n 18,000 pounds, but he could
afford it. The thoughts of the money inflamed the minds of the crew,
and they were now as anxious to go north as before they had been eager
to turn south. The _Forward_ during the day of June 16th passed Cape
Aworth. Mount Rawlinson raised its white peaks towards the sky; the
snow and fog made it appear colossal, as they exaggerated its
distance; the temperature still kept some degrees above freezing
point; improvised cascades and cataracts showed themselves on the
sides of the mountains, and avalanches roared down with the noise
of artillery discharges. The glaciers, spread out in long white sheets,
projected an immense reverberation into space. Boreal nature, in its
struggle with the frost, presented a splendid spectacle. The brig
went very near the coast; on some sheltered rocks rare heaths were
to be seen, the pink flowers lifting their heads timidly out of the
snows, and some meagre lichens of a reddish colour and the shoots
of a dwarf willow.

At last, on the 19th of June, at the famous seventy-third parallel,
they doubled Cape Minto, which forms one of the extremities of Ommaney
Bay; the brig entered Melville Bay, surnamed by Bolton Money Bay;
the merry sailors joked about the name, and made Dr. Clawbonny laugh
heartily. Notwithstanding a strong breeze from the northeast, the
_Forward_ made considerable progress, and on the 23rd of June she
passed the 74th degree of latitude. She was in the midst of Melville
Bay, one of the most considerable seas in these regions. This sea
was crossed for the first time by Captain Parry in his great expedition
of 1819, and it was then that his crew earned the prize of 5,000 pounds
promised by Act of Parliament. Clifton remarked that there were two
degrees from the 72nd to the 74th; that already placed 125 pounds
to his credit. But they told him that a fortune was not worth much
there, and that it was of no use being rich if he could not drink
his riches, and he had better wait till he could roll under a Liverpool
table before he rejoiced and rubbed his hands.

CHAPTER XIX

A WHALE IN SIGHT

Melville Bay, though easily navigable, was not free from ice;
ice-fields lay as far as the utmost limits of the horizon; a few
icebergs appeared here and there, but they were immovable, as if
anchored in the midst of the frozen fields. The _Forward_, with all
steam on, followed the wide passes where it was easy to work her.
The wind changed frequentl