he mountains of lower
zones, but they left it half dead. The doctor could no longer cheer up
his companions, and he felt himself breaking down. The Trauter
Mountains ended in a sort of rugged plain, heaped up at the time of
the formation of the mountains. There they were compelled to take a
few days of rest; the men could not set one foot before another; two
of the dogs had died of exhaustion. They sheltered themselves behind a
piece of ice, at a temperature of -2 degrees; no one dared put up the
tent. Their food had become very scanty, and, in spite of their
extreme economy with their rations, they had a supply for but a week
more; game became rarer, having left for a milder climate. Starvation
threatened these exhausted men.

[Illustration]

Altamont, who all along had shown great devotion and unselfishness,
took advantage of the strength he had left, and resolved to procure by
hunting some food for his companions. He took his gun, called Duke,
and strode off for the plains to the north; the doctor, Johnson, and
Bell saw him go away without much interest. For an hour they did not
once hear his gun, and they saw him returning without firing a single
shot; but he was running as if in great alarm.

"What is the matter?" asked the doctor.

"There! under the snow!" answered Altamont in great alarm, indicating
a point in the horizon.

"What?"

"A whole band of men--"

"Alive?"

"Dead,--frozen,--and even--"

[Illustration: "Dead--frozen."]

The American durst not finish his sentence, but his face expressed
clearly his horror. The doctor, Johnson, Bell, aroused by this
incident, were able to rise, and drag themselves along in Altamont's
footprints to the part of the plain to which he had pointed. They soon
reached a narrow space, at the bottom of a deep ravine, and there a
terrible sight met their eyes.

Bodies were lying half buried beneath the snow; here an arm, there a
leg, or clinched hands, and faces still preserving an expression of
despair.

The doctor drew near; then he stepped back, pale and agitated, while
Duke barked mournfully.

"Horror!" he said.

"Well?" asked the boatswain.

"Didn't you recognize them?" said the doctor in a strange voice.

"What do you mean?"

"Look!"

This ravine had been the scene of the last struggle between the men
and the climate, despair, and hunger, for from some horrible signs it
was easy to see that they had been obliged to eat human flesh. Among
them the do