more than forty-five degrees. Hatteras took firm
hold of the tiller, which was noisily sliding from one side to the
other. Every now and then some strong wave would strike it and nearly
throw him over. Johnson and Bell were busily occupied in bailing out
the water which the launch would occasionally ship.

[Illustration: "The launch tossed helplessly about."]

"This is a storm we hardly expected," said Altamont, holding fast to
his bench.

"We ought to expect anything here," answered the doctor.

These remarks were made amid the roar of the tempest and the hissing
of the waves, which the violence of the wind reduced to a fine spray.
It was nearly impossible for one to hear his neighbor. It was hard to
keep the boat's head to the north; the clouds hid everything a few
fathoms from the boat, and they had no mark to sail by. This sudden
tempest, just as they were about attaining their object, seemed full
of warning; to their excited minds it came like an order to go no
farther. Did Nature forbid approach to the Pole? Was this point of the
globe surrounded by hurricanes and tempests which rendered access
impossible? But any one who had caught sight of those men could have
seen that they did not flinch before wind or wave, and that they would
push on to the end. So they struggled on all day, braving death at
every instant, and making no progress northward, but also losing no
ground; they were wet through by the rain and waves; above the din of
the storm they could hear the hoarse cries of the birds.

But at six o'clock in the evening, while the waves were rising, there
came a sudden calm. The wind stopped as if by a miracle. The sea was
smooth, as if it had not felt a puff of wind for twelve hours. The
hurricane seemed to have respected this part of the Polar Ocean. What
was the reason? It was an extraordinary phenomenon, which Captain
Sabine had witnessed in his voyages in Greenland seas. The fog,
without lifting, was very bright. The launch drifted along in a zone
of electric light, an immense St. Elmo fire, brilliant but without
heat. The mast, sail, and rigging stood out black against the
phosphorescent air; the men seemed to have plunged into a bath of
transparent rays, and their faces were all lit up. The sudden calm of
this portion of the ocean came, without doubt, from the ascending
motion of the columns of air, while the tempest, which was a cyclone,
turned rapidly about this peaceful centre. But this atmospher