Part 29 (1/2)

”Yes”

”But then the footmarks?”

”They were ours, friends, just ours,” exclai, and been wandering in a circle”

”But the boot-marks,” objected Hatteras

”Bell's He walked about a whole day after he had lost his snow shoes”

”So I did,” said Bell

The hed heartily, except Hatteras, though no one was lad than he at the discovery

A quarter of an hour afterwards the little sloop sailed out of Altae of discovery The as favourable, but there was little of it, and the weather was positively ware journey She was in first-rate tried Johnson steered, the Doctor, Bell, and the Ao, and Hatteras stood at the prow, his fixed, eager gaze bent steadily on that mysterious point towards which he felt draith irresistible power, like the netic needle to the Pole He wished to be the first to descry any shore that ht to the honour

The water of this Polar Sea presented so In colour it was a faint ultramarine blue, and possessed such wonderful transparency that one seehted up, no doubt, by so creatures were visible that the vessel see over a vast aquariu over the surface of thisthe sky like thick heavy stor theantic proportions Their cries were absolutely deafening, and some of them had such

[Illustration: ]

is, that they covered the sloop coood naturalist, but he found his science greatly at fault, for ical society

[Illustration: And the Doctor leaning over the side of the vessel, could see the whales and the dolphins, and all the rest of the ood little man was equally nonplussed when he looked at the water, for he saw the e that they looked like little islands floating about aian sea-weeds And below the surface, what a spectacleweapon of defence, like the horn of a unicorn, chasing the ti out colu the air with a peculiar whizzing noise; dolphins, seals, and walruses; sea-dogs and sea-horses, sea-bears and sea-elephants, quietly browsing on subaze at thelass tanks in the Zoological Gardens

There was a strange supernatural purity about the aten, and had aan al, Hatteras and his coh the sun remained just above the horizon; but it had the same influence on animated nature as in temperate zones Birds, fish, and all the cetacea disappeared and perfect silence prevailed

Since the departure froree further north The next day brought no signs of land; there was not even a speck on the horizon The as still favourable, and the sea pretty calm The birds and fishes returned as nu over the side of the vessel, could see the whales and the dolphins, and all the rest of theup from the clear depths below On the surface, far as the eye could reach, nothing was visible except a solitary iceberg here and there, and a few scattered floes

Indeed, but little ice was rees above the point of greatest cold, and consequently in the same temperature as Baffin's Bay and Disko It was therefore not astonishi+ng that the sea should be open in these sureat practical value, for if ever the whalers can penetrate north as far as the Polar basin, they o, as this part of the ocean seeeneral reservoir of whales and seals, and everyappeared on the horizon Hatteras never left the prow of the shi+p, but stood, glass in hand, eagerly gazing into the distance with anxious, questioning eyes, and seeking to discover, in the colour of the water, the shape of the waves, and the breath of the wind, indications of approaching land

CHAPTER XXII

GETTING NEAR THE POLE

Hour after hour passed away, and still Hatteras persevered in his weary watch, though his hopes appeared dooth, about six in the evening, a dim, hazy, shapeless sort of mist seemed to rise far away between sea and sky It was not a cloud, for it was constantly vanishi+ng, and then reappearing next minute

Hatteras was the first to notice this peculiar phenoh his telescope, he couldof it