t fortunately it was Sammy who
was by her when she proclaimed her discovery, and he did not believe
in any such nonsense, suggesting that it might have been some sort of a
fish. After that the idea of fish filled the mind of Mrs. Block, and she
set herself to work to search in an encyclopaedia which was on board for
descriptions of fishes which inhabited the depths of the arctic seas. To
meet a whale, she thought, would be very bad, but then a whale is clumsy
and soft; a sword-fish was what she most dreaded. A sword-fish running
his sword through one of the glass windows, and perhaps coming in
himself along with the water, sent a chill down her back every time she
thought about it and talked about it.

"You needn't be afraid of sword-fishes," said Captain Jim Hubbell. "They
don't fancy the cold water we are sailin' in; and as to whales, don't
you know, madam, there ain't no more of 'em?"

"No more whales!" exclaimed Sarah. "I have heard about 'em all my life!"

"Oh, you can read and hear about 'em easy enough," replied Captain Jim,
"but you nor nobody else will ever see none of 'em ag'in--at least, in
this part of the world. Sperm-whales began gittin' scarce when I was
a boy, and pretty soon there was nothin' left but bow-head or right
whales, that tried to keep out of the way of human bein's by livin' far
up North; but when they came to shootin' 'em with cannons which would
carry three or four miles, the whale's day was up, and he got scarcer
and scarcer, until he faded out altogether. There was a British vessel,
the Barkright, that killed two bow-head whales in 1935, north of
Melville Island, but since that time there hasn't been a whale seen in
all the arctic waters. I have heard that said by sailors, and I have
read about it. They have all been killed, and nothin' left of 'em but
the skeletons that's in the museums."

Mrs. Block shuddered. "It would be terrible to meet a livin' one, and
yet it is an awful thought to think that they are all dead and gone,"
said she.

CHAPTER VI. VOICES FROM THE POLAR SEAS

Although Sammy Block and his companions were not only far up among the
mysteries of the region of everlasting ice, and were sunk out of sight,
so that their vessel had become one of these mysteries, it was still
perfectly possible for them to communicate, by means of the telegraphic
wire which was continually unrolling astern, with people all over the
world. But this communication was a matter which r