pulled up, saying quietly to himself: "Ye may take it all
yer own way, lad; I'm too old a bird to go for to make my carcass a
buffer for a mad-cap like you to run agin."

Jack Mivins, however, was troubled by no such qualms. He happened to be
about the same distance from the ball as O'Riley, and ran like a deer to
reach it first. A pool of water lay in his path, however, and the
necessity of going round it enabled the Irishman to gain on him a
little, so that it became evident that both would come up at the same
moment and a collision be inevitable.

"Hold yer wind, Paddy," shouted the men, who paused for a moment to
watch the result of the race. "Mind your timbers, Mivins! Back your
top-sails, O'Riley; mind how he yaws!"

Then there was a momentary silence of breathless expectation. The two
men seemed about to meet with a shock that would annihilate both, when
Mivins bounded to one side like an india-rubber ball. O'Riley shot past
him like a rocket, and the next instant went head-foremost into the pool
of water.

This unexpected termination to the affair converted the intended huzzah
of the men into a yell of mingled laughter and consternation as they
hastened in a body to the spot; but before they reached it O'Riley's
head and shoulders reappeared, and when they came up, he was standing on
the margin of the pool blowing like a walrus.

"Oh, then, but it is cowld!" he exclaimed, wringing the water from his
garments. "Och, where's the ball? give me a kick or I'll freeze, so I
will."

As he spoke, the drenched Irishman seized the ball from Mivins' hands
and gave it a kick that sent it high into the air. He was too wet and
heavy to follow it up, however, so he ambled off towards the ship as
vigorously as his clothes would allow him, followed by the whole crew.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

FRED AND THE DOCTOR GO ON AN EXCURSION, IN WHICH, AMONG OTHER STRANGE
THINGS, THEY MEET WITH RED SNOW AND A WHITE BEAR, AND FRED MAKES HIS
FIRST ESSAY AS A SPORTSMAN.

But where were Fred Ellice and Tom Singleton all this time? the reader
will probably ask.

Long before the game at football was suggested, they had obtained leave
of absence from the captain, and, loaded with game-bags, a botanical
box, and geological hammer, and a musket, were off along the coast on a
semi-scientific cruise. Young Singleton carried the botanical box and
hammer, being an enthusiastic geologist and botanist, while Fred carried
the game-bag and