re always
found up in very cold regions among the ice and snow."

"But are they?"

"Oh yes," said Steve confidently. "There's Hecla in Iceland, and this
one Mr Lowe talked about, and Captain Marsham says he saw a tremendous
one amongst the ice toward the South Pole."

"Indeed!" said the doctor sarcastically. "That makes three. What about
the scores of others dotted about the earth in the hottest countries?
Your theory will not hold water, my lad. But what's that man going
aloft for? We can't be anywhere near land."

This remark was occasioned by one of the men climbing the shrouds of the
main-mast, making his way to the top, and then, as they watched him,
climbing higher to the main topgallant crosstrees, where he stopped for
some little time making an examination before descending.

"Gone up to see if the ropes are safe," said Steve at last. But this
soon proved to be a very lame conclusion, for the other three Norsemen
and a sour-looking Scotchman, with a little brown mark at the corner of
one lip, were busy getting something up out of the hold.

The something resolved itself into a big tub about five feet in height,
and narrow, while it was made higher by an iron framework or ring rising
another six inches above the open top, and held projecting like a rail
by means of stout bars attached to a hoop.

It is a bad plan on shipboard to ask questions of officers when they are
busy, and Steve had been to sea long enough to learn this. On the other
hand, it is a good thing, not only at sea, but through life, to
investigate as much as possible for yourself, and correct any errors
into which you fall as you learn more. "Bought wit is better than
taught wit," the old moralist wrote; and he was quite right, for the
things taught us are too often forgotten, while those which we have
bought at the cost of a good deal of puzzling and study fix themselves
firmly in the mind. So, as soon as the tub was left standing on the
deck, and he could conveniently do so, Steve walked up and began to
examine it, noting principally that about half-way down there was a
broad ledge half round the inside.

"To brew something, I suppose," said Steve to himself. "They'll lay the
yeast, or whatever it is they use, on that ledge. Some kind of drink, I
suppose, to keep the men warm when we get up into the ice."

He had another good look round after thrusting his head inside the iron
rail, upon which a board was placed to slide, an