id shot, and this was his first bear. When he came
aboard, his sisters met him with pleasure, although with tears in their
eyes, for he had run a great risk.

A day or two after this, when still farther north, the children had had
their first run upon the ice. It was all so strange, and the ice was so
white, that they felt very giddy for a time. But the professor held
Pansy, and Tom walked by Aralia.

The whole ice-pack seemed one vast plain, like a bleak moorland in
winter, only with little hillocks of ice here and there called hummocks,
for the flat pieces of ice were all frozen hard together, and Ara
wondered where "Greenland's icy mountains" had all got to.

There were no bears about to-day, and no seals, only the sea-birds that
went wheeling and screaming about them in thousands. When they got back
to the ship it was dinner-time, and both were snow-blind. The black
steward carried them down and seated them at table, but it was quite half
an hour before they could see.

Although the ship was now kept well away from the ice-pack, they could
often see vessels far in through frozen ice, but busy, busy at their
terrible work. Sometimes Tom and the mate would have a boat lowered, and
would set off bear-hunting. One day Tom brought home a young seal. It was
such a beauty, with soft eyes and long, warm, fluffy hair. It was so
small that even Pansy could carry it a little way in her arms.

"Oh, do let us have it for a pet!" cried Aralia, and her uncle consented.
So they called the seal "Flossy", and warmed frozen milk for it--great
stores of which had been taken on board,--and fed it with a spoon, and
soon the wee thing knew Pansy, and used to crawl and waddle after her.

The dogs didn't know what to make of Flossy at first, and Briton used to
roll it all round the deck with his big nose; but Flossy rather liked
this. But one day, when Briton tried to lift it up by the tail, it struck
him a slap with its flipper that could be heard from stem to stern.

"Take that," Flossy seemed to say, "and leave my tail alone!"

The vessel was now kept farther to the east, and every day they passed
between great patches of ice, big pieces of which kept striking the ship
with such a noise that when anyone wanted to be heard he had to shout
aloud.

The professor was very busy now, taking soundings almost every day, and
doing all kinds of clever work that even Tom, smart as he was, couldn't
understand. But in the evenings he still p