t continent. He recognized afterwards that the Sandwiches only
formed an Archipelago, but, nevertheless, his belief that a polar
continent farther south exists, remained firm and unchanged."

"I know that is so, Mr. Jeorling," replied the captain, "but
if such a continent exists, we must conclude that there is a great
gap in its coast, and that Weddell and my brother each got in by
that gap at six years' interval. That our great navigator had not
the luck to discover this passage is easy to explain; he stopped at
the seventy-first parallel! But others found it after Captain Cook,
and others will find it again."

"And we shall be of the number, captain."

"Yes--with the help of God! Cook did not hesitate to assert that
no one would ever venture farther than he had gone, and that the
Antarctic lands, if any such existed, would never be seen, but the
future will prove that he was mistaken. They have been seen so far
as the eighty-fourth degree of latitude--"

"And who knows," said I, "perhaps beyond that, by Arthur
Pym."

"Perhaps, Mr. Jeorling. It is true that we have not to trouble
ourselves about Arthur Pym, since he, at least, and Dirk Peters
also, returned to America."

"But--supposing he did not return?"

"I consider that we have not to face that eventuality," replied
Captain Len Guy.

CHAPTER XI.
FROM THE SANDWICH ISLANDS TO THE POLAR CIRCLE.

The _Halbrane_, singularly favoured by the weather, sighted the New
South Orkneys group in six days after she had sailed from the
Sandwich Islands. This archipelago was discovered by Palmer, an
American, and Bothwell, an Englishman, jointly, in 1821-22. Crossed
by the sixty-first parallel, it is comprehended between the
forty-fourth and the forty, seventh meridian.

On approaching, we were enabled to observe contorted masses and
steep cliffs on the north side, which became less rugged as they
neared the coast, at whose edge lay enormous ice-floes, heaped
together in formidable confusion; these, before two months should
have expired, would be drifted towards the temperate waters. At that
season the whaling ships would appear to carry on the taking of the
great blowing creatures, while some of their crews would remain on
the islands to capture seals and sea-elephants.

In order to avoid the strait, which was encumbered with islets and
ice-floes, Captain Len Guy first cast anchor at the south-eastern
extremity of Laurie Island, where he passed the day on the