ry to crawl on one's hands and
knees; the doctor found some difficulty in entering, and the others
followed. Supper was soon prepared on the alcohol cooking-stove. The
temperature inside was very comfortable; the wind, which was raging
without, could not get in.

"Sit down!" soon shouted the doctor in his most genial manner.

And this meal, though the same as the dinner, was shared by all. When
it was finished their only thought was sleep; the mackintoshes, spread
out upon the snow, protected them from the dampness. At the flame of
the portable stove they dried their clothes; then three of them,
wrapped up in their woollen coverings, fell asleep, while one was left
on watch; he had to keep a lookout on the safety of all, and to
prevent the opening from being closed, otherwise they ran a risk of
being buried alive.

Duke shared their quarters; the other dogs remained without, and after
they had eaten their supper they lay down and were soon hidden by the
snow.

Their fatigue soon brought sound sleep. The doctor took the watch
until three of the morning. In the night the hurricane raged
furiously. Strange was the situation of these lonely men lost in the
snow, enclosed in this vault with its walls rapidly thickening under
the snow-fall.

The next morning at six o'clock their monotonous march was resumed;
there were ever before them the same valleys and icebergs, a
uniformity which made the choice of a path difficult. Still, a fall of
several degrees in the temperature made their way easier by hardening
the snow. Often they came across little elevations, which looked like
cairns or storing-places of the Esquimaux; the doctor had one
destroyed to satisfy his curiosity, but he found nothing except a cake
of ice.

"What do you expect to find, Clawbonny?" asked Hatteras; "are we not
the first men to penetrate into this part of the globe?"

"Probably," answered the doctor, "but who knows?"

"Don't let us waste our time in useless searching," resumed the
captain; "I am in a hurry to rejoin the ship, even if this long-wanted
fuel should not be found."

"I have great hopes of finding it," said the doctor.

"Doctor," Hatteras used to say frequently, "I did wrong to leave the
_Forward_; it was a mistake! The captain's place is on board, and
nowhere else."

"Johnson is there."

"Yes! but--let us hurry on!"

They advanced rapidly; Simpson's voice could be heard urging on the
dogs; they ran along on a brilliant surfa