and with themselves, in
case they should feel themselves growing faint-hearted.

The next day, Saturday, July 13th, the camping materials were put on
the boat, and soon everything was ready for their departure. But
before leaving this rock forever, the doctor, following Hatteras's
intentions, put up a cairn at the place where the captain reached the
island; this cairn was built of large rocks laid on one another, so as
to form a perfectly visible landmark, if it were not destroyed by the
eruption.

[Illustration: "The doctor put up a cairn."]

On one of the lateral stones Bell carved with a chisel this simple
inscription:--

JOHN HATTERAS
1861.

A copy of the document was placed inside of the cairn in an
hermetically sealed tin cylinder, and the proof of this great
discovery was left here on these lonely rocks.

Then the four men and the captain,--a poor body without a mind,--and
his faithful Duke, sad and melancholy, got into the boat for the
return voyage. It was ten o'clock in the morning. A new sail was set
up with the canvas of the tent. The launch, sailing before the wind,
left Queen's Island, and that evening the doctor, standing on his
bench, waved a last farewell to Mount Hatteras, which was lighting up
the horizon.

Their voyage was very quick; the sea, which was always open, was easy
sailing, and it seemed really easier to go away from the Pole than to
approach it. But Hatteras was in no state to understand what was going
on about him; he lay at full length in the launch, his mouth closed,
his expression dull, and his arms folded. Duke lay at his feet. It was
in vain that the doctor questioned him. Hatteras did not hear him.

For forty-eight hours the breeze was fair and the sea smooth.
Clawbonny and his companions rejoiced in the north-wind. July 15th,
they made Altamont Harbor in the south; but since the Polar Ocean was
open all along the coast, instead of crossing New America by sledge,
they resolved to sail around it, and reach Victoria Bay by sea. This
voyage was quicker and easier. In fact, the space which had taken them
a fortnight on sledges took them hardly a week by sail; and after
following the rugged outline of the coast, which was fringed with
numerous fiords, and determining its shape, they reached Victoria Bay,
Monday evening, July 23d.

The launch was firmly anchored to the shore, and each one ran to Fort
Providence. The Doctor's House, the stores, the magazine, the
fort