Kara Sea

“ In a cold winter, with little precipitation, more ice will be formed, and little ice will melt in a cold spring and summer. When there is a warm winter and heavy snow-fall succeeded by a warm spring and summer, the melting of the ice will proceed rapidly, and there will be a fairly ice-free Kara Sea. Nansen’s remarks on the navigation of the Kara Sea are extremely valuable, based on the most complete information and long experience of ice conditions. ”

“ North of 73° again the west coast of the Kara Sea is occupied by mountains, which near Matotschkin are very high, and distributed in a confused mass of isolated peaks, but farther north become lower and take the form of a plateau. [pg 176] Where the mountains begin, some few or only very inconsiderable collections of ice are to be seen, and the very mountain tops are in summer free of snow. ”

“ The aggravating thing is, that the expeditions may never reach their proper starting point. Many a good ship has knocked about for a whole season in the Kara Sea without getting a lead through the ice; the effort to reach Franz-Josef Land has not been often made, and it is a sinister omen that the “Tegetthof,” which discovered that region, arrived there after eighteen months of drifting fast in the floes. But we shall see.
156 LIEUTENANT PEARY’S EXPEDITION. ”

“ There are none such accordingly in the Kara Sea [89] , and it is seldom that even a large glacier ice-block is to be met with drifting about.
The name ice-house, conferred on the Kara Sea by a famous Russian man of science, did not originate from the large number of icebergs [90] , but from the fact that the covering of [pg 183] ice, which during winter, on account of the severity of the cold and the slight salinity of the surface-water, is immensely thick, cannot, though early broken up, be carried away by the marine currents and be scattered over a sea that is open even during winter [91] . ”

“ There is good reason to expect that a well-equipped steamer will be able to penetrate far beyond the point where they were compelled to return with their small but numerously manned craft, too fragile to encounter ice, and unsuitable for the open sea, being generally held together with willows.
There are, besides these, only three sea voyages, or perhaps more correctly coast journeys, known in this part of the Kara Sea, all under the leadership of the mates Minin and Sterlegoff. ”

“ The Marquis and I sat on the hot black sand of Kara Bay and tried to realize that we were shipwrecked.
It was not easy. There was the calm, blue, burning sea in front of us, there was the ruffle of foam on the coral reef a mile or two out from the beach. There were the sea-hawks hovering and veering just as they had been doing an hour or two ago, when we had left the little coastal steamer for a stroll on shore while some small trouble in the engine room was repaired. And there—was not—the Waiwera. ”

“ Under these conditions it is not likely that more than one service a year can ever be organized, although possibly, when the peculiarities of the icy regions of the Kara Sea are better known, it might be otherwise. ”

“ Their ships reached as far as the Kara Sea at about the point where the present boundary of European Russia separates it from Siberia. Beyond this extended countless leagues of {7} impassable ice and the rock-bound desolation of Northern Asia.
It remained to seek a passage in the opposite direction by way of the Arctic seas that lay above America. To find such a passage and with it a ready access to Cathay and the Indies became one of the great ambitions of the Elizabethan age. There is no period when great things might better have been attempted. ”

“ Captain Crowther, our ice-master, a veteran Arctic traveller, who was out with the Eira expedition in 1881-2, and is the only man on board who knows these parts, now assumed the command of the ship, and took up his position on the bridge. We were [13] about to enter the Kara Sea by the Waygatch Straits, and it was uncertain as yet if the navigation was open, as this remote sea is never entirely free from ice. ”

“ In 1837 the famous naturalist K.E. VON BAER undertook a voyage to Novaya Zemlya, accompanied by Lieutenant ZIVOLKA, LEHMANN the geologist, RÖDER the draughtsman, and PHILIPPOV [pg 283] the conservator. [169] They visited Matotschkin Schar, penetrated by boat to its eastern end and found the Kara Sea open, landing afterwards at Besimannaja Bay, Nechvatova, and on an island in Kostin Schar. ”

“ The Marquis, of course, did not quite understand how bad a fix we were in. I did, and I had no time to spare for anything but consideration of our case.
Kara Bay is a hundred miles or more from anywhere along the coast. The sea-line is precipitous thereabout; there is no easy beach to follow, as in the western country. A boat is your only chance. But when you have no boat?
The Kara River runs into the sea close at hand. It comes from the Kiloki Range, a rampart of rock and forest eleven thou sand feet high. It is a succession of rapids and falls. ”

“ Without any delay the Biscaya’s head was immediately turned right round to the southeast, in the hope of finding a clear passage, and creeping north again under the shelter of the land. It was wearisome work going right back again over the old ground, but this was but a forerunner of what we had to do for some time afterwards, and by the time we had done with the Kara Sea we had all learnt a good lesson in patience. So as to economize the coal, we only steamed half-speed ahead all the time. ”

“ A letter, inserted in the Transactions of the Royal Society, [150] on the state of Novaya Zemlya, said to be founded on discoveries which had been made at the express command of the Czar. [pg 262] The letter was accompanied by a map, drawn by an artist named Panelapoetski, who sent it from Moscow as a present to the writer. The Kara Sea is said to be a freshwater inland lake which freezes strongly in winter, and it is stated that according to the unanimous accounts of the Samoyeds and Tartars it is quite possible to sail north of Novaya Zemlya to Japan. ”

“ Beyond this narrow strip of irrigated laud begins the desert,— the Kara-kum,—which extends from the mountains of Khorasan to Lake Aral and the Ust-Urt, and from the Caspian to the Amu, interrupted only by the oases of Merv and Tejefi. It appears, how ever, that the terrible shifting sands blown into barkhans, or elongated hills, sometimes 50 and 60 feet in height, are grouped chiefly in the west, where the country has more recently emerged from the sea. ”

“ The train advances through the open desert. This is the Kara Koum, the Black Desert. It extends from Khiva over all Turkestan comprised between the Persian frontier and the course of the Amou Daria. In reality the sands of the Kara Koum are no more black than the waters of the Black Sea or than those of the White Sea are white, those of the Red Sea red, or those of the Yellow River yellow. But I like these colored distinctions, however erroneous they may be. In landscapes the eye is caught by colors. ”

“ The rivers Jenissei and Obi, which remain frozen over until late in June, likewise discharge their vast masses of ice into the gulf of Kara, so that we can not wonder that the eastern coast of Nova Zembla, fronting a sea which opposes almost insuperable obstacles to the Arctic navigator, has remained almost totally unknown until 1833, while the western coast, exposed to the Gulf Stream, and bathed, in summer at least, by a vast open ocean, has long been traced in all its chief outlines on the map. ”

“ She knew that sound. It was the blowing of a lambai shell, the great conch shell of Karolin, blown only for war.
“We have come!” cried the shell. “The long canoes have come from the south, from the south, from the south! Kara! Kara! Kara! War! War! War!”
CHAPTER XXV
SOUTH When the squall took Katafa’s canoe that night, sweeping Taiofa overboard, he was not drowned, but the sea killed him all the same. ”

“ I was not surprised to learn later that local trading craft, equipped with a band of lynx-eyed Kanakas, never sail at night in these waters. Apart from the constant danger of known reefs, others have a knack of appearing and receding in the most uncanny way, so that no chart issued can keep track of them.
In this connection a most enthralling theory engages the attention of the South Sea student. It is his firm belief that what is now the "milky way" of the Pacific was at one time a vast coral and volcanic continent ”

“ She saw him fling out his arm at the beach and schooner, and she heard his voice shrill against the cries that followed him. It was the cry that the companions of Sru had hurled at him long ago.
“Kara! Kara! Kara!” “War! War! War!”
Turning, he brailed the sail and seized again the sculls. The dinghy was rocking and racing in the confluence of the floods from the arms of the lagoon.
They passed the palm tree in the northern pier of the break as an arrow passes the mark, tossed to the meeting of current and flood, and with sail filling again headed south against the long heave of the Pacific. ”

“ We had now reached the highest ridge of the hilly country along the northern base of Taurus, and saw, far and wide before us, the great central plain of Karamania. Two isolated mountains, at forty or fifty miles distance, broke the monotony of the desert-like level: Kara Dagh in the west, and the snowcapped summits of Hassan Dagh in the north-east. Beyond the latter, we tried to catch a glimpse of the famous Mons Argeus, at the base of which is Kaisariyeh, the ancient Cæsarea of Cappadocia. This mountain, which is 13,000 feet high, is the loftiest peak of Asia Minor. ”

“ Kara Bay is the sort of place a man might go to die in, if he felt like it, but it is not the sort of place any one would ever want to live in. As a matter of fact, no one ever has lived there.
The bay is like a black-lip shell, in curve and in color. The sand is like powdered cinder to look at, and as hot as the innocent-looking iron door of a furnace to feel. Behind comes a belt of poisonous painty-green low bush; behind that again, forest, so dark and tangled that it shows black even at midday. ”

“ A peninsula projecting from the south shore and an island off the north shore divide it into two basins, a smaller eastern one which is shallow, 42 to 63 ft., and a larger western one, which has depths of 726 to 756 ft. It has no drainage outlet. Little Kara-kul lies in the north-east Pamir, or Sarikol, north-west of the Mustagh-ata peak (25,850 ft.) , at an altitude of 12,700 ft. It varies in depth from 79 ft. in the south to 50 to 70 ft. in the middle, and 1000 ft. or more in the north. It is a moraine lake ”

“ It may be found, it is true, on them all; but still either in too inconsiderable quantities, or in situations too inconvenient, to serve the purposes of navigators. However, as the islands afford plenty of provisions, and particularly of cocoa-nuts, ships may make a tolerable shift with such water as is to be got; and if one is not over nice, there will be no want. While we lay at anchor under Kotoo, on our return from Hepaee, some people from Kao informed us, that there was a stream of water there, which, pouring down from the mountain, runs into the sea on the S.W. side of the island ”

“ The bay was enclosed by two huge buttresses of rock that stretched as rugged promontories far out into the ocean. There was no vegetation, not even a blade of grass, visible anywhere on this savage coast. Looking seawards he saw that a vast number of black rocks, among which raged a furious surf, bordered the shore. Beyond these were the outer reefs on which the sea broke heavily. And still farther out, on the horizon, rose three rocky islands of considerable size, glowing red as the sun's rays fell full upon them.
Carew could not imagine where he was and how he had reached this place. ”

“ Hitherto this happy hunting-ground had not been invaded by the sea-mammals. None of the air-breathing inhabitants of the ocean had ventured into its gloomy depths, or sought their prey among the blazing shallows of the surface-reefs, although no more favourable place for their exertions could possibly have been selected over all the wide sea. It had long been a favourite haunt of the Kraken, for whom it was, as aforesaid, an ideal spot, but now it was to witness a sight unparalleled in ocean history. Heralded by an amazing series of under-waves, the gathering of monsters drew near. ”

“ The only white man remaining was the Agent, and he, obsessed with a life-long horror of being buried at sea, steered the best course he could for the nearest island. The Cora, luckily heading into the treacherous reef-beset passage at the turn of the tide, dropped her hook in Kai lagoon in the first flush of the dawning of the next day. ”

“ As a matter of fact, between Golchika and Karaoul, at a distance of two hundred miles from the sea, there is one part where for nearly a hundred miles it is over sixty miles in width, and when there is a gale blowing, as was the case when we passed up it, the sea is quite as heavy as it is during a “sou’wester” in the English Channel, the flat character of the “tundras” (as the vast treeless plains in these regions are called) rendering the wind exceptionally bleak. ”

“ The Kirghis and Tartars of eastern Europe and Central Asia have held annual trading fairs from a time beyond which record does not go. Their restless progenitors, moving eastward, took the custom with them to the shores of the northern Pacific, northeast to Bering Sea and the limits of Siberia, and with them it must have crossed the narrow ice-ridden straits and found a resting-place in Arctic America. The great sandspit between Hotham Inlet and the waters of the ocean, at the head of Kotzebue Sound, has been the scene of this meeting for no one knows how many centuries. ”