Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

Went with George Clarke to one of the islands near by. Had a terrible climb up the sides of the rocks, which were covered with snow, and then up the sides of the loftiest peak on the island. I never had such a climb in my life, and I wonder how we succeeded in scaling the precipice. We were frequently up to the thighs in snow, or at times crawling along the brow of a precipice with only a few inches of frozen snow between our feet and the slippery rocks below. After an hour’s hard work we reached the summit, and there found a cairn of stones which evidently had been raised there many years ago by visitors such as ourselves. We repaired it, and wrote the ship’s name and port upon an adjacent snowdrift for the information of anyone who might visit the cairn before next winter. We had a most magnificent view of the ocean and numerous islands and icebergs, the sun shining brilliantly and the sky without a cloud. By means of a very powerful telescope which one of the Shetland men had carried up we could see the three steamers ahead of us. Utter silence and desolation on all sides. Patches of dead heather and moss where the rocks were sheltered from the snow, and a peculiar straggling plant with bright purple blossoms.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

Which island? Was the raising of cairns at that time more of a Shetland than a Hull pursuit?

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Original

The surgeon of the Intrepid, Mr. Galloway of Dundee, a student of Glasgow University, called upon me. Saw great numbers of eider ducks on the floe edge. They are beautiful birds, but extremely shy. The cry of this species of duck is exactly like the bark of a dog.

Went with George Clarke to one of the islands near by. Had a terrible climb up the sides of the rocks, which were covered with snow, and then up the sides of the loftiest peak on the island. I never had such a climb in my life, and I wonder how we succeeded in scaling the precipice. We were frequently up to the thighs in snow, or at times crawling along the brow of a precipice with only a few inches of frozen snow between our feet and the slippery rocks below.

After an hour’s hard work we reached the summit, and there found a cairn of stones which evidently had been raised there many years ago by visitors such as ourselves. We repaired it, and wrote the ship’s name and port upon an adjacent snowdrift for the information of anyone who might visit the cairn before next winter.

We had a most magnificent view of the ocean and numerous islands and icebergs, the sun shining brilliantly and the sky without a cloud. By means of a very powerful telescope which one of the Shetland men had carried up we could see the three steamers ahead of us. Utter silence and desolation on all sides. Patches of dead heather and moss where the rocks were sheltered from the snow, and a peculiar straggling plant with bright purple blossoms.

Our return was much more expeditious than our outward journey. The easiest method of descent was to squat on one’s hams and slide from top to bottom of the hills. Seeing a white object upon a large boulder, we looked at it with the telescope, and lo! ’twas a ptarmigan. George Clarke crept near and shot it. ‘Twas a beautiful bird, snow-white (except for a few black feathers in the tail), and with brilliant red wattles over its eyes.

Returned to the ship at midnight. The sun shone brilliantly all night. Noticed from the ship’s side a great number of large medusae, so large that the circulation of drops of water could be seen quite easily with the naked eye as they floated past.

417 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Arctic Ocean (9) ·
• Cairn (1) ·
• Diana (1840 ship) (8) ·
• 📌Kingston upon Hull (65) ·
• Mountaineering (3) ·
• Rock ptarmigan (1) ·
• Sailing ship (5) ·
• Seal hunting (4) ·
• Shetland (5) ·
• Souvenir (1) ·
• Steamship (5) ·
• Whaling in the United Kingdom (11) ·
• Whaling (9) ·

All tags.

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