e for north wind, got to mean the north; and
Borealis, from that, became Northern, and Aurora Borealis became
Northern Light."

"Thank you, Captain Hardy," said little Alice; and Fred and William said
"Thank you" too; while, as for the Captain, he looked very wise and
solemn, like other great philosophers, appearing as if he would say,
"Don't be surprised, for that's nothing to what I could do if I had a
mind," every word of which the children would have believed, you may
well be sure. However, the Captain hastened on with the story (which is
more to our present purpose) without giving any further proof of his
learning.

"When the winter had fairly set in," said he, "our field of operations
was much enlarged; and, although the birds had all flown away, we were
hardly worse off than before, as you shall see; for all through the
summer we had been kept close prisoners on the island; but now, when
the ice was solid all over the sea, we could walk out upon it, and this
we did as soon as it would bear. Once the Dean broke through, being a
little careless of where he was stepping; but I got him out, with no
more harm coming to him than a cold bath and a fright.

"Soon after this we made a valuable discovery. Some of the seals have a
habit, when the sea is frozen over, of cutting holes through the ice
with their sharp claws, in order that they may get their heads above the
water to breathe,--the seals not being able, as I have told you before,
to breathe under water, like fish. They can keep their heads under water
about an hour, by closing up their nostrils, so that not a drop can get
in; and, during that time, they do not breathe at all; but at last they
must find the open sea, or a crack in the ice, or else dig a hole
through the ice from below, and thus get their heads to the surface in
some way, or they would drown.

"As we did not then know anything about the habits of the seals in this
respect, I was very much surprised one day, while walking over ice that
was everywhere apparently very solid, to find one of my feet suddenly
break through. I was carrying, at the time, our great narwhal horn,
which had already been used for so many purposes; and when I had got my
foot, as quickly as possible, out of the water, I pounded with the heavy
horn all about the place, and found that there was a large round hole
there that had evidently been made by some animal; and I could think of
nothing else as likely to have made it but