h it and waited for a favourable moment to set sail again. I must
acknowledge that such a manner of voyaging required months, whilst
with a little good fortune we shall only want a few days."

"It seems to me," said the doctor, "that the temperature has a tendency
to get lower."

"That would be a pity," answered Johnson, "for a thaw is necessary
to break up these masses and drive them away into the Atlantic; besides,
they are more numerous in Davis's Straits, for the sea gets narrower
between Capes Walsingham and Holsteinborg; but on the other side of
the 67th degree we shall find the seas more navigable during the months
of May and June."

"Yes; but first of all we must get to the other side."

"Yes, we must get there, Mr. Clawbonny. In June and July we should
have found an open passage, like the whalers do, but our orders were
precise; we were to be here in April. I am very much mistaken if our
captain has not his reasons for getting us out here so early."

The doctor was right in stating that the temperature was lowering;
the thermometer at noon only indicated 6 degrees, and a north-west
breeze was getting up, which, although it cleared the sky, assisted
the current in precipitating the floating masses of ice into the path
of the _Forward_. All of them did not obey the same impulsion, and
it was not uncommon to encounter some of the highest masses drifting
in an opposite direction, seized at their base by an undercurrent.

It is easy to understand the difficulties of this kind of navigation;
the engineers had not a minute's rest; the engines were worked from
the deck by means of levers, which opened, stopped, and reversed them
according to the orders of the officers on watch. Sometimes the brig
had to hasten through an opening in the ice-fields, sometimes to
struggle against the swiftness of an iceberg which threatened to close
the only practicable issue, or, again, some block, suddenly
overthrown, compelled the brig to back quickly so as not to be crushed
to pieces. This mass of ice, carried along, broken up and amalgamated
by the northern current, crushed up the passage, and if seized by
the frost would oppose an impassable barrier to the passage of the
_Forward_.

Birds were found in innumerable quantities on these coasts, petrels
and other sea-birds fluttered about here and there with deafening
cries, a great number of big-headed, short-necked sea-gulls were
amongst them; they spread out their long wings