after a
similar fashion in the same direction, while the boat, quickening
its course, brought up against the beach.

What was happening? In order to explain these inexplicable things,
were we not obliged to acknowledge that we had come into the region
of those wonders which I attributed to the hallucinations of Arthur
Pym?

No! These were physical facts which we had just witnessed, and not
imaginary phenomenal!

We had, however, no time for reflection, and immediately upon our
landing, our attention was turned in another direction by the sight
of a boat lying wrecked upon the sand.

"The _Halbrane's_ boat!" cried Hurliguerly. It was indeed the
boat which Hearne had stolen, and it was simply smashed to pieces;
in a word, only the formless wreckage of a craft which has been
flung against rocks by the sea, remained.

We observed immediately that all the ironwork of the boat had
disappeared, down to the hinges of the rudder. Not one trace of the
metal existed.

What could be the meaning of this?

A loud call from West brought us to a little strip of beach on the
right of our stranded boat.

Three corpses lay upon the stony soil, that of Hearne, that of
Martin Holt, and that of one of the Falklands men.

Of the thirteen who had gone with the sealing-master, there remained
only these three, who had evidently been dead some days.

What had become of the ten missing men? Had their bodies been
carried out to sea?

We searched all along the coast, into the creeks, and between the
outlying rocks, but in vain. Nothing was to be found, no traces of a
camp, not even the vestiges of a landing.

"Their boat," said William Guy, "must have been struck by a
drifting iceberg. The rest of Hearne's companions have been
drowned, and only these three bodies have come ashore, lifeless."

"But," asked the boatswain, "how is the state the boat is in
to be explained?"

"And especially," added West, "the disappearance of all the
iron?"

"Indeed," said I, "it looks as though every bit had been
violently torn off."

Leaving the _Paracuta_ in the charge of two men, we again took our way
to the interior, in order to extend our search over a wider expanse.

As we were approaching the huge mound the mist cleared away, and the
form stood out with greater distinctness. It was, as I have said,
almost that of a sphinx, a dusky-hued sphinx, as though the matter
which composed it had been oxidized by the inclemency of the polar
climat