so many statements," he said to himself,--"after the accounts
of Stewart, Penny, and Belcher, doubt is impossible! These bold
sailors saw, and with their own eyes! Can I doubt their word? No! But
yet if this sea is closed by an early winter-- But no, these
discoveries have been made at intervals of several years; this sea
exists, and I shall find it! I shall see it!"

[Illustration]

Hatteras went upon the quarter-deck. A dense mist enveloped the
_Forward_; from the deck one could hardly see the top of the mast.
Nevertheless, Hatteras ordered the ice-master below, and took his
place; he wanted to make use of the first break in the fog to look at
the horizon in the northwest.

Shandon took occasion to say to the second mate,--

"Well, Wall, and the open sea?"

"You were right, Shandon," answered Wall, "and we have only six weeks'
coal in the bunkers."

"The doctor will invent some scientific way," continued Shandon, "of
heating us without fuel. I've heard of making ice with fire; perhaps
he will make fire with ice."

Shandon returned to his cabin, shrugging his shoulders.

The next day, August 20th, the fog lifted for a few minutes. From the
deck they saw Hatteras in his lofty perch gazing intently towards the
horizon; then he came down without saying a word and ordered them to
set sail; but it was easy to see that his hopes had been once more
deceived.

The _Forward_ heaved anchor and resumed her uncertain path northward.
So wearisome was it that the main-topsail and fore-topsail yards were
lowered with all their rigging; the masts were also lowered, and it
was no longer possible to place any reliance on the varying wind,
which, moreover, the winding nature of the passes made almost useless;
large white masses were gathering here and there in the sea, like
spots of oil; they indicated an approaching thaw; as soon as the wind
began to slacken, the sea began to freeze again, but when the wind
arose this young ice would break and disperse. Towards evening the
thermometer fell to 17 degrees.

When the brig arrived at the end of a closed pass, it rushed on at
full steam against the opposing obstacle. Sometimes they thought her
fairly stopped; but some unexpected motion of the ice-streams would
open a new passage into which she would plunge boldly; during these
stoppages the steam would escape from the safety-valves and fall on
the deck in the form of snow. There was another obstacle to the
progress of the brig;