Casillo
por Daniel ResidenciasCHAPTER Eight
THE EIDER-DOWN HUNTER.-OFF AT LAST.
THAT evening I took a brief walk on the shore near Reykjawik, after which I returned to an early sleep on my bed of coarse planks, where I slept the sleep of the just. When I awoke I heard my uncle speaking loudly in the next room. I rose hastily and joined him. He was talk-ing in Danish with a man of tall stature, and of perfectly Herculean build. This man appeared to be possessed of very great strength. His eyes, which started rather pro-minently from a very large head, the face belonging to which was simple and naïve, appeared very quick and intelligent. Very long hair, which even in England would have been accounted exceedingly red, fell over his athletic shoulders. This native of Iceland was active and supple in appearance, though he scarcely moved his arms, being in fact one of those men who despise the habit of gesticu-lation common to southern people.
Everything in this man's manner revealed a calm and phlegmatic temperament. There was nothing indolent about him, but his appearance spoke of tranquillity. He was one of those who never seemed to expect anything from anybody, who liked to work when he thought pro-per, and whose philosophy nothing could astonish or trouble.
I began to comprehend his character, simply from the way in which he listened to the wild and impassioned ver-biage of my worthy uncle. While the excellent Professor spoke sentence after sentence, he stood with folded arms, utterly still, motionless to all my uncle's gesticulations. When he wanted to say No he moved his head from left to right; when he acquiesced he nodded, so slightly that you could scarcely see the undulation of his head. This economy of motion was carried to the length of avarice.
Judging from his appearance I should have been a long time before I had suspected him to be what he was, a mighty hunter. Certainly his manner was not likely to frighten the game. How, then, did he contrive to get at his prey?
My surprise was slightly modified when I knew that this tranquil and solemn personage, was only a hunter of the eider-duck, the down of which is, after all, the greatest source of the Icelanders' wealth.
In the early days of summer, the female of the eider, a pretty sort of duck, builds its nest amid the rocks of the fjords the name given to all narrow gulfs in Scandinavian countries with which every part of the island is indented. No sooner has the eider-duck made her nest than she lines the inside of it with the softest down from her breast. Then comes the hunter or trader, taking away the nest, the poor bereaved female begins her task over again, and this continues as long as any eider-down is to be found.
When she can find no more the male bird sets to work to see what he can do. As, however, his down is not so soft, and has therefore no commercial value, the hunter does not take the trouble to rob him of his nest-lining. The nest is accordingly finished, the eggs are laid, the little ones are born, and next year the harvest of eider-down is again collected.
Now, as the eider-duck never selects steep rocks or as-pects to build its nest, but rather sloping and low clifís near to the sea, the Icelandic hunter can carry on his trade operations without much difficulty. He is like a farmer who has neither to plow, to sow, nor to harrow, only to col-lect his harvest.*
• The birds, however, aro not always so accommodating. They are found This grave, sententious, silent person, as phlegmatic as an Englishman on the French stage, was named Hans Bjelke. He had called upon us in consequence of the re-commendation of M. Fridriksson. He was, in fact, our future guide. It struck me that had I sought the world over, I could not have found a greater contradiction to my impulsive uncle.
They, however, readily understood one another. Neither of them had any thought about money; one was ready to take all that was offered him, the other ready to offer any-thing that was asked. It may readily be conceived, then, that an understanding was soon come to between them.
Now, the understanding was, that he was to take us to the village of Stapi, situated on the southern slope of the peninsula of Sneffels, at the very foot of the volcano. Hans, the guide, told us the distance was about twenty-two miles, a journey which my uncle supposed would take about two days.
But when my uncle came to understand that they were Danish miles, of eight thousand yards each, he was obliged to be more moderate in his ideas, and, considering the horrible roads we had to follow, to allow eight or ten days for the journey.
Four horses were prepared for us, two to carry the bag-gage, and two to bear the important weight of myself and uncle. Hans declared that nothing ever would make him climb on the back of any animal. He knew every inch of that part of the coast, and promised to take us the very shortest way.
His engagement with my uncle was by no means to
in the southern part of England as a winter visitant, but in the more north. ern part of our isle, and in the north of Scotland remain all the year. One of our ahlest naturalists says: "Taking these nests is a regular business not unattended with risk, on account of the precipitous localities in which the eider-duck often breeds." Again, "The eider is a shy, retiring bird placing its nest on islands and rocks projecting well into the sea." cease with our arrival at Stapi; he was further to remain in his service during the whole time required for the com-pletion of his scientific investigations, at the fixed salary of three rix-dollars a week, being exactly fourteen shil-lings and twopence, minus one farthing, English currency. One stipulation, however, was made by the guide the money was to be paid to him every Saturday night, fail-ing which, his engagement was at an end.
The day of our departure was fixed. My uncle wished to hand the eider-down hunter an advance, but he refused in one emphatic word-
"Efter."
Which being translated from Icelandic into plain Eng-lish means After.
The treaty concluded, our worthy guide retired without another word.
"A splendid fellow," said my uncle; "only he little suspects the marvellous part he is about to play in the his-tory of the world."
"You mean, then," I cried in amazement, "that he should accompany us?"
"To the Interior of the Earth, yes;" replied my uncle. "Why not?"
There were yet forty-eight hours to elapse before we made our final start. To my great regret, our whole time was taken up in making preparations for our journey. All our industry and ability were devoted to packing every object in the most advantageous manner the instruments on one side, the arms on the other, the tools here and the provisions there. There were, in fact, four distinct groups.
The instruments were of course of the best manufac-ture:-
1. A centigrade thermometer of Eizel, counting up to 150 degrees, which to me did not appear half enough-too much. Too hot by half, if the degree of heat was to ascend so high-in which case we should certainly be cooked-not enough, if we wanted to ascertain the exact temperature of springs or metal in a state of fusion.
2. A manometer worked by compressed air, an instru-ment used to ascertain the upper atmospheric pressure on the level of the ocean. Perhaps a common barometer would not have done as well, the atmospheric pressure be-ing likely to increase in proportion as we descended below the surface of the earth.
3. A first-class chronometer made by Boissonnas, of Geneva, set at the meridian of Hamburg, from which Germans calculate, as the English do from Greenwich, and the French from Paris.
4. Two compasses, one for horizontal guidance, the other to ascertain the dip.
5. A night glass.
6. Two Ruhmkorf's coils, which, by means of a current of electricity, would ensure us a very excellent, easy car-ried, and certain means of obtaining light.
7. A voltaic battery on the newest principle.*
*Thermometer (thermos, hot, and metron, measure); an instrument for measuring the temperature of the air. Manometer (manos, rare, and metron, measure); an instrument to show the density or rarity of gases. Chrono-meter (chronos, time, and metron, measure) a time measurer, or superior watch.-Ruhmkorf's coil, an instrument for producing currents of induced electricity of great intensity. It tonsists of a coil of copper wire, insulated by being covered with silk, surrounded by another coifof fine wire, also in-sulated, in which a momentary current is induced when a current is passed through the inner coil from a voltaic battery. When the apparatus is in action, the gas becomes luminous, and produces a white and continued light. The battery and wire are carried in a leather bag, which the travel-ler fastene by a strap to his shoulders. The lantern is in front, and enables the benighted wanderer to see in the most profound obscurity. He may venture without fear of explosion into the midst of the most inflammable gases, and the lantern will burn beneath the deepest waters. M. Ruhm-korf, ao able and learned chemist, discovered the induction coil. In 1864 he obtained the great French prize £2,000 for this ingenious application of electricity. A voltaic battery, so called from Volta, its designer, is an ap paratus consisting of a series of metal plates arranged in pairs and sub jected to the action of saline solutions for producing currents of electricity Our arms consisted of two rifles, with two revolving six-shooters. Why these arms were provided it was impossi-ble for me to say. I had every reason to believe that we had neither wild beasts nor savage natives to fear. My uncle, on the other hand, was quite as devoted to his arsenal as to his collection of instruments, and above all was very careful with his provision of fulminating or gun cotton, warranted to keep in any climate, and of which the expansive force was known to be greater than that of ordinary gunpowder.
Our tools consisted of two pickaxes, two crowbars, a silken ladder, three iron-shod Alpine poles, a hatchet, a hammer, a dozen wedges, some pointed pieces of iron, and a quantity of strong rope. You may conceive that the whole made a tolerable parcel, especially when I mention that the ladder itself was three hundred feet long!
Then there came the important question of provisions. The hamper was not very large but tolerably satisfactory, for I knew that in concentrated essence of meat and biscuit there was enough to last six months. The only liquid provided by my uncle was scheidam. Of water, not a drop. We had, however, an ample supply of gourds, and my uncle counted on finding water, and enough to fill them, as soon as we commenced our downward journey.
My remarks as to the temperature, the quality, and even as to the possibility of none being found, remained wholly without effect.
To make up the exact list of our travelling gear for the guidance of future travellers-I will add, that we carried a medicine and surgical chest with all apparatus necessary for wounds, fractures and blows; lint, scissors, lancets-in fact, a perfect collection of horrible-looking instruments; a number of phials containing ammonia, alcohol, ether, goulard water, aromatic vinegar, in fact, every possible and impossible drug-fiually, all the materials for working the Ruhmkorf coil !
