n
here awhile in this water, which must be almost lukewarmish compared to
what it is on top, they will melt loose and float up; and then, Sammy,
suppose they lodge on some of that ice and get frozen for a thousand
years! Good gracious! It sets me all of a creep to think of that
happenin' to my shoes, that I have been wearin' every day! Don't you
want a cup of tea?"

"It's a great pity," thought Sammy to himself, "that it wasn't that Pole
that had his feet frozen to the deck. The rest of us might have been
lucky enough not to have noticed him as the boat went down."

"We ought to get a name for that body of water up there," said Mr.
Gibbs, as he was writing out his report of the day's adventures. "Shall
we call it 'Lake Clewe'?"

"Oh, don't do that!" exclaimed Sammy Block. "Mr. Clewe's too good a man
to have his name tacked on to that hole. If you want to name it, why
don't you call it 'Lake Shiver'?"

"That is a good name," answered Mr. Gibbs; and so it was called.

CHAPTER XI. THEY BELIEVE IT IS THE POLAR SEA

With no intention of ascending again into any accidental holes in the
ice above them, the voyagers on the Dipsey kept on their uneventful
way, until, upon the third day after their discovery of the lake, the
electric bell attached to the heavy lead which always hung suspended
below the vessel, rang violently, indicating that it had touched the
bottom. This sound startled everybody on board. In all their submarine
experiences they had not yet sunk down low enough to be anywhere near
the bottom of the sea.

Of course orders were given to ascend immediately, and at the same time
a minor search-light was directed upward through the deck skylight. To
the horror of the observers, ice could plainly be seen stretching above
them like an irregular, gray sky.

Here was a condition of things which had not been anticipated. The
bottom below and the ice above were approaching each other. Of course it
might have been some promontory of the rocks under the sea against which
their telltale lead had struck; but there was an instrument on board for
taking soundings by means of a lead suspended outside and a wire running
through a water-proof hole in the bottom of the vessel, and when the
Dipsey had risen a few fathoms, and was progressing very slowly, this
instrument was used at frequent intervals, and it was found that the
electric lead had not touched a rock projecting upward, and that the
bottom was almost lev