Ellesmere Island

“ We must pause here for a moment to record a modest but successful expedition carried out in the same season of 1852 by Captain Inglefield, who in the little Isabel, piloted by wonderful old Abernethy, went for a summer cruise up Baffin’s Bay. He reached the entrance of Smith Sound and saw that it was an important channel leading to the polar ocean—really Smith Channel. To the land on the west side, which was discovered by Baffin but not named by him, he gave the name of Ellesmere Island. ”

“ North Devon island lies to the south of Ellesmere, being separated from it by Jones sound; Lancaster sound bounds it on the south. The island, in shape, somewhat resembles a swimming bird with the head to the northwest and the body east and west. The body is about 220 miles long and averages seventy-five miles across. Grinnell peninsula forms the head, the neck being very irregular, and nearly pierced through by several long bays; the length of head and neck is a hundred miles. ”

“ At the northern extremity of Greenland he could have secured enough musk oxen to support his party for a year. "Thousands of birds" are mentioned at Cape Hay in Lancaster Sound, on Franz Josef Land, and On Bennett Island. Coal-mines have been found in Lady Franklin Bay, on Melville, Prince Patrick, and Bennett islands. Traces of permanent Eskimo settlements were found as far north as the 82d degree. ”

“ Washington, D. C. The west coast of Ellesmere Land, which is to be the object of your expedition, is, in my opinion, the one field of exploration in all the Arctic that promises the largest results with the least amount of labor and danger. With a good boat and provisions for the party at the entrance of Jones Sound, four or six active young men should be able, with ordinary caution, to trace at least 300 miles of that unknown coast, in perfect safety, during a single summer. ”

“ Just in front of the headland can be seen the two peaks of the mountain of Rano Raraku, from which the statues were hewn and which is the most interesting place in the island; while on a clear day there can be obtained a glimpse of the northern coast and the sea beyond.
Such is Easter Island. It bears no resemblance to the ideal lotus-eating lands of the Pacific; rather, with its bleak grass-grown surface, its wild rocks and restless ocean, it recalls some of the Scilly Isles or the coast of Cornwall. It is not a beautiful country nor even a striking one, but it has a fascination of its own. ”

“ All day that string of human beads waits there, jerks forward, waits again; all day and every day, constantly replenished, constantly dropping the end beads through the wicket, till the units mount to hundreds and the hundreds to thousands....
Yes, Ellis Island is quietly immense. It gives one a visible image of one aspect at least of this world-large process of filling and growing and synthesis, which is America. ”

“ Bessels from the Smith-Sound natives, and from information and drawings I received last summer during my stay on Davis Strait from natives who had crossed Lancaster and Jones Sound, and lived on Ellesmere Land, it is possible to learn something more about this long and unexplored coast. ”

“ No more striking illustration could be given of this fact than by the calamity which renders the present expedition a necessity. Had there been a station on Ellesmere Land when the two young Swedes were cast away in sight of its shore, their shipwreck would have been merely an unpleasant accident. As it is, one can not think of their situation without dismay. Yet it is by no means certain that they are lost, for the food supply of that land is ample for so small a party, provided they were able to obtain it. ”

“ Eskimo reports tell of a strait to the west of Ellesmere Land through which the tide at high water rushes with great rapidity, while at low water the strait is dry. This would be another evidence of an unusually rapid rise of the land, for otherwise the bottom of the strait would long ago have been worn down below low-tide level. The chances of finding valuable minerals on those Arctic lands that are not covered by ice are as good as anywhere. ”

“ Katherine and the Captain were cooks that morning and had the job of getting breakfast while the rest took an early dip in the lake. It was the first week in July. Three days ago Ellen’s Isle was an uninhabited wilderness and the only sound which broke the stillness of its dark woods was the rushing of the wind in the pine trees, or the lapping of the water on the little beach. Moreover, it bore the plebian name of Murphy’s Island, after the president of the ill-fated Mineral Spring Water Company. ”

“ The exploration of Ellesmere Land, described in the accompnying prospectus, is to form the beginning of a system of Continuous exploration in physical geography to be gradually extended over the whole unknown Arctic area, which is nearly half as large as the United States. ”

“ LADY ELLIOT'S ISLAND is a low islet, covered with shrubs and trees, and surrounded by a coral reef, which extends for three-quarters of a mile from its north-east end; the island is not more than three-quarters of a mile long, and about a quarter of a mile broad; it is dangerous to approach at night, from being very low. It is situated thirty miles North 53 degrees West (magnetic) from the extremity of Breaksea Spit (as laid down in Captain Flinders' chart) ; its latitude is 24 degrees 6 minutes, and its longitude 152 degrees 45 minutes 15 seconds. ”

“ Another thing, he and I have always been very thick: whenever we’ve met, he has always urged me to come over to the island; but this summer he has never asked me once. Then the last time we were at Portland, there was some privacy going on between John and Joe, that they didn’t mean I should know; there was a great long box that went to Elm Island. I know there was paint in it by the smell, and it was paint [198] for that boat; that’s what it was, though I don’t see what it was so long for.”
The strange craft was now in full view, coming down before the wind and tide, like a race horse. ”

“ We should also expect to find that after the partition of the Isles the Northern Islands would become comparatively deserted by the lower class of the population, the actual occupiers of the soil; and the condition of these islands at this time may be gathered from the Chronicle of Man, where it tells us that the Norwegian king Reginald ‘gave his brother Olave the island which is called Leodhus or Lewis, which though larger than any of the other isles is mountainous, rocky, and almost entirely inaccessible. ”

“ The coconut trees are unfortunately dying. Each household has a share of the ground rising behind the village, and the hillside is traversed by shady avenues of palms and bananas, which afford at every turn glimpses of outstanding cliffs and the brilliant blue of the ocean. The standard of life compares very favourably with that of an English village, and is immeasurably superior to that achieved on Easter Island under similar circumstances. ”

“ Far to the northeast of Charles's Isle, sequestered from the rest, lies Norfolk Isle, and, however insignificant to most voyagers, to me, through sympathy, that lone island has become a spot made sacred by the strangest trials of humanity. ”

“ As we shall have a great deal to do with this island, it is necessary to be particular in the description of it. It was about three miles in length, rocks and all, by two in width, running north-east and south-west, and parallel to the main land. From the eastern side, Captain Rhines’s house and the whole extent of the bay, and Uncle Isaac’s Point, were visible. Nature seemed to have lavished her skill upon this secluded spot. ”

“ The Captain of the Kildalton feared lest even the distance of the settlement from the Manager’s house might not suffice to prevent the plague being carried there by insects, and told a gruesome tale, within his knowledge, of two white men who had gone for a visit to a Pacific island, one of whom on their return to an American port had been immediately sent back to a leper colony. But how could one allow the last vestige of knowledge in Easter Island to die out without an effort? ”

“ We passed by "Ellen's Isle," as it is called, the most exquisite little island ever formed, a perfect oval, and all covered with the purple heather, the golden gorse, and all sorts of flowers and exquisitely beautiful trees. O, what a little paradise it is! A number of little row-boats, with fine-looking Highland rowers and gay companies of ladies and gentlemen, were visiting the island as we passed. They show the oak tree to which they say Ellen fastened her boat. ”

“ Another island in the harbor is called Ellis Island, where most of the emigrants who have left their homes in other countries, land when they reach the United States. Irish and Poles, Italians and Russians, men with children clinging to their sides, and women with arms clasped around tiny babies, all dressed in the fashion of their old homes, step from the big ships and take their first breath of the free air of America almost under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. ”

“ The natives of this part use logs to convey them from and to the islands. A small sandy island, with a reef extending for two miles from its north-west end, and one mile and a half from its south-east end, lies off the south-west end of Enderby Island, and would serve as a good protection from the sea in a South-West wind, for the anchorage on the south side of Enderby Island. ”

“ There is a remarkable difference between the natives of the New Hebrides group and any of the inhabitants of the adjoining islands. In character, disposition, mode of living and religion, they are in many respects far ahead of their neighbours, and, strange to say, so are the islands. The soil is better and the climate is more to the liking of the European, and, owing to the proximity of the islands to Sydney, they are better served and more up-to-date. Port Vila in Sandwich Island, the chief centre, is only five days’ sail from that city. ”

“ The plan we laid out was to sail to Suva in Fiji, about 1,700 miles away, and after a stay there, on to Hawaii or the Sandwich Islands, stopping perhaps at the Phoenix Islands and the Central Polynesian Sporades, such as Christmas and Fanning Isles. Then we proposed to turn south again through the Marshall Archipelago and the Caroline Islands, and so on to New Guinea and the Coral Sea. Particularly did we wish to visit Easter Island on account of its marvelous sculptures that are supposed to be the relics of a pre-historic race. ”

“ The island lies in a lonely position, at the extreme west of the South Pacific series, and measures but thirteen miles in length and about seven in width. The hues of the land are sand and tawny; the sea is a faithful mirror of the turquoise sky; the dreamy heat of Polynesia endures throughout the year. Easter Island is lonely, lazy, unproductive, a little speck upon the broad breast of the Pacific. ”

“ The group lies between the south end of New Ireland and the north end of the great Bougainville Island in the Solomon Archipelago, and consists of six low, well-wooded and fertile islands, enclosed within a barrier reef, forming a noble atoll, almost circular in shape. All the islands are thickly populated at the present day by natives, who are peaceable enough, and engage in bêche-de-mer and pearl-shell fishing. ”

“ I did not allow this to interfere further with the harmony of the boat's crew and everything soon became quiet. We here procured some oysters and clams, also some dog-fish caught in the holes of the rocks, and a supply of water.
Leaving this island, which I named Sunday Island, we continued our course towards Endeavor Straits. During our voyage Nelson became very ill, but gradually recovered. Next day we landed at another island, to see what we could get. There were proofs that the island was occasionally visited by natives from New Holland. ”

“ The most tantalizing archeological puzzle of the Pacific is Easter Island, with its strange images of stone, ancient dwellings and antediluvian caves. Dropped at haphazard in the sea, a thousand miles from anywhere, and owing a passive allegiance to the Chilean Government, Easter Island is one of the wonders of the world, and holds a secret that no man has yet read. ”

“ There are, however, several islets scattered around, whose productions show that they belong to the same sub-region;—the principal being, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe's Island, and the Kermadec Isles, on the north; Chatham Island on the east; the Auckland and Macquarie Isles on the south;—and if these were once joined to New Zealand, there would have been formed an island-continent not much inferior in extent to Australia itself. ”

“ The race preserves some of its better characteristics.
"They have a vigorous health and last well into middle and old age. The old men are as red as roses, and still handsome. A clear skin, a peach-bloom complexion, and good teeth are found all over the island."
English "Manners" are characterized, according to Emerson, by pluck, vigor, independence. "Every one of these islanders is an island himself, safe, tranquil, incommunicable." They are positive, methodical, cleanly, and formal, loving routine and conventional ways ”

“ Washington, D. C. Your proposed expedition to Ellesmere Land, if carried out as planned, going up and returning by one of the whalers that annually pass by that land, and remaining not more than five months, with a depot of provisions sufficient for two years, seems feasible and safe. If your assistants are scientific men. the results can not fail to be of value. ”