find me
devoted to you. But let us wait and see what turns up."

The storm, as may be seen, was gathering over Hatteras's head; but he
pushed on boldly, firm, energetic, and confident. In fact, if he had
not always managed the brig as he wanted to, and carried her where he
was anxious to go, he had still been very successful; the distance
passed over in five months was as great as what it had taken other
explorers two or three years to make. Hatteras was now obliged to go
into winter-quarters, but this would not alarm men of courage,
experience, and confidence. Had not Sir John Ross and MacClure spent
three successive winters in the arctic regions? Could not he do what
they had done?

"Yes, of course," Hatteras used to say, "and more too, if need be.
Ah!" he said regretfully to the doctor, "why was I unable to get
through Smith's Sound, at the north of Baffin's Bay? I should be at
the Pole now!"

"Well," the doctor used invariably to answer,--if necessary he could
have invented confidence,--"we shall get there, Captain, but, it is
true, at the ninety-ninth meridian instead of the seventy-fifth; but
what difference does that make? If every road leads to Rome, it is
even surer that every meridian leads to the Pole."

August 31st, the thermometer fell to 13 degrees. The end of the summer
was evidently near; the _Forward_ left Exmouth Island to starboard,
and three days afterward she passed Table Island, lying in the middle
of Belcher Channel. Earlier in the season it would have been possible
to reach Baffin's Bay through this channel, but at this time it was
impossible to think of it. This arm of the sea was completely filled
with ice, and would not have offered a drop of open water to the prow
of the _Forward_; for the next eight months their eyes would see
nothing but boundless, motionless ice-fields.

Fortunately, they could still get a few minutes farther north, but
only by breaking the new ice with huge beams, or by blowing it up with
charges of powder. They especially had cause to fear calm weather
while the temperature was so low, for the passes closed quickly, and
they rejoiced even at contrary winds. A calm night, and everything was
frozen!

Now the _Forward_ could not winter where she was, exposed to the wind,
icebergs, and the drift of the channel; a safe protection was the
first thing to be found; Hatteras hoped to gain the coast of New
Cornwall, and to find, beyond Point Albert, a bay sufficiently
she