The Field of Ice

n seals. They'll lie in wait for them beside the crevasses for whole days, ready to strangle them the mome

t you are after, b

I mean to risk it. I am going to dress myself in the seal's skin, and cree

ame himself, so he followed Hatteras silently to the sledge, ta

slipped into the skin, which was bi

, "and you be off to Johnson. I must

or, handing him the weapon, which

ure you don't show yo

told him what they had been doing. The bear was still there, bu

round, so as to come on the bear by surprise, and every movement was so perfect an imitation

proximity. Bruin went to work with extreme prudence, though his eyes glared with greedy desire to clutch the coveted prey, for he had probably been fasting a month, if not two. He allowed his victim to get within ten paces of him, and then sprang forward with a tr

or the bear had reared on his hind legs, and was striking the air wi

ure and steady aim. Before either of his companions came up he had plunged the knife i

Hatteras was as cool and unexcited as possible, and

is killed, but if we leave him out here much longer, he will get

enormous quadruped was almost as large as an ox. It measured nearly nine fee

long time, yet it was very fat, and weighed fifteen hundred pounds. The hunters were so famished that they had hardly

hat pervaded the atmosphere. On going up to the stove he found the fire black out. The exciting

ding he could not even get a red spark, he went out to th

g. He felt in the other pockets, but it was not there. Then he went into the hut again,

to his compan

Doctor, you hav

e, Jo

en't it eith

replied

n in your keeping,

it now!" exclaimed J

ng involuntarily at the bare idea of its loss, for

n, Johnson

the hummock where he had stood to watch the bear. But the missing tre

t no word of reproach esca

erious busin

deed!" sai

e glass that we might take the lens

he sun's rays are quite strong eno

r hunger with the raw meat, and set off again a

, absorbed in his own reflections. "Yes, that

reaming about?"

s just occu

ad, Doctor," exclaimed Joh

eed? that's t

project?" s

ns; well, let

asked J

piece

ou think th

un's rays into one common focus, and ice will se

sible?" sa

water ice, it is harder and m

Johnson, pointing to a hummock close by. "I fancy that is

Bring your hat

th the hatchet; then he operated upon it more carefully with his knife, making as smooth a surface as possible, and finished the polis

inder was fetched, and held beneath the lens so as to catch the rays in f

le Clawbonny hurried back into the hut and rekindled the fire. The stove was soon roaring, and it

n may be imagined. The Doctor, however, counselled

ing food all the rest of our journey. Still we must not forget we

uld almost articulate perfectly again; "we must b

lens does well enough at present; but it needs the sun, and there are plenty of days

mont, with a sigh; "yes, my ship went f

tarted," said Ha

ctor, glancing uneasi

harnessed to the sledge

l motive that had brought him so far north. But the American made o

got that need

ight," sai

n, and I must say the man has not shown him

e has come back to life again, I must confess

he does not suspect the

k his own we

, daring fellows. It is likely enough an Ameri

think that

ut his ship is certainly on

had been caught among the ice,

there was a peculiar smile

Clawbonny, if any feeling of rivalry

ght involve the most serio

ill remember he ow

ut us, he would not be alive at this moment, but w

here to keep things straight a

ay manage i

quite an altered character. Instead of the wide smooth plain of ice that had hitherto stretched before them, overturned ice

ont lay watching the horizon with feverish anxiety - an anxiety shared by all his companions, for, according to the last reckoning made by Hatter

ted the whole party, and pointing to a white mass that no eye but his could have disting