med to the boreal seas generally
consider this phenomenon as the precursor of abundant snow. If their
observation was just, the position of the _Forward_ became very
difficult. Hatteras, therefore, resolved to go on fast; during the
remainder of the day and following night he did not take a minute's
rest, sweeping the horizon with his telescope, taking advantage of
the least opening, and losing no occasion of getting out of the strait.

But in the morning he was obliged to stop before the insuperable
ice-bank. The doctor joined him on the poop. Hatteras went with him
apart where they could talk without fear of being overheard.

"We are in for it," began Hatteras; "it is impossible to go any
further."

"Is there no means of getting out?" asked the doctor.

"None. All the powder in the _Forward_ would not make us gain half
a mile!"

"What shall we do, then?" said the doctor.

"I don't know. This cursed year has been unfavourable from the
beginning."

"Well," answered the doctor, "if we must winter here, we must. One
place is as good as another."

"But," said Hatteras, lowering his voice, "we must not winter here,
especially in the month of June. Wintering is full of physical and
moral danger. The crew would be unmanageable during a long inaction
in the midst of real suffering. I thought I should be able to stop
much nearer the Pole than this!"

"Luck would have it so, or Baffin's Bay wouldn't have been closed."

"It was open enough for that American!" cried Hatteras in a rage.

"Come, Hatteras," said the doctor, interrupting him on purpose,
"to-day is only the 5th of June; don't despair; a passage may suddenly
open up before us; you know that the ice has a tendency to break up
into several blocks, even in the calmest weather, as if a force of
repulsion acted upon the different parts of it; we may find the sea
free at any minute."

"If that minute comes we shall take advantage of it. It is quite
possible that, once out of Bellot Strait, we shall be able to go north
by Peel Strait or McClintock Channel, and then----"

"Captain," said James Wall, who had come up while Hatteras was
speaking, "the ice nearly carries off our rudder."

"Well," answered Hatteras, "we must risk it. We must be ready day
and night. You must do all you can to protect it, Mr. Wall, but I
can't have it removed."

"But----" added Wall.

"That is my business," said Hatteras severely, and Wall went back
to his post.

"I would give