History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0030/00301.txt

Text File | 1992-10-11 | 13KB | 215 lines

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$Title{Australia And The Islands Of The Sea
Chapter XIV.  Nova Zembla And Other Islands Of The North.}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Larkin, Dunton}
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$Subject{islands
coast
land
miles
north
sea
large
arctic
degrees
group}
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Title:       Australia And The Islands Of The Sea
Author:      Larkin, Dunton

Chapter XIV.  Nova Zembla And Other Islands Of The North.

     Nova Zembla is a name applied to two large island of the Arctic Ocean
belonging to Russia.  They are separated from the mainland on the east by the
Sea of Kara, and from each other by a strait.  So narrow is this strait, and
so sharp are its windings, that vessels are reported as having sailed some ten
or fifteen miles into it, when, seeing land close ahead, with no apparent
outlet in the right direction, the captains have come to the conclusion that
they were running into some deep inlet, and have sailed out again in order to
search farther for the strait they were actually in.

     The shape of the islands is that of an elongated crescent about five
hundred miles long with an average width of sixty miles.  The largest part of
the interior has never been explored, and the north coast is very imperfectly
known.  The formation of the land on the east coast is very different from
that on the west.  On the east, low undulating plains take the place of noble
hills, deep valleys, picturesque glaciers, and somber-looking ravines, for
which the west coast is so conspicuous.  Both, however, possess many excellent
harbors.

     A noticeable feature of the coast washed by the Kara Sea is that, where
the land terminates in a bold cape, there is generally a rocky islet a little
distance away, which has doubtless been detached from the mainland.  These
isolated spots are preferred by the sea birds as places in which to make their
nests, because, being inaccessible to foxes, the eggs and young birds are
secure from the depredations of these thieving animals.

     The whole territory is wild and desolate in the extreme.  The coast
swarms with seals, various kinds of fish, and vast numbers of waterfowl. The
interior, which is partly covered with stunted shrubs, short grass, and moss,
is frequented by white bears, reindeer, ermines, and Arctic foxes.

     The shores are literally covered with driftwood.  No party of men, who,
from shipwreck or any other cause, have to spend the winter there need suffer
from cold, provided of course a stock of fuel is procured before the winter's
snow covers the land.

     There are no permanent inhabitants, but the islands are visited by
Russian hunters and fishers.  All along the southwest shore there are ruined
huts, old fire-places, foxtraps, and, occasionally, circlets of stone about
ten feet in diameter.  The former doubtless owe their existence to the
Russians, while the latter are, very likely, the remains of old Samoyede
encampments.  These nomadic tribes, bearing a strong resemblance to the
Esquimaux, pass a great deal of their time in southern Nova Zembla.
Originally they inhabited the whole vast Siberian plain; but, for many hundred
years the Mongolians have forced themselves in among them.  Their chief seat
at present is the territory lying between the Obi and Yenisei rivers.

     New Siberia is a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean, lying north of
Siberia.  They are comprised between 73 Degrees and 76 Degrees of north
latitude, near the mouth of the Lena River, consisting of numerous small
islands and three large ones from sixty to one hundred miles long by twenty to
forty broad.  They are completely barren, and present in their soil and
subsoil alternate layers of sand and ice in which are imbedded some curious
vegetable and animal fossil remains.  They belong to Siberia.

     Spitzbergen is a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean, midway between
Greenland and Nova Zembla.  The latitude of the island farthest north is 80
Degrees.  This archipelago is classed among European islands, and is claimed
by Russia as one of its dependencies.  There are three large islands and many
small ones.  Near its northern limit is a group of seven islands called the
Seven Sisters.

     Very little is known of the interior of these islands, but the coasts
have often been explored.  On approaching them, they present a grand, though
desolate, picture.  An endless number of terribly cold heights rise one behind
another, and in many places jagged, precipitous rocks crowd down to the very
water's edge.  Glaciers are everywhere present, and frequently extend along
the seacoast twenty miles or more without intermission.  Here and there in
these frozen streams may be seen a dark and forbidding rock rising a thousand
feet into the air.  In fact, one traveler has described one of these islands
as "a large tract of mountainous snow-covered heights, planted in a bed of
glaciers." Many of these mountain chains bristle with granite peaks which have
an altitude of four thousand feet.

     The climate is intensely cold, and even during the three warmest months
the mean temperature on the west coast is only 30 Degrees 50 Minute.
Vegetation is necessarily confined to a few plants of rapid growth.  These
grow only to the height of three or four inches, and, for the most part,
spring up, flower, and seed in a month or six weeks.  They produce nothing
upon which human beings could manage to subsist.  The lichens which grow on a
level with the sea, give the land a sort of yellowish appearance.  Higher up,
the rising plateau, during the summer time, is covered "with masses of
stonecrop, the brightest of yellow in patches, together with great clusters of
the most brilliant orange.  Here and there the stones are covered with a sort
of light green, encircled by different shades of dark blue moss, and many of
these stones are themselves of the deepest red, on whose tops are growing
quantities of flowers of a sere autumnal magenta, the whole making a very
varied picture in coloring."

     Winter sets in in September, and for four months the sun remains below
the horizon, but at so short a distance from it that the darkness is relieved
for about six hours by a faint twilight.  An effect similar to this is also
produced by the unusual brightness of the moon and stars, and still more by
the remarkable brilliancy of the aurora borealis.

     These dreary lands are uninhabited by man, but their shores are
frequently visited by English, Dutch, and Norwegian whalers, for the numerous
whales, white bears, and other animals on the coasts. Spitzbergen is said to
be a wonderful country for reindeer.  So, each year many ships of from ten to
sixty tons register leave the coast of Norway for the islands, expecting to
return partly laden with reindeer meat. They also collect floe seals, eider
ducks' eggs and nests, white whales, and sharks.  If the season is favorable,
they also capture walruses and white bears.

     The Lofoden Islands form a group lying northwest of Norway, between 67
Degrees and 69 Degrees north latitude.  They have a length of one hundred and
thirty miles and an area of 1560 square miles.  The population numbers twenty
thousand.  They are divided by the Raftsund into two sections.  To the west
and south lie eight islands which form the Lofoden proper; to the north and
east lie six others.

     The islands are lofty and precipitous, and are composed mostly of granite
and gneiss.  The highest peaks are found in the islands of Lofoden proper, and
reach more than three thousand feet in height.  Their appearance is wildly
romantic and extraordinary.  In some places they assume the shape of lofty
cones, while in others they appear like the gigantic walls of some venerable
Gothic ruin, topped with innumerable turrets.

     The channels separating the islands are narrow and tortuous and generally
of great depth.  They are remarkable for the strength of their tidal currents,
particularly the Raftsund and the once famous Maelstrom. The more ancient the
description of the latter, the more exciting it is, since it is the more
exaggerated.  One writer says: "When the stream is most boisterous and its
fury heightened by a storm, it is dangerous to come within seven miles of it;
boats, ships, and yachts having been carried away by not guarding against it
before they were within its reach. It likewise happens frequently, that whales
come too near the stream, and are overpowered by its violence; and then it is
impossible to describe their howlings and bellowings in their fruitless
struggles to disengage themselves.  A bear, once attempting to swim from
Lofoden to Moskoe, with a design of preying upon the sheep at pasture in the
island, afforded the like spectacle to the people; the stream caught him, and
bore him down, while he roared terribly, so as to be heard on shore.  In the
year 1645, early in the morning of Sexagesima Sunday, it raged with such noise
and impetuosity, that on the island of Moskoe the very stones of the houses
fell to the ground."

     The situation of the Maelstrom is nearly at the extremity of the Lofoden
Islands.  Two large islands of the group, together with a chain of innumerable
smaller ones, inclose a part of the ocean for several miles. In the midst of
these is the Moskoe, a lofty uninhabited rock.  "The whirlpool is simply
caused by the rushing of the ocean, as the tide rises or falls, between this
chain of islands, which impedes its course." The situation of the surrounding
islands causes the Maelstrom to form a large circle; and the great
inequalities of its bottom, which from a few fathoms deepens suddenly,
increase the violence of the current.

     A recent writer describes it thus: "With respect to the Maelstrom, there
is, in reality, no more danger than is attached to the Pentland Races, between
the Orkney Islands.  From the irregularity of the bottom, and the sea being
confined within the Lofodens, a very rapid course is formed at certain
periods, through the channel of the islands; and as the passages all run in a
direct line from the sea, they receive, particularly with certain winds, a
very heavy swell, which, meeting the current, naturally creates a considerable
vortex, and with the sea beating against the rocks, causes an impetuous noise,
like the roar of a cataract, which sound is peculiar to the whole Norway
coast.  When I crossed it, I observed the fishermen in their small boats in
the middle of the Maelstrom with their long sea lines overboard, quietly
following their daily labors, which will be rather at variance with the usual
reports concerning it. The inhabitants of the Lofodens, who call it simply by
the name of the strom, know very little and think less about it."

     The climate of these islands is not extremely rigorous when compared with
the rest of Norway.  In summer time there are only patches of snow on the
hills, the snow limit being three thousand feet.  The pasturage is
sufficiently good in places to admit of the rearing of cattle, but the growth
of cereals, chiefly barley, which matures in ninety days, is insignificant.  A
few potatoes are planted.  No wood is yielded.

     The great characteristic industry of these islands, and an important
source of national wealth, is the cod and herring fishery, which is carried on
along the east coast from January to April.  It employs about eighteen
thousand men from all parts of Norway.  The annual take of cod alone amounts
to an average of twenty million.  The fish are dried during the early summer
and shipped to Spain, Holland, Belgium, and Sweden. Other industries arise out
of the cod fishery, chief of which is the manufacture of cod liver oil.

     The Arctic Archipelago is an irregular group of islands northeast of
North America, extending to Greenland.  Some of the principal islands are
Baffin Land, Melville Land, Grinnell Land, and Prince Albert Land.  While for
human habitation the regions are the most desolate that can be imagined, there
is an extraordinary abundance of the lower forms of animal life.  For
centuries men have visited these islands only for the purpose of gathering
their living products or exploring their shores.  Traces of human habitation,
in a distant age, are to be found in many places.  At a still remoter period
forests abounded, and Barrows Straits were the habitat of the coral and the
sponge.

     A very large portion of the area included by the Arctic Ocean is still
unexplored, but almost every year diminishes the extent of the unknown.  The
nearest approach to the pole has been made up the West Greenland channel.