on in the stove
inside you as much as the stove there wants coal."

Every man was forced to take a bath in the half-frozen water condensed
from the fire. The doctor set the example; he did it at first as we
do all disagreeable things that we feel obliged to do, but he soon
began to take extreme pleasure in it. When the men had to go out either
to hunt or work they had to take great care not to get frost-bitten;
and if by accident it happened, they made haste to rub the part
attacked with snow to bring back the circulation of the blood. Besides
being carefully clothed in wool from head to foot, the men wore hoods
of buckskin and sealskin trousers, through which it is impossible
for the wind to penetrate. All these preparations took about three
weeks, and the 10th of October came round without anything remarkable
happening.

CHAPTER XXV

AN OLD FOX

That day the thermometer went down to 3 degrees below zero. The weather
was pretty calm, and the cold without breeze was bearable. Hatteras
profited by the clearness of the atmosphere to reconnoitre the
surrounding plains; he climbed one of the highest icebergs to the
north, and could see nothing, as far as his telescope would let him,
but ice-fields and icebergs. No land anywhere, but the image of chaos
in its saddest aspect. He came back on board trying to calculate the
probable duration of his captivity. The hunters, and amongst them
the doctor, James Wall, Simpson, Johnson, and Bell, did not fail to
supply the ship with fresh meat. Birds had disappeared; they were
gone to less rigorous southern climates. The ptarmigans, a sort of
partridge, alone stay the winter in these latitudes; they are easily
killed, and their great number promised an abundant supply of game.
There were plenty of hares, foxes, wolves, ermine, and bears; there
were enough for any sportsman, English, French, or Norwegian; but
they were difficult to get at, and difficult to distinguish on the
white plains from the whiteness of their fur; when the intense cold
comes their fur changes colour, and white is their winter colour.
The doctor found that this change of fur is not caused by the change
of temperature, for it takes place in the month of October, and is
simply a precaution of Providence to guard them from the rigour of
a boreal winter.

Seals were abundant in all their varieties, and were particularly
sought after by the hunters for the sake, not only of their skins,
but their fat, wh