ere the worthy doctor went they could follow. However, the
sailors were still uneasy, and Shandon, fearing that some of them
would desert, wished to be off. With the coast out of sight, they
would make up their mind to the inevitable.

Dr. Clawbonny's cabin was situated at the end of the poop, and occupied
all the stern of the vessel. The captain's and mate's cabins gave
upon deck. The captain's remained hermetically closed, after being
furnished with different instruments, furniture, travelling
garments, books, clothes for changing, and utensils, indicated in
a detailed list. According to the wish of the captain, the key of
the cabin was sent to Lubeck; he alone could enter his room.

This detail vexed Shandon, and took away all chance of the chief
command. As to his own cabin, he had perfectly appropriated it to
the needs of the presumed voyage, for he thoroughly understood the
needs of a Polar expedition. The room of the third officer was placed
under the lower deck, which formed a vast sleeping-room for the
sailors' use; the men were very comfortably lodged, and would not
have found anything like the same convenience on board any other ship;
they were cared for like the most priceless cargo: a vast stove
occupied all the centre of the common room. Dr. Clawbonny was in his
element; he had taken possession of his cabin on the 6th of February,
the day after the _Forward_ was launched.

"The happiest of animals," he used to say, "is a snail, for it can
make a shell exactly to fit it; I shall try to be an intelligent snail."

And considering that the shell was to be his lodging for a considerable
time, the cabin began to look like home; the doctor had a _savant's_
or a child's pleasure in arranging his scientific traps. His books,
his herbals, his set of pigeon-holes, his instruments of precision,
his chemical apparatus, his collection of thermometers, barometers,
hygrometers, rain-gauges, spectacles, compasses, sextants, maps,
plans, flasks, powders, bottles for medicine-chest, were all classed
in an order that would have shamed the British Museum. The space of
six square feet contained incalculable riches: the doctor had only
to stretch out his hand without moving to become instantaneously a
doctor, a mathematician, an astronomer, a geographer, a botanist,
or a conchologist. It must be acknowledged that he was proud of his
management and happy in his floating sanctuary, which three of his
thinnest friends would hav