476 Morier's Travels-Mount Ararat. description of a spot, which perhaps no Europeans but ourselves have had the opportunity of examining, and on which, therefore, we are bound (in justice to those opportunities) not to withhold the information which we obtain ed, I will venture to give the following notes of our visit, relying on the candour and the science of my reader to fill up my imperfect outline. "On approaching the spot,the ground has a hollow sound, with a particularly dreary and calcined appearance, and when upon it, a strong mineral smell arises from the ponds. The process of petrifaction is to be traced from its first beginning to its termination. In one part, the water is clear, in a second, it appears thicker and stagnant, in a third, quite black, and in its last stage, is white like a hoar frost. Indeed, a petrified pond looks like frozen water, and before the operation is quite finished, a stone slightly thrown upon it breaks the outer coating, and causes the black water underneath to exude. Where the operation is complete, a stone makes no impression, and a man may walk upon it without wetting his shoes. Whenever the petrifaction has been hewn into, the curious progress of the concretion is clearly seen, and shews itself like sheets of rough paper placed one over the other in accumulated laySuch is the constant tendency of this water to become stone, that where it exudes from the ground in bubbles, the petrifaction assumes a globular shape, as if the bubbles of a spring, by a stroke of magic, had been arrested in their play, and metamorphosed into marble. These stony bubbles, which form the most curious specimens of this extraordinary quarry, frequently contain with them portions of the earth through which the water has oozed. ers. The substance thus produced is brittle, transparent, and sometimes most richly streaked with green, red, and copper-coloured veins. It admits of being cut into immense slabs, and takes a good polish. We did not remark that any plant except rushes grew in the water. The shortest and best definition that can be given of the ponds, [VOL. 4 is that which Quintus Curtius gives of the Lake Ascanius-Aqua sponte concrescens."* The Lake of Shahee, or Maragha, an inland sea of about 280 miles in circumference, is close to these remark able ponds. From all the travellers could learn, it is generally very shallow, being from one cubit to three or four in mentioned as crossing this expanse of its greatest depth. A causeway was water, which it is probable is a work of great antiquity: "The same fact which appears in the Caspian Sea, the Dead Sea, and many other lakes in the globe, is also to be remarked here: I mean the daily reception of a great quantity of water without any visible increase in the lake itself. No less than fourteen rivers of different sizes discharge themselves into the lake of Shahee; and although from the general character of Persian rivers, I should not suppose any of them to be so large as the Jordan, yet still collectively they cannot fail to make up a very large mass of water. Instead of increase, there are many visible signs of diminution of the water, from which we may conclude, that the evaporation is greater than the supplies from the rivers. "This lake resembles in many things, what Sandys calls "that cursed lake Asphaltides," or the Dead Sea. Like it, its water seems dull and heavy, and the late Mr. Brown found that it contains more salt than that of the sea. We were informed, that as soon as the rivers disgorge any of their fish into it, they immediately die. We saw swans in the lake, near the coast contiguous to Shirameen. Like the Dead Sea, it also supplies the adjacent country with a salt of beautiful transparency, although the inhabitants generally prefer the rock salt, which is cut from quarries in the neighbourhood of the petrifactions. Though Mount Ararat has been frequently described, there is so much no * Lib. xi. c. 12. + Shaw, vol i. p. 156. Sandys' Travels, 7th edit. p. 110. VOL. 4.] Morier's Travels-Ascent of Mount Ararat. velty in Mr. Morier's observations, that we cannot resist our desire to extract them; and the memorable nature of the place would, we are sure, procure our pardon for a longer and less interesting narrative : 66 During the long time that we were in the neighbourhood of Mount Ararat, although we made frequent plans for attempting to ascend it, yet we were always impeded by some reason or other. We were encamped before it at the very best season for such an undertaking, namely, during the month of August, and saw it at the time that it has the least snow upon it. 86 The impossibility of reaching its extreme summit, even on the side where it is apparently most easy of access, was decided (so we were assured) some years ago by the Pacha of Bayazid. He departed from that city with a large party of horsemen, at the most favourable season, and ascended the mountain on the Bayazid side as high as he could on horseback. He caused three stations to be marked out on the ascent, where he built huts and collected provisions. The third station was the snow. He had no difficulty in crossing the region of snow, but when he came to the great cap of ice that covers the top of the cone, he could proceed no farther, because several of his men were there seized with violent oppressions of the chest from the great rare faction of the air. He had before of fered large rewards to any one who should reach the top, but although many Courds who live at its base have attempted it, all have been equally unsuccessful. Besides the great rarefaction of the air, his men had to contend with dangers of the falling ice, large pieces of which were constantly detaching themselves from the main body and rolling down. During the summer, the cap of ice on its summit is seen to shine with a glow quite distinct from snow, and if the old inhabitants may be believed, this great congealed mass has visibly increased since they first knew it. 66 The snow-worms, so confidently mentioned by Strabo as existing in the 477 Caucasus (lib. xi.) and as generally believed by the Persians and Armenians to exist at the present day in the snows of Ararat, appear to be fabulous. We repeatedly offered rewards to those who would bring us one, but never succeeded. The Persians represent them as a small white worm, so excessively cold that one will effectually cool a large bowl of sherbet. In the month of August on approaching towards the top of Ararat, and even at the village of Akhora, the noise of the cracking ice is said to be heard during the hottest part of the day, which is from the hours of two to four. When near the snow the sound is described as most awful, but those who have witnessed the fall of a large mass of ice from the cliff into the chasm, declare that nothing can equal the concussion. "Treman le spaziose atre caverne E' l'aer ciceo a quel rumor rimbomba.” "The sign of the greatest heat is when the snow has entirely left the summit of Little Ararat. When encamped on the heights of Aberan, we watched its daily diminution, until it completely vanished. At this period the cultivators of melons cut their fruit, and in general the snows of Ararat are used by the agriculturists of Erivan as a calendar, by which they regulate the sowing, planting, and reaping of their fields. The Eelauts also are guided in their motions by the operations of the weather on this mountain, keeping to their Yelaks, or descending from them according to the falls of snow. "The soil of this great mountain appears to be one immense heap of stones, confusedly thrown together, unenlivened by vegetation. Here and there indeed are a few plants; but Tournefort's circumstantial relation will show how scanty are the gleanings of the botanist. In many parts of the Little Ararat are tracts of a very soft stone, and in others a species of vitrification. Lava is also to be seen, but the soil which most frequently intervenes between the rocks is a deep sand. "The wilds of this mountain give refuge to all the rogues and outlaws of the surrounding country; and there is a 478 Interesting Letters concerning the Polar Expedition. cavern between the great and little Ararat in so strong a situation, that not long since some turbulent Courds who had taken possession of it, held it in despite of the Serdar and his forces." We cannot take our leave of this volume without again declaring how much pleasure it has afforded us. It [VOL 4 has given us a perfect view of the country, morally, politically, and naturally. Even its external forms are presented in well-executed wood-cuts, and beautiful plates; some of them richly coloured; and upon the whole we may say, that we have here one of the few books where there is every thing te praise and nothing to censure. From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. INTERESTING LETTERS FROM OFFICERS ENGAGED IN THE POLAR EXPEDITION. We have been favoured with the following copy of a letter from an officer employed in the recent attempt to approach the north pole, to his friend in Scotland. DEAR SIR, Deptford, 4th Nov. 1818. W that you would first hear from me by HEN I told you, on leaving England, way of Kamskatka, or the Columbia river, I little expected that my first letter to you would be dated from the Thames: yet so it is, to our most bitter disappointment and mortification; for so very sanguine were we all of success, that we had appropriated to our two ships' companies alone the two parliamentary rewards of five-and-twenty thousand pounds, rejecting all overtures to share with the north-westers, whom we now find to be in the fairest way possible to do the job. And this, by the way, adds not a little to our mortification; not that we do not hope most sincerely that they may succeed, but because we exercised a sort of triumph over them before our departure, and made ourselves sure of reaching the Pacific before them; having so much a nearer, and, as we thought, so much a fairer, prospect of a free and open passage across the Polar Bason, as Mr. Barrow calls it, into the Pacific. Another subject of mortification, and that not the least, is, that people here, with whom we converse, entertain the most absurd notions of our failure; nay, some go so far as to say, that the attempt was nothing less than impious, to pass the frozen boundary which God has been pleased to set to man's researches; foolishly fancying that there is a fixed and impenetrable boundary, and ignorant that many navigators have passed three or four degrees beyond the spot where we were stopped. They know not, in fact, that the disposition of the ice is different every year, and, I may add, every month. In the present year, unluckily for us, it happened to be placed peculiarly unfavourable for a passage through The almost per petual southerly and southwesterly winds hemmed it in to the northward, and choked up the narrow channel between Old Greenland and Spitzbergen, while the northeasterly current, setting round Hakluyt's Head land, not only helped to join it fast, but brought also a constant accession of field-ice. Our persevering efforts to penetrate throngh this extensive accumulation of ice, turned out to be the unfortunate cause of our failure, as you will see by the following brief narrative, which I detail from memory, as all our journals have been sent up to the Admiralty, with the view, we take for granted, done little or nothing, and the question of a of being published: for though we have polar passage, or the possibility of approaching the pole, remains precisely as it did before our departure from England, yet we should not be sorry that our humble endearours were found to be worthy a niche in the temple of Fame, and to be hereafter included in some of those numerous "Collections of Voyages of Discovery" which find a place in the libraries of our countrymen. We reached Hakluyt's Headland on the 7th June, and standing on among the loose ice, to the lat. 80° 22′, fell in with six or seven whale-fishers, from whom we learned that all was close to the westward. The wind, being north-east, brought with it large flows of ice drifting away to the southward, which gave us the greatest hopes of finding a passage round the land to the eastward; and in fact in the course of a few days, we observed much clear water in that direction. We were soon, however, beset in the ice, and remained immoveable for several days At length a strong easterly wind dispersed the ice, and set us free; and we reached an anchorage towards the end of June, near the land called Vogel Sang. Here we remained about a week, observing with great pleasure vast masses of ice continuing to float to the south-west, and at the end of that time were gratified by the appearance of an open sea to the north-east. We had not proceeded far, however, in that direction, till we were again beset by the floating ice, in which we remained several days. It was now, I be lieve, about the 20th of July, when we got out of the ice, and stood once more to the westward, being then, as we judged, (for the weather would not admit of taking observations) in lat. 80° 30, this being the highest degree of latitude we could reach. On the 29th July we had a heavy swell from the southward, with large masses of stream-ice in motion, which the ships with difficulty avoided, and which in fact struck them frequently very hard. On the following day we stood towards the main body of VOL. 4.] Interesting Letters concerning the Polar Expedition. the ice in the north-east quarter. The weather now became squally, the atmosphere was loaded with clouds, and the barometer continued gradually to fall. Our distance from the ice was not more than five miles; and by a shift of the wind to the southward, it became unfortunately what I may call a lee shore. The wind rapidly increased to a gale, and the ships as rapidly approached the ice, which we soon perceived it was impossible for them to weather. Nothing was now left for us but to set all sail, and run the ships directly stem on into the body of the ice; an example being first set by the Dorothea, and followed by the Trent: for had they taken the ice with their broadsides, they must both inevitably have gone to pieces, strong as they were, in a few mo. ments The approach to the ice was one of the most awful moments I ever experienced. The sea was rolling mountains high, the wind blew a hurricane, and the waves broke over the mast-heads, and every appearance indicated the immediate destruction of the two ships; and I believe every man on board thought there was but a few moments between him and eternity. The two ships entered the ice with a tremendous crash, and must infallibly have gone to pieces with the shock, had they not been fitted up with all the strength that wood and iron could give them. By degrees the strength of the wind acting on the sails, worked the ships into the body of the ice; and in proportion as they advanced from the outer edge, the motion became less, till at length, when they had advanced from a quarter to half a mile, they were completely set fast, and remained in tolerable tranquillity; but, by the first shock, and the working of the ice against their sides, they both sustained very serious damages, especially the Dorothea, which was not expected to reach Smeerenberg Bay. The Trent's damage was prineipally confined to her rudder. On the 31st July the gale had abated, and the wind shifted to the northward, when the ice immediately opened, and both ships having got out, made the best of their way to an anchorage between Amsterdam and Dane's Island, which the Dutch named Smeerenberg Bay; and here we remained the whole month of August, repairing the damages we had sustained. The Trent was soon ready for any service; but the Dorothea was so bruised and shattered, that, on a minute survey, after every thing had been taken out of her, it was found necessary to keep the Trent by her, as she was deemed unsafe to proceed to England alone. Thus you will perceive, that by this untoward accident we completely lost the best month in the year for getting to the northward, and in fact attempted nothing farther in that direction; though, on our return, we did try to make the coast of Greenland, but without success, At the time when the gale occurred, and after it had ceased, there was every appear ance of open water to the eastward; and I cannot help thinking, that if a passage shall at any future time be effected, it must be between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla ; to try which, since our return to England, I have learned, was part of our instructions: but alas! that terrible gale of wind in which we were caught, rendered us perfectly inefficient for this year. 479 You must not however suppose we were idle during the month which we remained at anchor in Smeerenberg Bay. On the contrary, our astronomical observations, our surveys and sketches of the country and of its natural history, will, I hope, be found not wholly useless or uninteresting. Lieut. Beechey has made some beautiful sketches of the two ships taking the ice. We are told also, that our observations with the pendulum are important and satisfactory. Indeed, setting aside the grievous disappointment we all feel at the failure of the main object, we have passed a very agreeable six months. We got plenty of game on the islands and on the water, as bears, sea-horses, seals, and foxes; but the most delightful animal was the rein-deer, which afforded us abundance of excellent venison, the fat of which was from three to four inches in thickness. How these creatures contrived to keep themselves in such high condition, is quite a mystery; for when we first ap proached Hakluyt's Headland, the whole of Amsterdam and Dane's Islands appeared to be covered with snow; but on our return to repair our ships, the snow had in many parts disappeared, and the ground was sparingly covered with a kind of moss, which grew particularly between rocks and stones. It is this moss chiefly on which these animals feed. The water here was free from all ice, except a large iceberg aground, very smooth; and we used to land on a fine sandy beach. One day, in passing this iceberg, the purser of the Trent fired off his musket at some birds. The moment the report had ceased, a loud crack was heard, and the moment afterwards the iceberg fell in pieces with a tremendous crash ; and the swell it occasioned was so great, that the boat was thrown out of the water upwards of ninety feet from the place where she had just grounded. Immediately afterwards we perceived the sea, for a mile all round, covered with the fragments of ice. It is probably not fabulous, therefore, what travellers tell us, that the guides in the Alps, on approaching a glacier, desire that a word shall not be spoken above a whisper, lest the sound should bring it down. We were astonished to find on shore, not less, probably, than from three to four bundred graves, mostly of Dutchmen; as we considered it one of the healthiest climates in the world. Some of them, it is true, were a hundred years old; and within a coffin precisely of that date we found the worsted cap on the skull, and the worsted stockings on the leg-bones, as fresh almost as if they bad been knit the present year. We made collections of every thing that occurred, which will be sent by our commodore to the British Museum: but I am not a judge how far they may be curious or useful. I have much more to tell you when we meet; and till then, I am, dear sir, &c. The following extract of a very interesting letter from an officer of the Dorothea, will put our readers in possession of all that is yet known respecting this branch of the expedition. "We first made the ice about the 27th May, near Cherry-Island, which is small, and of remarkable appearance, being com 480 Interesting Letters concerning the Polar Expedition. posed of many high and pointed rocks or cliffs; and in one bearing, looks as if rent asunder by some convulsion of nature. It lies on the south-east part of Spitzbergen, from which it is distant about 150 miles. During a few days previous to making the ice, we experienced a great change of weather, the thermometer having fallen very considerably, and now continued below 32 degrees. We had also frequent and heavy falls of snow; and for several days, in the latter part of May, the thermometer fell to 18 deg. or 14 deg. below the freezing point. We soon descried the lofty and snow-capped rocks or precipices which compose Spitzbergen---the cheerless, bleak, and sterile aspect of which it is impossible to describe. Running along the western side of the island, our progress was stopped by immense barriers of ice, which extended in every direction as far as the eye could reach, and joining the land to the northward, blocked up all the harbours. We succeeded, however, in gaining a high northern latitude, viz. about 80°; but as we had parted from our consort a few days before in a heavy gale of wind, we returned in quest of her, and were fortunate enough to fall in with her on the subsequent day. We now put into Magdalena Bay, in the lat. 79° 33 north, lon. 11 east. The upper and inner part of this bay we found so choked up with ice, which was now beginning to break up, that our situation here became very critical. Having surveyed it, however, we again put to sea, and ran along the edge of the ice to the westward, which everywhere presented the appearance of a solid body. On the 10th Jane we fell in with several sail of Greenlandinen, when we were sorry to learn that no hope existed of getting to the northward by stretching to the westward; and it was the unanimous opinion of the masters of these ships, that to gain a high northern latitude, we must penetrate to the northward; that is to say, that we must stand in with, or near to the land of Spitzbergen. In consequence of this information, as well as the observations we had already made, and the decisive opinion of our pilots, we retraced our steps to the northward, and were soon completely beset in the ice. You cannot form any conception of the truly picturesque and often solemn grandeur of such a scene. Conceive two vessels hemmed in, jammed, and completely surrounded by immense masses of ice, of the rudest and often most fantastic forms; the two ships appearing, as it were, like specks in the midst of a vast extended plane, of alabaster whiteness, and to which the eye can assigo no limits. When the sun shone bright, whether at mid-day or midnight, but particularly at the latter period, its beams assumed a softer hue, and shed a mellower tint on the immense sheet of surrounding ice, while the steep and towering summit of Spitzbergen, forming the back ground, combined to render the whole truly grand and interesting. Whilst gazing on such a scene, I never failed to experience sensations at once solemn and astonishing; for there was something in my breast which for ever associated itself with the possibility, nay probability, of never being able to extricate ourselves. Indeed, when it is considered that you can with a glance of the eye, at once embrace pieces of solid ice, without [VOL 4 a rent or fissure, ten or twelve miles in circumference, and situated in every possible direction, save here and there, where, from accumulation, and the force of winds and currents, it had formed high, irregular, and impending columns, it is not difficult, I think, to account for my feelings. In this situation we remained ten or twelve days, nearly fixed bodies, except when the different carrents changed our situation, which was indicated to us only by altering the bearings of the land, from which we were distant eight or ten leagues. At length we were extricated from our perilous situation by the ice partially opening, so as to enable us to force our way out. "We now ranged along the edge of the ice, endeavouring, if possible, to discover some vacancy by which we might penetrate northOn the 26th ward; but we did so in vain. June we again came to anchor in Fair Ha ven, which is situated between two islands called Vogel Sang and Clover Cliff. Oa those, and the neighbouring islands, we discovered numerous herds of rein-deer; and in running in for anchorage, immense numbers of sea-horses were seen lying on the ice, buddled together, and, at a distance, much resembling a group of cattle. We succeeded in killing several, some of which were of prodigious size; for instance, one which we cut up was found to weigh twenty hundredweight. These animals are seen everywhere, near the land, on the ice, as well as in the sea; and they are found in the bays (which are numerous all along the coast), lying on the beach, sometimes to the amount of seve ral hundreds. To a stranger they present the most forbidding and ugly aspect imaginable. When much annoyed by shot, they as semble their forces; surround the boat, as if determined to retaliate. Thirty, forty, or more, will appear in every direction, and almost at the same moment; and so near,that the muzzle of your musket will often reach their heads. They now make a hissing, barking kind of noise; and no sooner receive your fire than they become apparently farious, roll about, descend probably for a minute, when they reappear with immense increase of numbers, and seem proportionably bolder in their assaults. "Several of our oars were snapped in two, In their upor otherwise broken by them. per jaw are two tusks of great size, which seem as if intended by nature to form the principal means of defence, as well against the attacks of their enemies, as to raise and support their hugh carcases when they ele vate themselves from the sea to the ice. These tusks are of the purest ivory, and, when they have attained their full growth, are of considerable value. Their hides are very thick, and of the toughest texture; but they are coarse, and only fit for placing on the rig ging of ships to prevent chafing. When brought on board, their bodies emitted a most intolerable stench; to get rid of which, as soon as they were skinned, the carcass was thrown overboard. The rein-deer of Spitzbergen, of which we procured a plentiful supply, do not, I think differ essentially from the deer of England, except that, as the autumn advances, they begin to cast their summer coat, and during the winter months. become perfectly white. Even in the end of |