would have noticed his lips curl with a cruel smile. At this moment
the men sent by Lieutenant Wall came up; they soon saw the state of
affairs. Shandon advanced towards the captain, and said:

"Mr. Hatteras, we need not despair; happily we are near the entrance
to Barrow Strait, which will take us back to Baffin's Sea!"

"Mr. Shandon," answered Hatteras, "happily we are near the entrance
to Wellington Strait, and that will take us north!"

"But how shall we get along, captain?"

"With the sails, sir. We have two months' firing left, and that is
enough for our wintering."

"But allow me to tell you----" added Shandon.

"I will allow you to follow me on board my ship, sir," answered
Hatteras, and turning his back on his second, he returned to the brig
and shut himself up in his cabin. For the next two days the wind was
contrary, and the captain did not show up on deck. The doctor profited
by the forced sojourn to go over Beechey Island; he gathered some
plants, which the temperature, relatively high, allowed to grow here
and there on the rocks that the snow had left, some heaths, a few
lichens, a sort of yellow ranunculus, a sort of plant something like
sorrel, with wider leaves and more veins, and some pretty vigorous
saxifrages. He found the fauna of this country much richer than the
flora; he perceived long flocks of geese and cranes going northward,
partridges, eider ducks of a bluish black, sandpipers, a sort of
wading bird of the scolopax class, northern divers, plungers with
very long bodies, numerous ptarmites, a sort of bird very good to
eat, dovekies with black bodies, wings spotted with white, feet and
beak red as coral; noisy bands of kittywakes and fat loons with white
breasts, represented the ornithology of the island. The doctor was
fortunate enough to kill a few grey hares, which had not yet put on
their white winter fur, and a blue fox which Dick ran down skilfully.
Some bears, evidently accustomed to dread the presence of men, would
not allow themselves to be got at, and the seals were extremely timid,
doubtless for the same reason as their enemies the bears. The class
of articulated animals was represented by a single mosquito, which
the doctor caught to his great delight, though not till it had stung
him. As a conchologist he was less favoured, and only found a sort
of mussel and some bivalve shells.

CHAPTER XXI

THE DEATH OF BELLOT

The temperature during the days of the 3rd and 4