ras resolved to start the next day; he could no longer endure
seeing his ship torn to pieces before his eyes; the whole quarter-deck
had been burned up.

So, January 6th, amid squalls of snow, the order to depart was given;
the doctor gave his last words of advice to the sick; Bell and Simpson
shook hands silently with their companions. Hatteras wanted to make a
farewell speech to the men, but he saw nothing but angry faces around
him. He fancied he saw an ironical smile playing about Shandon's lips.
He held his peace. Perhaps he had a momentary pang at parting as he
gazed at the _Forward_.

But it was too late for him to change his mind; the sledge, loaded and
harnessed, was waiting on the ice; Bell was the first to move; the
others followed. Johnson accompanied the travellers for a quarter of a
mile; then Hatteras asked him to return, which he did after a long
leave-taking. At that moment, Hatteras, turning for the last time
towards the brig, saw the tops of her masts disappearing in the dark
snow-clouds.

CHAPTER XXIX.
ACROSS THE ICE-FIELDS.

The little band made their way towards the southeast. Simpson drove
the sledge. Duke aided him much, without being disturbed at the
occupation of his mates. Hatteras and the doctor followed behind on
foot, while Bell, who was charged with making a road, went on in
advance, testing the ice with the iron point of his stick.

[Illustration: "The little band made their way towards the
southeast."]

The rise in the thermometer foretold a fall of snow, and soon it came,
beginning in large flakes. This added to the hardships of their
journey; they kept straying from a straight line; they could not go
quickly; nevertheless, they averaged three miles an hour.

The ice-field, under the pressure of the frost, presented an unequal
surface; the sledge was often nearly turned over, but they succeeded
in saving it.

Hatteras and his companions wrapped themselves up in their fur clothes
cut in the Greenland fashion; they were not cut with extraordinary
neatness, but they suited the needs of the climate; their faces were
enclosed in a narrow hood which could not be penetrated by the snow or
wind; their mouths, noses, and eyes were alone exposed to the air, and
they did not need to be protected against it; nothing is so
inconvenient as scarfs and nose-protectors, which soon are stiff with
ice; at night they have to be cut away, which, even in the arctic
seas, is a poor way of