der her topsails, jib,
and foresail, sailed on towards Cape Farewell.

At three o'clock on the 18th they made out an ice-stream, which, like
a narrow but brilliant band, divided the lines of the water and sky.
It was evidently descending rather from the coast of Greenland than
from Davis Strait, for the ice tended to keep on the western side of
Baffin's Bay. An hour later, and the _Forward_ was passing through the
detached fragments of the ice-stream, and in the thickest part the
pieces of ice, although closely welded together, were rising and
falling with the waves.

At daybreak the next morning the watch saw a sail; it was the
_Valkyria_, a Danish corvette, sailing towards the _Forward_, bound to
Newfoundland. The current from the strait became perceptible, and
Shandon had to set more sail to overcome it.

At that moment the commander, the doctor, James Wall, and Johnson were
all together on the poop-deck, observing the force and direction of
the current. The doctor asked if it were proved that this current was
felt throughout Baffin's Bay.

"There's no doubt of it," answered Shandon; "and sailing-vessels have
hard work in making headway against it."

"And it's so much the harder," added James Wall, "because it's met on
the eastern coast of America, as well as on the western coast of
Greenland."

"Well," said the doctor, "that serves to confirm those who seek a
Northwest Passage. The current moves at the rate of about five miles
an hour, and it is hard to imagine that it rises at the bottom of a
gulf."

"That is very likely, Doctor," answered Shandon, "because, while this
current flows from north to south, there is a contrary current in
Behring Strait, which flows from south to north, and which must be the
cause of this one."

"Hence," said the doctor, "you must admit that America is completely
separated from the polar regions, and that the water from the Pacific
skirts its whole northern coast, until it reaches the Atlantic.
Besides, the greater elevation of the water of the Pacific is another
reason for its flowing towards the European seas."

"But," said Shandon, "there must be some facts which support this
theory; and if there are," he added with gentle irony, "our learned
friend must be familiar with them."

"Well," answered the latter, complacently, "if it interests you at all
I can tell you that whales, wounded in Davis Strait, have been found
afterwards on the coast of Tartary, still carrying a E