TERRORS AND MYSTERIES OF THE POLAR REGION 227 



Later navigators, curious to learn whether the story of Pytheas 

 were true or not, followed his course. Some of them went on until 

 they were caught in the rigors' of the Arctic winter and perished in 

 the crashing ice-floes. Occasionally some came home again, after 

 having reached far enough to see the great icebergs, floating with 

 all their stately majesty in the blue waters and towering as high 

 as mountains, their summits a mass of glittering pinnacles and 

 their sides scored and grooved with cavities and caverns. Some of 

 them saw the animals which live in that cold, barren region; the 

 great white bear, with its coat of thick shaggy fur, its long ungainly 

 figure and heavy swaying neck ; the walrus, with its gleaming tusks 

 hanging down from its upper jaws ; the seals, with their great round 

 eyes staring at the unknown intruders; above all, the huge whales, 

 spouting and floundering in the sea, coming to the surface with a 

 snort which sent the spray flying high in the air, and disappearing 

 again with a splash that was like a crashing billow. Little wonder 

 that those who returned from seeing such sights and hearing such 

 strange sounds should tell wonderful stories about the weird crea- 

 tures inhabiting the place. 



The sounds must have been as terrifying and mystifying as the 

 sights, for in the clear, intense atmosphere of the winter months 

 in the Arctic region, noise travels over almost incredible distances. 

 When Parry was on Melville's Island, he speaks of hearing the 

 voices of men who were talking not less than a mile away. In the 

 depth of winter, when the great cold has its icy grip on everything, 

 the silence is unbroken along the shores of the Polar Sea ; but when 

 the frost sets in, and again when the winter gives way to spring, 

 there is abundance of noise. As the frost comes down along the 

 coast, rocks are split asunder with a noise of big guns, and the 

 sound goes booming away across the frozen tracts, startling the 

 slouching bear in his lonely haunts, and causing him to give vent 

 to his hoarse, barking roar in answer. The ice, just forming into 

 sheets, creaks and cracks as the rising or falling tide strains it 



