, the frost was quite intense enough to cool them to the bottom.
Hence the sea immediately round the islands was covered with a thick
coat of solid ice, which resembled in all respects the ordinary Arctic
sea-ice, being hummocky in some places, comparatively smooth in others,
with a strong iceberg here and there caught and imprisoned amongst it.

As this ice surrounded all the Polar land, and stretched out to sea far
beyond the reach of vision, it followed that there was little or no
difference between the winter experience of our discoverers and that of
all other Arctic voyagers. This realm of what we may style island-ice
stretched away, all round, in the direction of the Arctic circle,
getting thinner and thinner towards its outer margin, until at last it
became sludgy, and, finally, melted away into the open sea. This open
sea, in its turn, stretched southward, all round, to the known Arctic
regions. Thus the Arctic basin was found to be a zone of open water,
surrounded by ice on the south, and with a patch of ice and land in its
centre.

Now, it was a strong desire on the part of Captain Vane to visit the
southern edge of this central ice-patch on which he dwelt, that induced
him to try the kite adaptation before referred to.

"Benjy, my boy," said he, one fine winter day, when the galaxy of stars,
the full moon, and an unusually brilliant aurora, diffused a strong
light over the undulations of Cup Valley, "I have a notion of taking a
trip to the s'uth'ard soon."

"Which s'uth'ard d'you think of going to, father?" asked the boy.

In case any reader should hastily exclaim, "What a ridiculous question;
there can be only _one_ southward!" we beg leave to point out that at
the North Pole _every_ direction lies to the southward, and that, as
there is necessarily no east or west at all, there is therefore no
possibility of stating by compass to what part of the south one intends
to go. Of course it was open to the Captain to have said he intended to
descend south on one of the degrees of longitude, or between any two of
them, and then, immediately on quitting the Pole the old familiar east
and west would, as it were, return to him. But he found it more
convenient, on the whole, having got beyond all latitude, to indicate
his intended route by well-known objects of the land.

"I'm going to steer for the starboard side of Poloeland," he said, "pay
a short visit to Grabantak and Amalatok in passing, and then carry