ot yet have left the
fishing-grounds.

The sun was on the verge of the horizon, and the time was
approaching when the Antarctic region would be shrouded in polar
night. Fortunately, in re-ascending towards the north we were
getting into waters from whence light was not yet banished. Then did
we witness a phenomenon as extraordinary as any of those described
by Arthur Pym. For three or four hours, sparks, accompanied by a
sharp noise, shot out of our fingers' ends, our hair, and our
beards. There was an electric snowstorm, with great flakes falling
loosely, and the contact produced this strange luminosity. The sea
rose so suddenly and tumbled about so wildly that the _Paracuta_ was
several times in danger of being swallowed up by the waves, but we
got through the mystic-seeming tempest all safe and sound.

Nevertheless, space was thenceforth but imperfectly lighted.
Frequent mists came up and bounded our outlook to a few
cable-lengths. Extreme watchfulness and caution were necessary to
avoid collision with the floating masses of ice, which were
travelling more slowly than the _Paracuta_.

It is also to be noted that, on the southern side, the sky was
frequently lighted up by the broad and brilliant rays of the polar
aurora.

The temperature fell very perceptibly, and no longer rose above
twenty-three degrees.

Forty-eight hours later Captain Len Guy and his brother succeeded
with great difficulty in taking an approximate observation, with the
following results of their calculations:

Latitude: 75 deg. 17' south.
Latitude: 118 deg. 3' east.

At this date, therefore (12th March), the _Paracuta_ was distant from
the waters of the Antarctic Circle only four hundred miles.

During the night a thick fog came on, with a subsidence of the
breeze. This was to be regretted, for it increased the risk of
collision with the floating ice. Of course fog could not be a
surprise to us, being where we were, but what did surprise us was
the gradually increasing speed of our boat, although the falling of
the wind ought to have lessened it.

This increase of speed could not be due to the current for we were
going more quickly than it.

This state of things lasted until morning, without our being able to
account for what was happening, when at about ten o'clock the mist
began to disperse in the low zones. The coast on the west
reappeared--a rocky coast, without a mountainous background; the
_Paracuta_ was following its lin