g about, he giving
them every encouragement, so that at the end of an hour we had found
another dog; but in dislodging the block of ice in which it was frozen,
the head was broken off, so that the only good to be obtained by thawing
it was the rough wool and some of the teeth, which the doctor carefully
preserved.

"Isn't it much colder here, doctor?" I said, for the wind seemed to go
through me like a knife.

"Hush!" he whispered; "don't let the men hear, or they'll be
discouraged. It's perfectly frightful; the thermometers are stopped!"

"Stopped?" I said.

"Yes; the cold's far below anything they can show. They are perfectly
useless now. Let's get on?"

I stood staring at him, feeling a strange stupor coming over me. It was
not unpleasant, being something like the minutes before one goes to
sleep; but I was startled into life by the doctor flying at me, and
hitting me right in my chest. The next moment he had a man on each side
pumping my arms up and down, as they forced me to run for quite a
quarter of an hour, when I stopped, panting, and the doctor laid his
hand upon my heart.

"He'll do now!" he said, quietly. "Don't you get trying any of those
games again, captain."

"What games?" I said, indignantly.

"Getting yourself frozen. Now, then, get on, my lads--we must go
ahead!"

For the next nine days we trudged on, dragging our sledge through the
wonderful wilderness of ice and snow. At night we camped in the broad
sunshine, and somehow the air seemed to be much warmer. But on the
tenth day, when we had reached the edge of a great, crater-like
depression in the ice, which seemed to extend as far as the eye could
reach, the intensity of the cold was frightful, and I spoke of it to the
doctor, as soon as we had set up our little canvas and skin tent.

"Yes, it is cold!" he said. "I'd give something to know how low it is!
But let's make our observations."

We did, and the doctor triumphantly announced that we were within one
degree of the Pole.

We were interrupted by an outcry among the men, and, on going to the
tent, it was to find them staring at the spirit-lamp, over which we
heated our coffee. The flame, instead of fluttering about, and sending
out warmth, had turned quite solid, and was like a great tongue of
bright, bluish-yellow metal, which rang like a bell, on being touched
with a spoon.

"Never mind, my men!" says the doctor coolly. "It is only one of the
phenomena of the p