them is still alive."

The place was soon cleared, and Bell dug out a third body, that of
a man of forty, who had not the cadaverous look of the others. The
doctor examined him and thought he recognised some symptoms of
existence.

"He is alive!" he cried.

Bell and he carried the body into the snow-house whilst Hatteras,
unmoved, contemplated their late habitation. The doctor stripped the
resuscitated man and found no trace of a wound on him. He and Bell
rubbed him vigorously with oakum steeped in spirits of wine, and they
saw signs of returning consciousness; but the unfortunate man was
in a state of complete prostration, and could not speak a word. His
tongue stuck to his palate as if frozen. The doctor searched his
pockets, but they were empty. He left Bell to continue the friction,
and rejoined Hatteras. The captain had been down into the depths of
the snow-house, and had searched about carefully. He came up holding
a half-burnt fragment of a letter. These words were on it:

... tamont
... orpoise
... w York.

"Altamont!" cried the doctor, of the ship _Porpoise_, of New York."

"An American," said Hatteras.

"I'll save him," said the doctor, "and then we shall know all about
it."

He went back to Altamont whilst Hatteras remained pensive. Thanks
to his attentions, the doctor succeeded in recalling the unfortunate
man to life, but not to feeling; he neither saw, heard, nor spoke,
but he lived. The next day Hatteras said to the doctor:

"We must start at once."

"Yes. The sledge is not loaded; we'll put the poor fellow on it and
take him to the brig."

"Very well; but we must bury these bodies first."

The two unknown sailors were placed under the ruins of the snow-house
again, and Simpson's corpse took Altamont's place. The three
travellers buried their companion, and at seven o'clock in the morning
they set out again. Two of the Greenland dogs were dead, and Dick
offered himself in their place. He pulled with energy.

During the next twenty days the travellers experienced the same
incidents as before. But as it was in the month of February they did
not meet with the same difficulty from the ice. It was horribly cold,
but there was not much wind. The sun reappeared for the first time
on the 31st of January, and every day he stopped longer above the
horizon. Bell and the doctor were almost blinded and half-lame; the
carpenter was obliged to walk upon crutches. Altamont still lived,
but