o low a
temperature is very exhausting. A man can perform hardly more than a
quarter of his usual work; iron utensils cannot be touched; if the
hand seizes them, it feels as if it were burned, and shreds of skin
cleave to the object which had been incautiously seized.

The crew, being confined to the ship, were obliged to walk on the
covered deck for two hours a day, where they had leave to smoke, which
was forbidden in the common-room.

There, when the fire got low, the ice used to cover the walls and the
intervals between the planks; every nail and bolt and piece of metal
was immediately covered with a film of ice.

The celerity of its formation astonished the doctor. The breath of the
men condensed in the air, and, changing from a fluid to a solid form,
it fell about them in the form of snow. A few feet from the stove it
was very cold, and the men stood grouped around the fire.

Still, the doctor advised them to harden themselves, and to accustom
themselves to the cold, which was not so severe as what yet awaited
them; he advised them to expose their skin gradually to this intense
temperature, and he himself set the example; but idleness or numbness
nailed most of them to their place; they refused to stir, and
preferred sleeping in that unhealthy heat.

Yet, according to the doctor, there was no danger in exposing one's
self to great cold after leaving a heated room; these sudden changes
only inconvenience those who are in a perspiration; the doctor quoted
examples in support of his opinion, but his lessons were for the most
part thrown away.

As for John Hatteras, he did not seem to mind the inclement cold. He
walked to and fro silently, never faster or slower. Did not the cold
affect his powerful frame? Did he possess to a very great degree the
principle of natural heat which he wanted his men to possess? Was he
so bound up in his meditations that he was indifferent to outside
impressions? His men saw him with great astonishment braving a
temperature of -24 degrees; he would leave the ship for hours, and
come back without appearing to suffer from the cold.

"He's a singular man," said the doctor to Johnson; "he astonishes me!
He carries a glowing furnace within him! He is one of the strongest
natures I ever saw!"

"The fact is," answered Johnson, "he goes and comes and circulates in
the open air, without dressing any more thickly than in the month of
June."

"O, it doesn't make much difference what one