ar from home and
to penetrate so deep among the mazes of the ice. It was that ice, itself,
however, that attracted most of Roswell's attention. Far as the eye could
reach, north, south, east and west, the ocean was brilliant and chill with
the vast floating masses. The effect on the air was always perceptible in
that region, 'killing the summer,' as the sealers expressed it; but it
seemed to be doubly so at the elevation to which the two adventurers had
attained. Still, the panorama was magnificent. The only part of the ocean
that did not seem to be alive with ice-bergs, if one may use such an
expression, was the space within the group, and that was as clear as an
estuary in a mild climate. It really appeared as if nature had tabooed
that privileged spot, in order that the communication between the
different islands should remain open. Of course, the presence of so many
obstacles to the billows without, and indeed even to the rake of the
winds, produced smooth water within, the slow, breath-like heaving and
setting of the ceaseless ground-swell, being the only perceptible motion
to the water in side.

"'Tis a very remarkable view, Stephen," said Roswell Gardiner, "but there
will be one much finer, if we can work our way up that cone of a mountain,
and stand on its naked cap. I wish I had brought an old ensign and a small
spar along, to set up the gridiron, in honour of the States. We're
beginning to put out our feelers, old Stimson, and shall have 'em on far
better bits of territory than this, before the earth has gone round in its
track another hundred years."

"Well, to my notion, Captain Gar'ner," answered the seaman, following his
officer towards the base of the cone, "Uncle Sam has got more land now
than he knows what to do with. If a body could discover a bit of ocean, or
a largish sort of a sea, there might be some use in it. Whales are getting
to be skeary, and are mostly driven off their old grounds; and as for the
seals, you must bury yourself, craft and all, up to the truck in ice, to
get a smile from one of their good-lookin' count'nances, as I always say."

"I'm afraid, Stephen, it is all over with the discovery of more seas.
Even the moon, they now say, is altogether without water, having not so
much as a lake or a large pond to take a duck in."

"Without water, sir!" exclaimed Stimson, quite aghast. "If 'tis so, sir,
it _must_ be right, since the same hand that made the moon made this
'arth, and all it