pressure, which was gradually crushing it;
it was evident that nothing could be done with its fragments; still
the doctor kept hoping to be able to build a launch out of them to
return to England in, but the time for building it had not yet come.

So for the most part the five men remained in complete idleness.
Hatteras was pensive and always lying on the bed; Altamont was
drinking or sleeping, and the doctor took good care not to rouse him
from his slumbers, for he was always afraid of some distressing
quarrel. These two men seldom spoke to one another.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

So during meal-time the prudent Clawbonny always took care to guide
the conversation and to direct it in such a way as not to offend the
susceptibilities of either; but he had a great deal to do. He did his
best to instruct, distract, and interest his companions; when he was
not arranging his notes about the expedition, he read aloud some
history, geography, or work on meteorology, which had reference to
their condition; he presented things pleasantly and philosophically,
deriving wholesome instruction from the slightest incidents; his
inexhaustible memory never played him false; he applied his doctrines
to the persons who were with him, reminding them of such or such a
thing which happened under such or such circumstances; and he filled
out his theories by the force of personal arguments.

[Illustration: "He did his best to instruct and interest his
companions."]

This worthy man may be called the soul of this little world, a soul
glowing with frankness and justice. His companions had perfect
confidence in him; he even improved Captain Hatteras, who, besides,
was very fond of him; he made his words, manners, and custom so
agreeable, that the life of these five men within six degrees of the
Pole seemed perfectly natural; when he was speaking, any one would
have imagined he was in his office in Liverpool. And yet this
situation was unlike that of castaways on the islands of the Pacific
Ocean, those Robinsons whose touching history always aroused the envy
of their readers. There, the natural richness offers a thousand
different resources; a little imagination and effort suffice to secure
material happiness; nature aids man; hunting and fishing supply all
his wants; the trees grow to aid him, caverns shelter him, brooks
slake his thirst, dense thickets hide him from the sun, and severe
cold never comes upon him in the winter; a grai