the highest on three points of the compass; the south-east
wind alone could reach her. If instead of icebergs there had been
rocks, verdure instead of snow, and the sea in its liquid state again,
the brig would have been safely anchored in a pretty bay sheltered
from the worst winds. But in such a latitude it was a miserable state
of things. They were obliged to fasten the brig by means of her anchors,
notwithstanding her immovability; they were obliged to prepare for
the submarine currents and the breaking up of the ice. When Johnson
heard where they were, he took the greatest precautions in getting
everything ready for wintering.

"It's the captain's usual luck," said he to the doctor; "we've got
nipped in the most disagreeable point of the whole glove! Never mind;
we'll get out of it!"

As to the doctor, he was delighted at the situation. He would not
have changed it for any other! A winter at the Frozen Pole seemed
to him desirable. The crew were set to work at the sails, which were
not taken down, and put into the hold, as the first people who wintered
in these regions had thought prudent; they were folded up in their
cases, and the ice soon made them an impervious envelope. The crow's
nest, too, remained in its place, serving as a nautical observatory;
the rigging alone was taken away. It became necessary to cut away
the part of the field that surrounded the brig, which began to suffer
from the pressure. It was a long and painful work. In a few days the
keel was cleared, and on examination was found to have suffered little,
thanks to the solidity of its construction, only its copper plating
was almost all torn off. When the ship was once liberated she rose
at least nine inches; the crew then bevelled the ice in the shape
of the keel, and the field formed again under the brig, and offered
sufficient opposition to pressure from without. The doctor helped
in all this work; he used the ice-knife skilfully; he incited the
sailors by his happy disposition. He instructed himself and others,
and was delighted to find the ice under the ship.

"It's a very good precaution!" said he.

"We couldn't do without it, Mr. Clawbonny," said Johnson. "Now we
can raise a snow-wall as high as the gunwale, and if we like we can
make it ten feet thick, for we've plenty of materials."

"That's an excellent idea," answered the doctor. "Snow is a bad
conductor of heat; it reflects it instead of absorbing it, and the
heat of the interi