many nights, we continued to drift with the
floes to the southward, or as near as might be, towards the haven of
our wishes. On the fourth morning, there was a suitable change in the
weather; both thermometer and barometer rose; the air became more bland,
and most of our cats and dogs, notwithstanding we were still surrounded
by the ice, began to cast their skins. Dr. Reasono noted these signs,
and stepping on the floe, he brought back with him a considerable
fragment of the frozen element. This was carried to the camboose, where
it was subjected to the action of fire, which, within a given number of
minutes, pretty much as a matter of course, as I thought, caused it to
melt. The whole process was watched with an anxiety the most intense, by
the whole of the monikins, however; and when the result was announced,
the amiable and lovely Chatterissa clapped her pretty little pattes
with joy, and gave all the other natural indications of delight, which
characterize the emotions of that gentle sex of which she was so bright
an ornament. Dr. Reasono was not backwards in explaining the cause of
so much unusual exhilaration, for hitherto her manner had been
characterized by the well-bred and sophisticated restraint which
marks high training. The experiment had shown, by the infallible and
scientific tests of monikin chemistry, that we were now within the
influence of a steam-climate, and there could no longer be any rational
doubt of our eventual arrival in the polar basin.

The result proved that the philosopher was right. About noon the
floes, which all that day had begun to assume what is termed a "sloppy
character," suddenly gave way, and the Walrus settled down into her
proper element, with great equanimity and propriety. Captain Poke lost
no time in unshipping the skids; and a smacking breeze, that was well
saturated with steam, springing up from the westward, we made sail. Our
course was due south, without regard to the ice, which yielded before
our bows like so much thick water, and just as the sun set, we entered
the open sea, rioting in the luxuriance of its genial climate, in
triumph.

Sail was carried on the ship all that night; and just as the day dawned,
we made the first mile-stone, a proof, not to be mistaken, that we were
now actually within the monikin region. Dr. Reasono had the goodness to
explain to us the history of these aquatic phenomena. It would seem that
when the earth exploded, its entire crust, thr