ich is very warming; besides which, the liver of
these animals makes excellent fuel: hundreds of them were to be seen,
and two or three miles to the north of the brig the ice was literally
perforated all over with the holes these enormous amphibians make;
only they smelt the hunters from afar, and many were wounded that
escaped by plunging under the ice. However, on the 19th, Simpson
managed to catch one at about a hundred yards from the ship; he had
taken the precaution to block up its hole of refuge so that it was
at the mercy of the hunters. It took several bullets to kill the animal,
which measured nine feet in length; its bulldog head, the sixteen
teeth in its jaws, its large pectoral fins in the shape of pinions,
and its little tail, furnished with another pair of fins, made it
a good specimen of the family of dog-hound fish. The doctor, wishing
to preserve the head for his natural history collection, and its skin
for his future use, had them prepared by a rapid and inexpensive
process. He plunged the body of the animal into the hole in the ice,
and thousands of little prawns soon ate off all the flesh; in half
a day the work was accomplished, and the most skilful of the honourable
corporation of Liverpool tanners could not have succeeded better.

As soon as the sun had passed the autumnal equinox--that is to say,
on the 23rd of September--winter may be said to begin in the Arctic
regions. The sun disappears entirely on the 23rd of October, lighting
up with its oblique rays the summits of the frozen mountains. The
doctor wished him a traveller's farewell; he was not going to see
him again till February. But obscurity is not complete during this
long absence of the sun; the moon comes each month to take its place
as well as she can; starlight is very bright, and there is besides
frequent aurora borealis, and a refraction peculiar to the snowy
horizons; besides, the sun at the very moment of his greatest austral
declination, the 21st of December, is still only 13 degrees from the
Polar horizon, so that there is twilight for a few hours; only fogs,
mists, and snowstorms often plunge these regions into complete
obscurity. However, at this epoch the weather was pretty favourable;
the partridges and the hares were the only animals that had a right
to complain, for the sportsmen did not give them a moment's peace;
they set several fox-traps, but the suspicious animals did not let
themselves be caught so easily; they woul