ne_ to
rely upon for getting us out of these regions.

We were engaged in these various tasks until the 24th of January.
The atmosphere was clear, the temperature was even, and the
thermometer had indeed gone up to two or three degrees above
freezing-point. The number of icebergs coming from the nor'-west
was therefore increasing; there were now a hundred of them, and a
collision with any of these might have a most disastrous result.
Hardy, the caulker, hastened first of all to mend the hull; pegs had
to be changed, bits of planking to be replaced, seams to be caulked.
We had everything that was necessary for this work, and we might
rest assured that it would be performed in the best possible manner.
In the midst of the silence of these solitudes, the noise of the
hammers striking nails into the side, and the sound of the mallet
stuffing tow into the seams, had a startling effect. Sea-gulls, wild
duck, albatross, and petrels flew in a circle round the top of the
berg with a shrill screaming, and made a terrible uproar.

When I found myself with West and the captain, our conversation
naturally turned on our situation and how to get out of it, and upon
our chances of pulling through. The mate had good hopes that if no
accident occurred the launching would be successfullyaccomplished.
The captain was more reserved on the subject, but at the thought
that he would have to renounce all hope of finding the survivors of
the fane, his heart was ready to break. When the _Halbrane_ should
again be ready for the sea, and when West should inquire what course
he was to steer, would Captain Len Guy dare to reply, "To the
south"? No! for he would not be followed either by the new hands,
or by the greater portion of the older members of the crew. To
continue our search in this direction, to go beyond the pole,
without being certain of reaching the Indian Ocean instead of the
Atlantic, would have been rashness of which no navigator would be
guilty. If a continent bound the sea on this side, the schooner
would run the danger of being crushed by the mass of ice before it
could escape the southern winter.

Under such circumstances, to attempt to persuade Captain Len Guy to
pursue the voyage would only be to court a certain refusal. It could
not even be proposed, now that necessity obliged us to return
northwards, and not to delay a single day in this portion of the
Antarctic regions. At any rate, though I resolved not again to speak
of