reach and reveal theroof. They observed several rifts or crevices to the right and left ofthem as they pressed forward, but, with one or two exceptions, thesewere quite impassable, and those which were not so were still so crampedthat they offered no inducement to deviate from the main passage.
Groping thus in semi-darkness over painfully rough and broken ground, afull hour was spent, and the colonel was just expressing his convictionthat they must have traversed a distance of fully two miles when a faintglimmer of daylight revealed itself on one of the rocky walls of thepassage; and, turning sharply round an angle, the pair suddenly foundthemselves once more within a few yards of the open air.
Emerging into broad daylight a most wonderful spectacle greeted the twoadventurous explorers. They found themselves standing on a narrow stripof coarse sandy beach at the bottom of an immense basin, measuring fullya mile in diameter, the sides of which were formed of lofty precipitouscliffs of volcanic rock, so smooth and so nearly vertical that nowhere,at least in their immediate neighbourhood, could they discover a spotcapable of being scaled. Before them, and occupying the whole bottom ofthis enormous basin, stretched a placid lake, the water of which was asclear as crystal. A thin filmy veil of vapour rose everywhere from thesurface of the water, softening the hard outlines of the more distantlandscape, and imparting an aspect of dreamlike witchery and unrealitywhich it would certainly have otherwise lacked.
"Why, the water is tepid!" exclaimed Sir Reginald, plunging his handinto the lake and raising a small quantity of its water in his palm, toascertain by taste whether it was fresh or salt.
The colonel thereupon thrust _his_ hand down, and satisfied himself byexperiment of the truth of his companion's statement. It was even morethan tepid, it was positively _warm_.
The two were still discussing the probable reason for this phenomenonwhen their attention was suddenly arrested by a curious movement of thewater in the centre of the lake. First a few tremulous ripplesappeared, spreading outward from the centre; then the disturbance becamemore pronounced, until, within a minute, an area of some thirty or fortyyards in diameter had assumed an appearance of violent ebullition.Suddenly a jet of steam and spray shot up out of the centre of thisdisturbed spot; and then, before either of the two bewildered spectatorscould find time to remark upon so curious a phenomenon, an immensecolumn of purest crystal water shot into the air to a height of at leasttwo hundred feet, and, gleaming and flashing in the sunbeams as itsoared away above the level of the encircling cliffs, spread out into adome-like sheet, and, leaving behind it aloft a dense cloud of vapour ofdazzling whiteness, fell again into the lake in the form of a shower ofboiling water.
"A geyser!" exclaimed the baronet. "A geyser! and of such grandeur thatthe Great Geyser of Iceland, which I have seen, sinks into the utmostinsignificance compared with it."
"You are right," acquiesced Lethbridge. "I too have seen the so-calledGreat Geyser, and admired it immensely; but after this--"
He finished with a shrug of the shoulders so expressive that there wasnot the slightest need for words to explain his meaning.
"We must bring the professor to see this," he continued after a slightpause. "And--look here, Elphinstone--if you wish to intensely gratifythe worthy man, call this geyser after him--`The Von SchalckenbergGeyser'--eh? It doesn't sound half bad, does it?"
The baronet laughingly consented to his friend's proposal, the morereadily as he knew that what Lethbridge had said as to the professor'sgratification was perfectly true; and then the wanderers resumed theirjourney, passing along the narrow strip of sand which divided the edgeof the water from the base of the cliffs.
"There is no doubt, I think, that this geyser produces the cloud ofvapour and the sudden flashing gleam, at tolerably regular intervals,which so aroused our curiosity this morning," remarked the baronet asthey plodded somewhat wearily along side by side over the sand.
His companion assented, and then they both paused, and finally flungthemselves down upon the sand to witness a repetition of the eruption,the premonitory signs of which at that moment made their appearance.Then, when it was over, finding themselves very comfortable--and veryhungry--they concluded to take luncheon before again moving; and, thisbeing followed by a pipe, it was after four o'clock in the afternoonwhen they once more made a move.
A saunter for three-quarters of an hour along the margin of the lakeenabled them to reach a spot almost directly opposite that where theyhad emerged into daylight from the interior of the cavern; and here theyfound the point of overflow from the lake. The chain of hills, whichfrom their first point of sight had appeared to completely surround thesheet of water, was here pierced by a narrow valley, through which asmall shallow stream, emanating from the geyser lake, made its deviousway. As the course of this valley appeared to trend generally in anortherly direction, or toward the high table-land of which thetravellers were in quest, and as, moreover, the valley appeared to offerthe only exit from the lake basin in a northerly direction, thetravellers decided to follow its course, which they did by keeping closeto the margin of the stream. This mode of procedure, whilst it affordedthem tolerably easy walking, also enabled them to estimate moreaccurately than they had hitherto done, the enormous quantity of waterprojected into the air by the geyser; for whilst the stream normallyconsisted of a body of water some ten feet wide by three or four inchesdeep, it was swollen--at regular intervals of twenty minutes each,corresponding with the periodical discharge of the geyser--into arushing and foaming torrent of about ten feet wide and four feet deep,lasting thus for about a minute, when the stream again rapidly subsidedto its previous depth.
For a distance of about two miles the stream wound its way over a bed ofexposed rock, beyond which occurred a considerable stretch of coarsegravelly soil, thickly overgrown with long grass. The constant flow ofwater for untold ages through this bed of gravel had scoured out achannel nearly forty feet wide by half that depth; the banks beingperfectly vertical, except in a few places where the gravel had crumbledaway to a rather steep slope.
It was whilst the wanderers were passing one of these places that--thesun being by this time in the western quarter of the heavens, and hislevel rays falling directly upon the right bank of the stream--thebaronet's attention was arrested by the appearance of several brightsparkling gleams emanating from among the _debris_ of the crumblingbank. He directed the colonel's attention to these, whereupon thelatter, seized with sudden excitement, scrambled down the bank, wadedacross the shallow stream, and in another instant flung himself downupon his knees on the gravel. Before the astonished baronet couldfollow him he leaped to his feet again, and, whilst he waved someglittering object above his head, shouted:
"Hurrah! hurrah! Elphinstone, my dear fellow, we are in luck to-day.Here is a fabulous fortune for every one of us, to be had merely for thetrouble of picking up. _This is a bed of diamondiferous gravel_."
Sir Reginald hastened across the stream, and, scrambling half-way up thebank, joined his companion on the spot where the latter had halted.
"Look here!" exclaimed Lethbridge, holding out for inspection a crystalas large as a pigeon's egg; "what think you of that for a first find?And it is of the first water, too."
The baronet took it in his hand and examined it critically. Then hehanded it back with the remark:
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"Well, my dear fellow, I am no judge of diamonds, at least in theirnatural uncut state; but if your supposition--that you have discovered a`bed' or `pocket,' or whatever you call it, of diamonds--be correct, Imost heartily congratulate you."
"You--congratulate--_me_?" gasped the colonel. "Why, my dearElphinstone, what on earth do you mean? I am much obliged for yourcongratulations, certainly; but whether the diamonds here be many orfew, we shall of course all share alike, so you may also congratulateyourself and our absent friends at the same time. And as to mysupposition being correct, I have had too much experience at the SouthAfrican diamond-fields to make a mistake in such a matter. Why," hecontinued, looking round and picking up two or three more stones, "theyare positively sown broadcast just here--an hour's diligent work in thisspot will make us all rich beyond the power of computation."
"If that be the case," returned the baronet, "then here goes to helpyou. But, mind, I am a rich man already; and not a single stone will Iaccept until all three of you are perfectly satisfied that you haveabundantly sufficient for all your requirements."
"Very well," said the colonel. "Go ahead with that understanding if youlike. I feel pretty confident that, even upon such terms, you will beable to take back to England, if all goes well, sufficient gems to makethe future Lady Elphinstone--should there ever be such a personage--adiamond suite which shall cause her to be the envied of all beholders."
Sir Reginald laughed gleefully. "I have never yet met a woman charmingenough to induce me to yield up my freedom of action and movement forher sake, and I do not think it likely I ever shall," he said.
Lethbridge shook his head a little doubtfully, but he was just then sobusy digging down into the gravel with his hunting-knife that he had nobreath to waste in the words of a disclaimer.
The baronet moved away to a distance of some twenty feet, and beganpoking about the gravel in a very careless, half-hearted sort of way,occasionally picking up and slipping into one of his capacious pocketssuch crystals as he thought likely to be of value.
Half an hour of this work sufficed him; and, rising to his feet, hecried: "Spell, ho! as our friend Mildmay would probably observe. Now,Lethbridge," as he sauntered up to his companion, "let us compare theresults of our labour."
With this he flung himself down upon the gravel, and, plunging his handinto his pocket three or four times, produced a goodly little heap ofgems of all sizes, ranging from that of a pea up to stones of fully oneounce in weight. Meanwhile the colonel brought his collection to light,and a very fine one it was, the stones being nearly twice as many asthose gathered by the baronet, though many of them were much smaller.
"Is that all?" asked Sir Reginald.
"_All_?" echoed Lethbridge; "why, my dear sir, what would you have? If,after we have quite exhausted the ground here, my share amounts to sucha handsome collection as this, I can assure you I shall be exceedinglywell satisfied. You have made a most excellent haul too, but I thinkmine is the more valuable of the two."
"Perhaps," said the baronet, "_this_ will go some way toward equalisingour finds." And as he spoke he quietly slipped his hand into his pocketand smilingly produced a stone fully as large as a hen's egg.
The colonel took it into his hands and critically examined it forseveral minutes. It was most unmistakably a diamond, and that, too, ofthe very finest water, without the faintest trace of a flaw of any kind.He remained silent so long that Sir Reginald grew impatient and finallyblurted out:
"Well, man, what is it? Is it a diamond, or is it merely a worthlesspiece of crystal? Why don't you speak?"
"Simply," said the colonel as he took a final look at it against thelight and then handed it back, "because I am at a loss for words toexpress my admiration. It _is_ a diamond, and, so far as I know, thefinest that has ever yet been brought to light. Its value must besimply fabulous, and I heartily congratulate you on its discovery.Where did you find it? Was it deep in the gravel?"
"Come with me and I'll show you," was the reply; and, leading thecolonel back to the spot, Sir Reginald quietly pointed to a hole abouteighteen inches deep which he had excavated, and wherein lay, side byside, seven other gems equally as fine as the one he had produced.
"Help yourself, my dear fellow," he said with a laugh, "and then let usbe moving; we have our dinner to find yet, you know."
Lethbridge fairly gasped for breath as his eyes first fell upon themagnificent jewels; but he lost no time in transferring them to hispocket, and then he turned to the baronet and asked what would be thebest thing for them to do next.
"Let us simply continue our journey," answered the baronet. "Of courseif these stones which we have found are really diamonds, which I do notdoubt, since you assure me that they are, I am as fully alive asyourself to the fact that a mine of incalculable wealth lies here at ourfeet. But it will not run away within the next few days. Let us finishour exploration and return to the _Flying Fish_. We will then move herto this spot, and all hands of us can then go to work at diamond-huntingin good earnest. Meanwhile, if these large stones are of suchinestimable value, it seems to me that they are likely to prove, afterall, practically valueless, for the simple reason that nobody will befound willing to spend the enormous sum which would enable him to becomea purchaser."
"That is very true," answered the colonel with a laugh. "The stones ofmoderate size are what we must hope to realise upon; nevertheless, Ishall not pass over such large ones as may happen to thrust themselvesunder my notice, for if we should fail to dispose of them, they willstill come in handy as ornaments for our future wives, in which,notwithstanding a remark you made a little while ago, I somehow have aprofound belief. Now, if you are ready to march, so am I."
The pair accordingly shouldered their guns, and, turning their backs forthe time being upon the diamond mine, continued their course down thevalley.
Half an hour later a herd of reindeer was discovered browsing upon thelichens and mosses which grew plentifully on the rocky spurs of therange of hills from which the travellers were now emerging, and one ofthese was soon afterwards killed with little or no difficulty by meansof a bullet from one of the rifles. To such experienced hunters as SirReginald and the colonel the task of "breaking up" the deer was an easyone, and, that done, they went into camp on the spot, and feastedroyally that night upon reindeer tongue and marrow-bones.
The two following days passed uneventfully, that is to say thetravellers met with no adventure specially worth recording. They passedthrough extensive tracts of pine forest, and saw plenty of game, to saynothing of such valuable fur-bearing animals as the sable and ermine,both of which animals seemed to be extraordinarily abundant, and late onthe evening of the third day they found themselves at the base of thetable-land, after a somewhat fatiguing but most enjoyable tramp.
The next day was devoted to a thorough examination of the somewhatremarkable object which they had set out to visit. It proved to be anenormous mass of rock, nearly circular in shape, about three miles incircumference, and towering aloft from the surface of the surroundingplain to a height of between three and four thousand feet, as nearly ascould be measured without the aid of instruments. Their idea had ofcourse been not only to reach this enormous rock, but also to ascend toits summit, but this they found to be quite impracticable, a journeyround it demonstrating the fact that on all sides its cliffs roseperpendicularly and without a single break from the base to the flatsummit. For that time at least they were defeated; but when theyfinally turned their backs upon "Mount Mildmay," as they determined toname it, it was with a fixed resolve that, before many days were over,they would reach the summit with the aid of the _Flying Fish_.
Their journey back to the ship was marked by no more noteworthy incidentthan the sighting in the distance of a herd of mammoths, apparently theidentical animals with which they had already had an encounter. Theyfollowed a somewhat different route from their outward one, making adetour round the group of hills which inclosed the "SchalckenbergGeyser,
" and arrived at the ship late on the evening of the sixth dayfrom their departure, weary and somewhat foot-sore it is true, but inall other respects in the very best of health, and with thoroughlypleasant memories of their journey.
They were of course welcomed with open arms by the two friends they hadleft behind them. Mildmay, under the professor's skilful treatment, wasrapidly advancing toward complete recovery; and as for the scientisthimself, he was jubilant in the highest degree over the fact that he hadbeen thoroughly successful in his preparation of that gigantic"specimen," the mammoth. A great deal of desultory conversation ofcourse took place within the first hour of the wanderers' return; but atlast the party settled down, and then followed a recital by Sir Reginaldof the particulars of the journey. Both the professor and Mildmay wereof course intensely interested in the story, but in different ways.Mildmay's interest was merely that of the ordinary travelled man ofculture, but von Schalckenberg was disposed to regard everything fromthe scientist's view-point, and incessantly broke the continuity of thenarrative by a whole string of questions which neither Sir Reginald northe colonel could possibly answer. He was extravagantly delighted withboth the description of the geyser and the sight of the diamonds, and itwas difficult to say which pleased him most; perhaps the most gratifyingcircumstance to him was the information that the geyser had been namedafter him, at all events he begged most pathetically that the projectedvisit to this most interesting object might be allowed to takeprecedence of that to the diamond mine.
Such being the case, it will readily be understood that no pen of mereordinary graphic power could hope to adequately portray the ecstasy ofenthusiasm with which the worthy man, two days later, actually viewedthe geyser itself from so advantageous a stand-point as the deck of the_Flying Fish_; such a task is utterly beyond the powers of the presentnarrator and must be left to the vivid imagination of the indulgentreader. For over two hours did that amiable and learned scientist sitimmovably in his deck chair with a meerschaum of abnormal dimensions inhis mouth, and with his eyes beaming in a rapt admiration, which wasalmost adoration, upon the magnificent spectacle; and it was not untilhe had been solemnly assured by the others that he would be excused fromall participation in the task of diamond-hunting and have full libertyto return to the geyser and spend there the whole of the time duringwhich the rest of the party might be so engaged, that he consented toleave the spot at all.
Three days were spent at the diamond mine; and, with the aid of propertools obtained from the ship, this time proved sufficient for theaccumulation of such a hoard of priceless gems as would, if disposed ofat even half their market value, realise a magnificent fortune for eachof the lucky finders.
The next move was to the summit of the flat tableland, which was ofcourse easily reached by the _Flying Fish_. It proved to be, as hadalready been surmised, merely an enormous mass of bare rock, without ascrap of soil or vegetation of any kind about its surface, and usefulonly as a citadel, into which, had it been planted in some moreaccessible spot on the earth's surface, it would undoubtedly have beenconverted, in which case it would have eclipsed even Gibraltar itself inthe matter of impregnability. Useless as it was, however, where itstood, its summit afforded an admirable look-out; and from that point ofvantage the travellers made the discovery that "Elphinstone Land" was anisland, the horizon at that elevation being bounded by the sea on everyside. The rock was roughly circular in shape, with a circumference ofabout three miles, and the travellers made the circuit of the summit inabout an hour and a half, pausing at frequent intervals to admire andenjoy the magnificent panorama of woods and hills and streams which layspread out beneath them. Herds of elk, reindeer, and musk-oxen wereseen dotted about here and there on the plains below, as well as askulking wolf or two, a few Arctic foxes, and other wild animals. Theherd of mammoths--apparently the only herd in the island--was also seen;and, with the aid of their telescopes, the travellers were also able tomake out, far away at sea, certain dark moving spots which, from theiralternate appearance above and disappearance beneath the surface, theyjudged to be whales.
The chief business of the travellers, however, on the summit of "MountMildmay" was to ascertain whether or no the North Pole of the earth wasor was not situated within its circumference. This was rightly regardedas a matter of such great importance that several days wereunhesitatingly devoted to its settlement; and Mildmay, the professor,and Colonel Lethbridge were busy from breakfast time in the morninguntil dinner-time at night, making the most careful observations andworking out the necessary calculations. These were at lengthsatisfactorily completed--not one moment too soon, for the sun was dailydropping nearer and nearer to the horizon--and the trio were enabled,not only to say that the North Pole _was_ contained within the limits ofthe summit, but to plant their feet upon it and to say unhesitatinglyand authoritatively:
"This is the North Pole!"
The position having thus been accurately determined, the next thing wasto mark the spot.
With this object a large triangle was first described about it, and apoint was carefully marked off on each of its sides in such a positionthat a line tightly strained from such point to the opposite angle ofthe triangle would pass directly through the pole. This done, anexcavation six feet deep in the solid rock was made, and in its bottomwas deposited a tightly-sealed bottle containing a small parchmentscroll, on which was inscribed a brief statement of the circumstancesconnected with the discovery of the spot, with the date, and thesignatures of the joint discoverers. This bottle was carefully packedin and buried up with small fragments of rock, and made finally secureby a covering of excellent concrete, the materials for compounding whichhad been carefully and with infinite labour prepared by the professor.Then, when the concrete had become properly hardened, a substantialflagstaff of aethereum was stepped into the hole in a positionaccurately corresponding with the North Pole of the earth, and also madesecure by being built in or "set" in concrete, which completely filledthe hole. The professor next, with the aid of a diamond, engraved onthe staff, in bold conspicuous characters, at a height of five feet fromthe ground, the words:
"_This staff marks the exact position of the North Pole of the earth_."And finally, amid cheers from the rest of the party, Sir ReginaldElphinstone ran the Union Jack up to the staff head and knotted thehalliards so that it would remain there, thus formally claiming for theBritish nation the honour of actual discovery.