ad the
pleasure of catching. As a conchologist, he was less fortunate, and he
was obliged to content himself with a sort of mussel and some
bivalves.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXI.
THE DEATH OF BELLOT.

The temperature remained at 57 degrees during July 3d and 4th; this
was the highest temperature observed. But on Thursday, the 5th, the
wind shifted to the southeast, with violent snow-squalls. The
thermometer fell twenty-three degrees in the preceding night.
Hatteras, indifferent to the hostility of the crew, gave the order to
set sail. For thirteen days, ever since passing Cape Dundas, the
_Forward_ had not gone a single degree farther north; hence the party
represented by Clifton was dissatisfied; their wishes, it is true,
coincided with those of the captain, namely, that they should make
their way through Wellington Channel, and they were all glad to be off
once more.

It was with difficulty that sail was set; but having in the course of
the night run up the mainsail and topsails, Hatteras plunged boldly
into the ice, which the current was driving towards the south. The
crew became very tired of this tortuous navigation, which kept them
very busy with the sails.

Wellington Channel is not very broad; it lies between North Devon on
the east and Cornwallis Island on the west; for a long time this
island was considered a peninsula. It was Sir John Franklin who
circumnavigated it, in 1846, from the western side, going about its
northern coast.

[Illustration: "The _Forward_ in Wellington Channel."]

The exploration of Wellington Channel was made in 1851, by Captain
Penny, in the whale-ships _Lady Franklin_ and _Sophia_; one of his
lieutenants, Stewart, who reached Cape Beechey, latitude 76 degrees 20
minutes, discovered the open sea. The open sea! It was for that
Hatteras longed.

"What Stewart found, I shall find," he said to the doctor; "and I
shall be able to get to the Pole under sail."

"But," answered the doctor, "don't you fear lest the crew--"

"The crew!" said Hatteras, coldly.

Then in a lower tone he murmured,--

"Poor men!" much to the doctor's surprise.

It was the first sentiment of this sort which he had ever noticed in
the captain.

"No," he went on warmly, "they must follow me, and they shall."

Still, if the _Forward_ need not fear collision with the ice-streams,
she made but little way northward, being much delayed by contrary
winds. With some difficulty they got by Capes