sailed with extraordinary fleetness into the Irish
Sea.

CHAPTER V

OUT AT SEA

The wind was favourable, though it blew in April gales. The _Forward_
cut through the waves, and towards three o'clock crossed the mail
steamer between Liverpool and the Isle of Man. The captain hailed
from his deck the last adieu that the _Forward_ was destined to hear.

At five o'clock the pilot left the command in the hands of Richard
Shandon, the commander of the brig, and regained his cutter, which,
turning round, soon disappeared on the south-west. Towards evening
the brig doubled the Calf of Man at the southern extremity of the
island. During the night the sea was very rough, but the _Forward_
behaved well, left the point of Ayr to the north-west, and directed
its course for the Northern Channel. Johnson was right; once out at
sea the maritime instinct of the sailors gained the upper hand. Life
on board went on with regularity.

The doctor breathed in the sea air with delight; he walked about
vigorously in the squalls, and for a _savant_ he was not a bad sailor.

"The sea is splendid," said he to Johnson, coming up on deck after
breakfast. "I have made its acquaintance rather late, but I shall
make up for lost time."

"You are right, Mr. Clawbonny. I would give all the continents of
the world for a corner of the ocean. They pretend that sailors soon
get tired of their profession, but I've been forty years on the sea
and I love it as much as the first day."

"It is a great pleasure to feel a good ship under one's feet, and
if I'm not a bad judge the _Forward_ behaves herself well."

"You judge rightly, doctor," answered Shandon, who had joined the
talkers; "she is a good ship, and I acknowledge that a vessel destined
for navigation amongst ice has never been better equipped. That
reminds me that thirty years ago Captain James Ross, sailing for the
North-West passage----"

"In the _Victory_," added the doctor quickly, "a brig about the same
tonnage as ours, with a steam-engine too."

"What! you know about that?"

"Judge if I do," answered the doctor. "Machines were then in their
infancy, and the _Victory's_ kept her back; the captain, James Ross,
after having vainly repaired it bit by bit, finished by taking it
down, and abandoned it at his first winter quarters."

"The devil!" said Shandon. "You know all about it, I see."

"Yes. I've read the works of Parry, Ross, and Franklin, and the reports
of McClure, Ken