he continued, with a constrained look, and as though the words were
unable to leave his lips--"I must add that, in 1854, Kane, the American,
commanding the brig _Advance_, went still higher, and that his
lieutenant, Morton, going across the ice-fields, hoisted the United
States standard on the other side of the eighty-second degree. This
said, I shall not return to the subject. Now what remains to be known
is this, that the captains of the _Neptune_, the _Enterprise_, the
_Isabel_, and the _Advance_ ascertained that proceeding from the
highest latitudes there existed a Polar basin entirely free from ice."

"Free from ice!" exclaimed Shandon, interrupting the captain, "that
is impossible!"

"You will notice, Shandon," quietly replied Hatteras, whose eye shone
for an instant, "that I quote names and facts as a proof. I may even
add that during Captain Parry's station on the border of Wellington
Channel, in 1851, his lieutenant, Stewart, also found himself in the
presence of open sea, and this peculiarity was confirmed during Sir
Edward Beecher's wintering in 1853, in Northumberland Bay, in 76
degrees 52 minutes N. latitude, and 99 degrees 20 minutes longitude.
The reports are incontestable, and it would be most unjust not to
admit them."

"However, captain," continued Shandon, "those reports are so
contradictory."

"You are mistaken, Shandon," cried Dr. Clawbonny. "These reports do
not contradict any scientific assertion, the captain will allow me
to tell you."

"Go on, doctor," answered Hatteras.

"Well, listen, Shandon; it evidently follows from geographical facts,
and from the study of isotherm lines, that the coldest point of the
globe is not at the Pole itself; like the magnetic point, it deviates
several degrees from the Pole. The calculations of Brewster, Bergham,
and several other natural philosophers show us that in our hemisphere
there are two cold Poles; one is situated in Asia at 79 degrees 30
minutes N. latitude, and by 120 degrees E. longitude, and the other
in America at 78 degrees N. latitude, and 97 degrees W. longitude.
It is with the latter that we have to do, and you see, Shandon, we
have met with it at more than twelve degrees below the Pole. Well,
why should not the Polar Sea be as equally disengaged from ice as
the sixty-sixth parallel is in summer--that is to say, the south of
Baffin's Bay?"

"That's what I call well pleaded," replied Johnson. "Mr. Clawbonny
speaks upon these matters li