United States or Sierra Leone ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The fife-and-drum corps followed, and behind marched the champions, dragging Hecla Number One on its ruckling trucks. Then, with the bass drums punctuating and accenting, they sang: "Rip-te-hoo! And a hip, hip, holler! We'll lick hell for a half a dollar!"
Scarcely had Captain Parry returned than it was resolved to fit out another expedition without delay. For this purpose the Hecla was again commissioned, and as it was considered that vessels of the same size were best calculated for the work, the Fury, of three hundred and seventy-seven tons, was appointed to accompany her instead of the old Griper.
On the 24th he got off a harbour on the western side of Melville Island. A large floe, two miles wide, guarded its entrance. To get through this floe, it was necessary to form a channel with the ice-saws. To do this two parallel lines were first marked with boarding-pikes on the ice, at a distance from each other of somewhat more than the breadth of the Hecla.
The FURY, HECLA, and NAUTILUS transport were completed for sea towards the latter part of the month of April, and on the 29th, at ten A.M., the Fury was taken in tow by the Eclipse steamboat, which vessel had before taken us down the river on a similar occasion. The Hecla reached the moorings on the following day, and the Nautilus on the first of May.
The smooth jet-black, bright, and dense lava is only found on the mountain itself and in its immediate vicinity. But all lava is not the same: there is jagged, glassy, and porous lava; the former is black, and so is the sand which covers one side of Hecla.
"I'll break it for him," said I, now flying into a passion again at this unaccountable farrago of the landlord's. "It's broke a'ready," said he. "Broke," said I "broke, do you mean?" "Sartain, and that's the very reason he can't sell it, I guess." "Landlord," said I, going up to him as cool as Mt. Hecla in a snowstorm "landlord, stop whittling.
From every bush around them the Arabs leapt up and flung themselves upon the troops. Admiral Hewett himself led the sailors and joined in the hand-to-hand fight. A party of fanatics nearly succeeded in breaking in between the sailors and the 65th, but Captain Wilson, of the Hecla, threw himself into the gap, and, fighting desperately, drove back the assailants.
So intense is the volcanic energy in this island that some of the eruptions of Hecla have lasted six years without cessation. Earthquakes have often shaken the whole island at once, causing great changes in the interior, such as the sinking down of hills, the rending of mountains, the desertion by rivers of their channels, and the appearance of new lakes.
Skaptar in the north, and Hecla in the south, being much the best known. In all, twenty-three eruptions are on record. Iceland's volcanoes rival Mount Aetna in height and magnitude, their action has been more continuous and intense, and the range of volcanic products is far greater than in Sicily.
After two hours' hard pulling, we succeeded in getting the Hecla back again into clear water, and to a sufficient distance from the icebergs, which it is very dangerous to approach when there is a swell. At noon we were in lat. 69° 50' 47", long. 57° 07' 56", being near the middle of the narrowest part of Davis's Strait, which is here not more than fifty leagues across.
Word Of The Day