The English at the North Pole

They knew that where the worthy doctor went they could follow. However, the sailors were still uneasy, and Shandon, fearing t

captain's remained hermetically closed, after being furnished with different instruments, furniture, travelling garments, books, clothes for changing,

f the third officer was placed under the lower deck, which formed a vast sleeping-room for the sailors' use; the men were very comfortably lodged, and would not have found anything like the same convenience on board any other ship; they

a snail, for it can make a shell exactly to f

ctacles, compasses, sextants, maps, plans, flasks, powders, bottles for medicine-chest, were all classed in an order that would have shamed the British Museum. The space of six square feet contained incalculable riches: the doctor had only to stretch out his hand without moving to become instantaneously a doctor, a mathematician, an astronomer, a geographer, a botanist,

pretended to joke who believed seriously that the dog was of a diabolical kind. Pen, who was a brutal man, was going to strike him once, when he fell, unfortunately, against the angle of the capstan, and made a frightful wound in his head. Of course this accident was placed to the account of the fantastic animal. Clifton, the most superstitious of the crew, made the singular observation that when the dog was on the poop he always walked on the windward side, and afterwards, when the brig was out at sea, and altered its tack, the surprising animal changed its direction with the wind the same as the captain of the Forward would have done i

e four persons were tasting their tenth grog, and probably their last, for the letter from Aberdeen had ordered that all the crew, from the captain to the stoker, should be teetotallers, and that there should be no wine, beer, nor spirits on

e captain's name, it must at least tell me the destinatio

should start whether I get a letter or no; they

tor; but if so, to what quarter

urse; there's not the sli

ot be the South

ense would send a brig across the whole of the Atlantic.

n answer to every

enland? Labrador or Hudson's Bay? Although all directions end in insuperable iceber

g nothing to say; "but if you don

nothing; I

start?" cried Dr. Clawbonny, a

ainly

he consequences may be deplorable; the season is good now if we are really going north, as we ought to profit by the breaking up of the ice to cross Davis's Straits; besides,

erted they all would, and then I don't kno

an I do?" c

and there's no reason to believe we shan't be made acquainted with our destination when the proper time comes. I haven't the slightest doubt that to-morrow we shall be sailing in the Iris

drank to thei

't get a letter to-morrow, set sail; do not get up the steam, the wind looks like holding out, and it will be easy enough to sail; let the pilot come on board; go out of the do

nson!" cried the doctor, holdin

," answer

made his preparations for departure, and the news spread at once all over Liverpool, and, as we have already seen, an extraordinary affluence of spectators crowded the wharfs of New Prince's Docks. Many of them came on board to shake hands

es, trying to read the secret of his destiny on one of the faces. But in vain. The sailors of the Forward executed his orders in silence, looking at him all the time, waiting for ord

oking through his telescope, gesticulating, impatient for the sea, as he said. He felt moved, thoug

, there is no time to be lost; we shall not

eck to be cleared of spectators, and the crowd made a general movement to regain the wharves while the last moorings were unloosed. Amidst the confusion a dog's bark was dis

d Shandon. "He i

he isn't now," said Johnson,

er without opening it

ead it, I say,"

elope had no postmark or date

ARD S

r on boar

rwa

the letter and

f April. If the captain does not appear on board, cross

IN OF THE

.

his pocket, and gave the order for departure. His voice,

ated itself on to the exterior wharf along the Victoria Docks in order to get a last glimpse of the strange brig. The two topsails, the foresail and the brigant