 CHAPTER XXIV The heading of the following chapter indicates that the adventures of William Guy and his companions after destruction of the English schooner and the details of their history subsequent to the departure of Arthur Pym and Dirk Peters are about to be narrated with all possible brevity. We carried our treasure-trove to the cavern and had happiness of restoring all four men to life. In reality it was hunger, nothing but hunger, which had reduced the poor fellows to the semblance of death. On the 8th of February, 1828, the crew of the Jane, having no reason to doubt the good faith of the population of Sellele Island, or that of their chief, Tuwit, disembarked in order to visit the village of Clocloch, having previously put the schooner into a state of defence, leaving six men on board. The crew, counting William Guy, the captain, Arthur Pym and Dirk Peters, formed a body of thirty-two men armed with guns, pistols and knives. The dog-tiger accompanied them. On reaching the narrow gorge, leading to the village, preceded and followed by the numerous warriors of Tuwit, the little company divided, Arthur Pym, Dirk Peters and Alan the sailor, entering a cleft in the hillside, with the intention of crossing it to the other side. From that moment their companions were never to see them more. After a short interval a shock was felt. The opposite hill fell down in a vast heap, burying William Guy and his twenty-eight companions. Twenty-two of these unfortunate men were crushed to death on the instant, and their bodies would never be found under that mass of earth. Seven miraculously sheltered in the depth of a great cleft of the hill had survived the catastrophe. These were William Guy, Patterson, Roberts, Coyen, Trinkel, also Forbes and Sexton, since dead. As for Tiger they knew not whether he had perished in the landslip or whether he had escaped. There existed in the right side of the hill, as well as in the left, on either side of the fisher, certain winding passages, and it was by crawling along these in the darkness that William Guy, Patterson and the others reached a cavity which led in light and air in abundance. From this shelter they beheld the attack on the Jane by sixty parogues, the defence made by the six men on board, the invasion of the ship by the savages, and finally the explosion which caused the death of a vast number of natives as well as the complete destruction of the ship. To wit and the Sallal Islanders were at first terrified by the effects of this explosion, but probably still more disappointed. Their instincts of pillage could not be gratified because some valueless wreckage was all that remained of the ship and her cargo, and they had no reason to suppose that any of the crew had survived the cleverly contrived collapse of the hill. Hence it came about that Arthur Pym and Jerk Peters on the one side and William Guy and his companions on the other were enabled to remain undisturbed in the labyrinth of clock-clock, where they fed on the flesh of bitterns, these they could catch with their hands, and the fruit of the nut-trees which grow on the hillsides. They procured fire by rubbing pieces of soft against pieces of hard wood, there was a quantity of both within their reach. After a whole week of this confinement Arthur Pym and the Halfbreed had succeeded, as we know, in leaving their hiding-place, securing a boat and abandoning Sullell Island, but William Guy and his companions had not yet found an opportunity to escape. After they had been shut up in the labyrinth, for twenty-one days the birds on which they lived began to fail them, and they recognized that their only means of escaping hunger, they had not to fear thirst, for there was a spring of fresh water in the interior of the hill, was to go down again to the coast, lay hands upon a native boat, and get out to sea. Where were the fugitives to go, and what was to become of them without provisions? These were the questions that had to be asked, and which nobody could answer. Nevertheless they would not have hesitated to attempt the adventure if they could have a few hours of darkness, but at that time of the year the sun did not as yet go down behind the horizon of the eighty-fourth parallel. Death would probably have put an end to their misery had not the situation been changed by the following events. On the twenty-second of February in the morning William Guy and Patterson were talking together in terrible perplexity of mind at the orifice of the cavity that opened upon the country. They no longer knew how to provide for the wants of seven persons, who were then reduced to eating nuts only, and were suffering in consequence from severe pain in the head and stomach. They could see big turtles crawling on the beach, but how could they venture to go thither, with hundreds of natives coming and going about their several occupations, with their constant cry of Tecalile. Suddenly this crowd of people became violently agitated. Men, women, and children ran wildly about on every side. Some of the savages even took to their boats as though a great danger were at hand. What was happening? Some Guy and his companions were very soon informed. The cause of the tumult was the appearance of an unknown animal, a terrible quadruped which dashed into the midst of the islanders, snapping at and biting them indiscriminately, as it sprang at their throats with a horse growling. And yet the infuriated animal was alone, and might easily have been killed by stones or arrows. Why then did a crowd of savages manifest such abject terror? Why did they take to flight? Why did they appear incapable of defending themselves against this one beast? The animal was white, and the sight of it had produced the phenomenon previously observed, that inexplicable terror of whiteness common to all the natives of Salel. To their extreme surprise William Guy and his companions recognized the strange animal as the dog Tiger. Yes, Tiger had escaped from the crumbling mass of the hill, and be taken himself to the interior of the island, whence he had returned to clock-clock to spread terror among the natives. But Tiger was no mere phantom foe, for he was the most dangerous and deadly of enemies, for the poor animal was mad and his fangs were fatal. This was the reason why the greater part of Salel Islanders took to flight, headed by their chief Tuwet and the Wampos, who were the leading personages of clock-clock. It was under these extraordinary circumstances that they abandoned their island, whither they were destined never to return. Although the boats carried off the bulk of the population, a considerable number still remained on Salel, having no means of escape, and their fate accomplished itself quickly. Several natives who were bitten by Tiger developed hydrophobia rapidly and attacked the others, fearful scenes ensued, and are briefly to be summed up in one dismal statement. The bones we had seen in or near clock-clock were those of the poor savages which had lain there bleaching for eleven years. The poor dog had died after he had done his fell work, in a corner on the beach, where Dirk Peters found his skeleton and the collar bearing the name of Arthur Pym. Then, after those natives who could not escape from the island had all perished in the manner described, William Guy, Patterson, Trinkle, Coven, Forbes, and Suxton ventured to come out of the labyrinth, where they were on the verge of death by starvation. What sort of existence was that of the seven survivors of the expedition during the eleven ensuing years? On the whole it was more insurable than might have been supposed. The natural products of an extremely fertile soil and the presence of a certain number of domestic animals secured them against want of food. They had only to make out the best shelter for themselves they could contrive, and wait for an opportunity of getting away from the island with as much patience as might be granted to them. And from whence could such an opportunity come? Only from one of the chances within the resources of Providence. Captain William Guy, Patterson and their five companions, descended on the ravine which was half filled with the fallen masses of the hill-face amid heaps of scoria and blocks of black granite. Before they left this gorge it occurred to William Guy to explore the fissure on the right into which Arthur Pym, Dirk Peters and Allen had turned, but he found it blocked up. It was impossible for him to get into the pass. Thus he remained in ignorance of the existence of the natural or artificial labyrinth which corresponded with the one he had just left, and probably communicated with it under the dry bed of the torrent. The little company having passed the chaotic barrier that intercepted the northern route proceeded rapidly towards the northwest. There, on the coast, at about three miles from clock-clock, they established themselves in a grotto, very like that in our own occupation on the coast of Halbrainland. And it was in this place that, during long hopeless years, the seven survivors of the Jane lived, as we were about to do ourselves, but under better conditions, for the fertility of the soil of Salel furnished them with resources unknown in Halbrainland. In reality we were condemned to perish when our provisions should be exhausted, but they could have waited indefinitely, and they did wait. They had never entertained any doubt that Arthur Pym, Dirk Peters and Allen had perished, and this was only too true in Allen's case. How indeed could they have ever imagined that Pym and the half-breed had got hold of a boat and made their escape from Salel Island? So then, as William Guy told us, not an incident occurred to break the monotony of that existence of eleven years, not even the reappearance of the islanders, who were kept away from Salel by superstitious terror. No danger had threatened them during all that time, but of course, as it became more and more prolonged, they lost the hope of ever being rescued. At first, with the return of the fine season, when the sea was once more open, they had thought it possible that a ship would be sent in search of the jain, but after four or five years they relinquished all hope. There is no need for dwelling on this period, which extends from the year 1828 to the year 1839. The winters were hard, the summer did indeed extend its beneficent influence to the islands of the Salel group, but the cold season, with its attendant snows, rains, and tempests, spared them none of its severity. During seven months Captain William Guy had not lost one of those who had come with him safe and sound out of the trap set for them at clock-clock, and this was due, no doubt, to their robust constitutions, remarkable power of endurance, and great strength of character. Alas, misfortune was making ready to fall on them. The month of May had come. It corresponds in those regions to the month of November in northern lands, and the ice-packs which the current carried towards the north were beginning to drift past Salel. One day one of the seven men failed to return to the cavern. They called, they waited, they searched for him, all was in vain. He did not reappear. No doubt he had been drowned. He was never more seen by his fellow exiles. This man was Patterson, the faithful companion of William Guy. Now, what William Guy did not know, but we told him, was that Patterson, under what circumstances none would ever learn, had been carried away on the surface of an ice-block, where he died of hunger. And on that ice-block, which had travelled so far, as Prince Edward Island, the poor son had discovered the corpse of the unfortunate man almost decomposed by the action of the warmer waters. When Captain Len Guy told his brother of the finding of the body of Patterson, and how it was owing to the notes in his pocket-book that the hell-brain had been enabled to proceed towards the Antarctic seas, William Guy hid his face in his hands and wept. Other misfortunes followed upon this one. Five months after the disappearance of Patterson, in the middle of October, Seleuil Island was laid waste from coast to coast by an earthquake, which destroyed the south-western group almost entirely. William Guy and his companions must soon have perished on the barren land, which no longer could give them food, had not the means of leaving its coast, now merely an expanse of tumbled rocks, been afforded them in an almost miraculous manner. Two days after the earthquake, the current carried ashore within a few hundred yards of their cavern, a boat which had drifted from the island's group on the south-west. Without delay of even one day, the boat was laden with as much of the remaining provisions as it could contain, and the six men embarked in it, biting a jeer for ever to the now uninhabitable island. Unfortunately a very strong breeze was blowing, it was impossible to resist it, and the boat was driven southward by that very same current which had caused our iceberg to drift to the coast of Halbrain land. For two months and a half these poor fellows were born across the open sea, with no control over their course. It was not until the second January in the present year, 1840, that they sighted land, east of the Jain Sound. Now we already knew this land was not more than fifty miles from Halbrain land, yes, so small relatively with the distance, that separated us from those whom we had sought for in the Antarctic regions far and wide, and concerning whom we had lost hope. Their boat had gone ashore far to the south- east of us, but on how different a coast from that of Salal island, or rather on one how like that of Halbrain land. Nothing was to be seen but sand and stones, neither trees, shrubs nor plants of any kind. Their provisions were almost exhausted. William Guyant's companions were soon reduced to extreme want, and two of the little company, Forbes and Sexton, died. The remaining four resolved not to remain a single day longer in the place where they were doomed to die of hunger. They embarked in the boat with a small supply of food still remaining, and once more abandoned themselves to the current, without having been able to verify their position for want of instruments. Thus they had been born upon the unknown deep for twenty-five days. Their resources were completely exhausted, and they had not eaten for forty-eight hours when the boat, with its occupants, lying inanimate at the bottom of it, was sighted from Halbrain land. The rest is already known to the reader of this strange eventful history. And now the two brothers were at length reunited in that remote corner of the big world which we had dubbed Halbrain land. End of Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five of an Antarctic Mystery, or the Sphinx of the Icefields. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. An Antarctic Mystery by Jules Verne, Chapter Twenty-Five. We were the first. Two days later, not one of the survivors from the two schooners, the Jane and the Halbrain, remained upon any coast of the Antarctic region. On the twenty-first of February, at six o'clock in the morning, the boat with us all, we numbered thirteen, in it, left the little creek, and doubled the point of Halbrain land. On the previous day we had fully and finally debated the question of our departure, with the understanding that if it were settled in the affirmative we should start without delay. The captain of the Jane was for an immediate departure, and Captain Len Guy was not opposed to it. I willingly sided with them, and West was of similar opinion. The boson was inclined to oppose us. He considered it imprudent to give up a certainty for the uncertain, and he was backed by Endicott, who, who would in any case say ditto to his Mr. Burke. However, when the time came, hurly-girly conformed to the view of the majority with a good grace, and declared himself quite ready to set out, since we were all that way of thinking. Our boat was one of those in use in the Salel Archipelago, for implying between the islands, we knew, from the narrative of Arthur Pym, that these boats were of two kinds, one resembling rafts or flat boats, the other strongly built Pyrogys. Our boat was of the former kind, four feet long, six feet in width, and worked by several paddles. We called our little craft Paruchira, after a fish which abounds in these waters. A rough image of that denizen of the southern deep was cut upon the gunnel. Needless to say that the greater part of the cargo of the Howe-Brain was left in our cavern, fully protected from weather at the disposal of any shipwrecked people who might chance to be thrown on the coast of Howe-Brain land. The bow-sun had planted a spar on the top of this slope to attract attention. But our two schooners notwithstanding, what vessel would ever venture into such latitudes? Not a bend. We were just thirteen, the fatal number. Perfectly good relations subsisted amongst us. We had no longer to dread the rebellion of a hern, how often we had speculated upon the fate of those whom he had beguiled. At seven o'clock the extreme point of Howe-Brain land lay five miles behind us, and in the evening we gradually lost sight of the heights that variate at that part of the coast. I desired to lay special stress on the fact that not a single scrap of iron entered into the construction of this boat. Not so much as a nail or a boat, for that metal was entirely unknown to the Salal Islanders. The planks were bound together by a sort of liana or creeping-plant and cocked with moss steeped in pitch, which was turned by contact with the sea water to a substance as hard as metal. I have nothing special to record during the week that succeeded our departure. The breeze blew steadily from the south, and we did not meet with any unfavorable current between the banks of the Jain Sound. During those first eight days the perricots, by paddling when the wind fell, had kept up the speed that was indispensable for our reaching the Pacific Ocean within a short time. The desolate aspect of the land remained the same, while the strait was already visited by floating-dress packs of one to two hundred feet in length, some oblong, others circular, and also by icebergs which our boat passed easily. We were made anxious, however, by the fact that these masses were proceeding towards the ice barrier, for would they not close the passages which ought to be still open at this time? I shall mention here that in proportion, as Dirk Peters was carried further and further from the places wherein no trace of his poor pimp had been found, he was more silent than ever, and no longer even answered me when I addressed him. It must not be forgotten that since our iceberg had passed beyond the south pole, we were in the zone of eastern longitudes, counted from the zero of Greenwich to the hundred and eightieth degree. I'll hope must therefore be abandoned of our either touching at the Falklands, or finding whaling-ships in the waters of the Sandwich Islands, the south Orkneys, or south Georgia. Our voyage proceeded under unaltered conditions for ten days. Our little craft was perfectly sea-worthy. The two captains and West fully appreciated its soundness, although, as I have said previously, not a scrap of iron had a place in its construction. It had not once been necessary to repair its seams, so staunch were they. To be sure the sea was smooth, its long, ruling waves were hardly ruffled on their surface. On the tenth of March, with the same longitude the observation gave, seven degrees thirteen minutes for latitude, the speed of the Perakuta had then been thirty miles in each twenty-four hours. If this rate of progress could be maintained for three weeks, there was every chance of her finding the passes open, and being able to get round the ice barrier. Also, that the whaling- ships would not yet have left the fishing grounds. The sun was on the verge of the horizon, and the time was approaching when the Antarctic region should be shrouded in polar night. Fortunately, in re-ascending towards the north, we were getting into waters from whence light was not yet banished. Then did we witness a phenomenon, as extraordinary as any of those described by Arthur Pem. For three or four hours, sparks accompanied by a sharp noise shot out of our fingers' ends, our hair, and our beards. There was an electric snowstorm, with great flakes falling loosely, and the contact produced this strange luminosity. The sea rose so suddenly and tumbled about so wildly that the Perakuta was several times in danger of being swallowed up by the waves, but we got through the mystic-seeming tempest all safe and sound. For the last space was thence forth, but imperfectly lighted. Frequent mists came up and bounded our outlook to a few cables' length. Extreme watchfulness and caution were necessary to avoid collision with the floating masses of ice, which were travelling more slowly than the Perakuta. It is also to be noted, on the southern side, the sky was frequently lighted up by the broad and brilliant rays of the polar aurora. The temperature fell very precipitously, and no longer rose above twenty-three degrees. Forty-eight hours later Captain Lengai and his brother succeeded with great difficulty in taking an approximate observation, with the following results of their calculations. Latitude seventy-five degrees, seventeen minutes south. Longitude one hundred and eighteen degrees, thirteen minutes east. At this date, therefore, 12th March, the Perakuta was distant from the waters of the Antarctic Circle only four hundred miles. During the night a thick fog came on, with a subsistence of the breeze. This was to be regretted, for it increased the risk of collision with the floating ice. Of course, fog could not be a surprise to us, being where we were, but what did surprise us was the gradually increasing speed of our boat. Although the falling of the wind ought to have lessened it. This increase of speed could not be due to the current, for we were going more quickly than it. This state of things lasted until morning, without our being able to account for what was happening. When at about ten o'clock the mist began to disappear in the low zones. The coast on the west reappeared, a rocky coast without a mountainous background. The Perakuta was following its line. And then, no more than a quarter of a mile away, we beheld a huge mound, reared above the plain to a height of three hundred feet, with a circumference of from two to three hundred feet. In its strange form this great mound resembled an enormous thinks. The body upright, the paw stretched out, crouching in the attitude of the winged monster, which Grecian mythology has placed upon the way to Thebes. Was this a living animal, a gigantic monster, a mastodon, a thousand times the size of those enormous elephants of the polar seas, whose remains are still found in the ice? In our frame of mind we might have believed that it was such a creature, and believed also that the mastodon was about to hurl itself on our little craft and crush it to atoms. After a few moments of unreasoning and unreasonable fright we recognized that the strange object was only a great mound, singularly shaped, and that the mists had just rolled off its head, leaving it to stand out and confront us. Ah! that sphinx! I remembered at the sight of it, that on the night when the iceberg was overturned and the howl-brain was carried away, I had dreamed of a fabulous animal of this kind, seated at the pole of the world, and from whom Edgar Poe could only rest its secrets. But our attention was to be attracted. Our surprise, even our alarm, was evoked soon by phenomena still more strange than the mysterious earth form upon which the miscurtain had been raised so suddenly. I have said that the speed of the peracuta was gradually increasing, now it was excessive, that of the current, remaining inferior to it. Now, of a sudden, the grapnel that had belonged to the howl-brain, and was in the bow of the boat, flew out of its socket as though drawn by an irresistible power, and the rope that held it was strange to the breaking point. It seemed to tow us, as it grazed the surface of the water towards the shore. What's the matter? cried William Guy. Cut away, beau-son, cut away! shouted West, or we shall be dragged against the rocks. Hurly-girly hurried to the bow of the peracuta to cut away the rope. Of a sudden the knife he held was snatched out of his hand. The rope broke, and the grapnel, like a projectile, shot off in the direction of the sphinx. At the same moment all the articles on board the boat that were made of iron or steel, cooking utensils, arms and a cut stove, or knives, which were torn from out of pockets, took flight after a similar fashion in the same direction, while the boat, quickening its course, brought up against the beach. What was happening? In order to explain these inexplicable things, were we not obliged to acknowledge that we had come into the region of those wonders which I had attributed to the hallucinations of Arthur Pym? No, these were physical facts which we had just witnessed, and not imaginary phenomena. We had however no time for reflection, and immediately upon our landing our attention was turned in another direction by the sight of a boat lying wrecked upon the sand. The howl-brains' boat, quite hurly-girly, it was indeed the boat which Hearn had stolen, and it was simply smashed to pieces, in a word only the formless wreckage of a craft which had been flung against the rocks by the sea remained. We observed immediately that all the ironwork of the boat had disappeared, down to the hinges of the rudder. Not one trace of the metal existed. What could be the meaning of this? A loud call from west brought us to a little strip of beach on the right of our stranded boat. Three corpses lay upon the stony soil, that of Hearn, that of Martin Holt, and that of one of the Falklands men. Of the thirteen who had gone with the ceiling-master there remained only these three, who had evidently been dead some days. What had become of the ten missing men? Had their bodies been carried out to sea? We searched all along the coast, into the creeks, and between the outlying rocks, but in vain nothing was to be found, no traces of a camp, not even the vestiges of a landing. Their boat, said William Guy, must have been struck by a drifting iceberg. The rest of Hearn's companions have been drowned, and only these three bodies have come ashore lifeless. But, asked the Boeson, how is the state the boat is in to be explained? And especially, at it west, the disappearance of all the iron? Indeed, said I, it looks as though every bit had been violently torn off. Leaving the Petticuta in the charge of two men, we again took our way to the interior, in order to extend our search over a wider expanse. As we were approaching the huge mound, the mist cleared away, and the form stood out with greater distinctness. It was, as I have said, almost that of a Sphinx, a dusky-hued Sphinx, as though the matter which composed it had been oxidized by the inclemency of the polar climate. And then a possibility flashed into my mind, and hypotheses which explained these astonishing phenomena. Ah, I exclaimed, a lodestone, that is it, a magnet with prodigious power of attraction. I was understood, and in an instant the final catastrophe to which Hearn and his companions were victims was explained with terrible clearness. The Antarctic Sphinx was simply a colossal magnet. Under the influence of that magnet the iron bands of the Howe-Brain's boat had been torn out and projected as though by the action of a catapult. This was the occult force that had irresistibly attracted everything made of iron on the Perakuta, and the boat itself would have shared the fate of the Howe-Brain's boat had a single bit of metal been employed in its construction. Was it then the proximity of the magnetic pole that produced such effects? At first we entertained this idea, but on reflection we rejected it. At the place where the magnetic meridians cross the only phenomenon produced is the vertical position of the magnetic needle in two similar points of the terrestrial globe. This phenomenon, already proved by observations made on the spot, must be identical in the Antarctic regions. Thus, then, there did exist a magnet of prodigious intensity in the zone of attraction which we had entered. Under our eyes one of those surprising effects which had hitherto been classed among fables was actually produced. The following appeared to me to be the true explanation. The trade winds bring a constant succession of clouds or mists in which immense quantities of electricity, not completely exhausted by storms, are stored. Hence there exists a formidable accumulation of electric fluid at the poles, and it flows towards the land in a permanent stream. From this cause come the northern and southern auroras whose luminous splinters shine above the horizon, especially during the long polar night, and are visible even in the temperate zones when they attain their maximum of culmination. These continuous currents at the poles which bewilder our compasses might possess an extraordinary influence, and it would suffice that a block of iron should be subjected to their action, for it could be changed into a magnet of power proportioned to the intensity of the current, to the number of turns of the electric helix and to the square root of the diameter of the block of magnetized iron. Thus then the bulk of the sphinx, which upreared its mystic form upon this outer edge of the southern lands, might be calculated by thousands of cubic yards. Now, in order that the current should circulate around it and make a magnet of it by induction what was required, nothing but a metallic load whose innumerable windings through the bowels of the soil should be connected subterraneously at the base of the block. It seemed to me that the place of this block ought to be in the magnetic axes as a sort of gigantic calamite, from whence the imponderable fluid whose currents made an inexhaustible accumulator set up at the confines of the world should issue. Our compass could not have enabled us to determine whether the marvel before our eyes really was at the magnetic pole of the southern regions. All I can say is that the needles staggered about helpless and useless, and in fact the exact location of the Antarctic sphinx mattered little in respect of the constitution of that artificial lodestone and the manner in which the clouds and metallic load supplied its attractive power. In this very plausible fashion I was led to explain the phenomenon by instinct. It could not be doubted that we were in the vicinity of a magnet which produced these terrible but strict natural effects by its attraction. I communicated my ideas to my companions, and they regarded this explanation as conclusive, in presence of the physical facts of which we were the actual witnesses. We shall incur an old risk by going to the foot of the mound, I suppose, said Captain Langeye. None, I replied. There, yes, here. I could not describe the impression those three words made upon us. Edgar Poe would have said that they were three cries from the depths of the Underworld. It was Dirk Peters who had spoken, and his body was stretched out in the direction of the sphinx, as though it had been turned to iron and was attracted by the magnet. Then he sped swiftly towards the sphinx-like mound, and his companions followed him over rough ground strewn with volcanic remains of all sorts. The monster grew larger as we neared it, but lost none of its mythological shape. Alone on that vast plain it produced a sense of awe. And, but this could only have been a delusion, we seemed to be drawn towards it by the force of its magnetic attraction. On arriving at the base of the mound, we found there the various articles on which the magnet had exerted its powers. Arms, utensils, the grappinal of the peracuta, all adhering to the sides of the monster. There were also the iron relics of the Halbrains boat, all her utensils, arms, and fittings, even to the nails and the iron portions of the rudder. There was no possibility of regaining possession of any of these things. Even had they not adhered to the lodestone rock at too great a height to be reached, they adhered to it too closely to be detached. Hurly-girly was infuriated by the impossibility of recovering his knife, which he recognized at fifty feet above his head, and cried as he shook his clenched fist at the imperturbable monster. Thief of a sphinx! Of course the things which had belonged to the Halbrains boat and the peracutas were the only articles that adorned the mighty sides of the lonely mystic form. Never had any ship reached such a latitude of the Antarctic Sea. Hearn and his accomplices, Captain Lengai and his companions, were the first to had trodden this point of the southern continent, and any vessel that might have approached this colossal magnet must have incurred certain destruction. Our schooner must have perished, even as its boat had been dashed into a shapeless wreck. West now reminded us that it was imprudent to prolong or stay on this land of the sphinx, a name to be retained. Time pressed and a few days delay would have entailed our wintering at the foot of the ice-barrier. The order to return to the beach had just been given, when the voice of the half-breed was again heard as he cried out, There! There! There! We followed the sounds to the back of the monster's right paw, and we found jerk Peters on his knees, with his hands stretched out before an almost naked corpse, which had been preserved intact by the cold of these regions, and was as rigid as iron. The head was bent, a white beard hung down to the waist. The nails of the feet and hands were like claws. How had this corpse been fixed to the side of the mound at six feet above the ground? Across the body, held in place by its cross-belt, we saw the twisted barrel of a musket, half eaten by rust. Pim! my poor Pim! groaned jerk Peters. He tried to rise that he might approach and kiss the ossified corpse. But his knees bent under him, a strangled sob, seemed to rent his throat, with a terrible spasm, his faithful heart broke, and the half-breed fell back, dead. The story was easy to read. After their separation the boat had carried Arthur Pim through these Antarctic regions. Like us, once he had passed beyond the South Pole he came into the zone of the monster, and there, while his boat was swept along on the northern current, he was seized by the magnetic fluid before he could get rid of the gun, which was slung over his shoulder, and hurled against the fatal lodestone sphinx of the ice-realm. Now the faithful half-breed rests under the clay of the land of the Antarctic mystery, by the side of his poor Pim, that hero whose strange adventures found a chronicler no less strange in the great American poet. CHAPTER XXVI. A LITTLE REMNANT. That same day in the afternoon the perecuta departed from the coast of the land of the Sphinx, which had lain to the west of us since the 21st of February. By the death of Dirk Peters the number of the passengers was reduced to twelve. These were all who remained of the double crew of the two schooners, the first comprising thirty-eight men, the second thirty-two, in all seventy souls. But let it not be forgotten that the voyage of the Howell-brain had been undertaken in fulfilment of a duty to humanity, and four of the survivors of the Jane owed their rescue to it. And now there remains but little to tell, and what must be related, as succinctly as possible. It is unnecessary to dwell upon a return voyage, which was favoured by the constancy of the currents and the wind to the northern course. The last part of the voyage was accomplished amid great fatigue and suffering, but it ended in our safe deliverance from all these. Firstly, a few days after our departure from the land of the Sphinx, the sun set behind the western horizon to reappear no more for the whole winter. It was then the midst of the semi-darkness of the austral night that the perecuta pursued her monotonous course. True, the southern polar lights were frequently visible, but they were not the sun. That single orb of day which had illumined our horizons during the months of the Antarctic summer, and their capricious splendour could not replace his unchanging light. That long darkness of the poles sheds a moral and physical influence on mortals which no one can allude, a gloomy and overwhelming impression almost impossible to resist. Of all of the perecuta's passengers, the Bosun and Endicott only preserved their habitual good-humour. Those two were equally insensible to the weariness and the peril of a voyage. I also accept West, who was ever ready to face every eventuality, like a man who is always on the defensive. As for the two brothers' guy, their happiness in being restored to each other made them frequently oblivious to the anxieties and risks of the future. Of hurly-gurly I cannot speak too highly. He proved himself a thoroughly good fellow, and it raised our drooping spirits to hear him repeat in his jolly voice. We shall get to Port all right, my friends, be sure of that, and if you can only reckon things up you will see that we have had more good luck than bad. Oh, yes, I know there was the loss of our poor how-brain carried up into the air like a balloon, then flung into the deep like an avalanche. But on the other hand there was the iceberg which brought us to the coast, and this allel boat which brought us, and Captain William Guy and his three companions together. And don't forget the current and the breeze that has pushed us on up to now, and will keep pushing us on, I am sure of that. With so many trumps in our hand we cannot possibly lose the game. The only thing to be regretted is that we shall have to get ashore again in Australia or New Zealand instead of casting anchor at the Kergulans near the key of Christmas Harbour in front of the green Comrant. For a week we pursued our course without deviation to East or West, and it was not until the 21st of March that the Pericutas lost sight of how-brain land being carried towards the north by the current, while the coastline of the Continent, for such we are convinced it is, trended in a round curve to the northeast. Although the waters of this portion of the sea were still open, they carried a flotilla of icebergs or ice-fields. Hence arose serious difficulties and also dangers to navigation in the midst of the gloomy mists when we had to maneuver between these moving masses, either to find passage or to prevent our little craft from being crushed like grain between the millstones. Besides Captain Len Guy could no longer ascertain his position, either in latitude or longitude, the sun being absent. Calculations by the positions of the stars were too complicated. It was impossible to take altitudes, and the Pericuta abandoned herself to the action of the current, which invariably bore us northward, as the compass indicated. By keeping the reckoning of its medium speed, however, we concluded that on the 27th of March our boat was between the 69th and the 68th parallels, that is to say, some seventy miles only from the Antarctic circle. If no obstacle to the course of our perilous navigation had existed, if passage between this inner sea of the southern zone and the waters of the Pacific Ocean had been certain, the Pericuta might have reached the extreme limit of the austral seas in a few days. But a few hundred miles more to sail and the iceberg barrier would confront us with its immovable rampart, and unless a passage could be found, we should be obliged to go round it, either by the east or by the west. Once cleared, indeed, ah, once cleared, we should be in a frail craft upon the terrible Pacific Ocean at the period of the year when its tempests rage with redoubled fury and strong ships dread the might of its waves. We were determined not to think of this. Heaven would come to our aid. We should be picked up by some ship. This the Bosun asserted confidently, and we were bound to believe the Bosun. For six entire days until the end of April, the Pericuta held her course among the ice barrier whose crest was profiled at an altitude of between seven and eight hundred feet above the level of the sea. The extremities were not visible either on the east or the west, and if our boat did not find an open passage we could not clear it. By a most fortunate chance a passage was found on the above mentioned date, and attempted, amid a thousand risks. Yes, we required all the zeal, skill, and courage of our men and their chiefs to accomplish such a task. At last we were in the South Pacific waters, but our boat had suffered severely in getting through, and it had sprung more than one leak. We were kept busy in bailing out the water, which also came in from above. The breeze was gentle, the sea more calm than we could have hoped, and the real danger did not lie in the risks of navigation. No, it arose from the fact that not a ship was visible in these waters. Not a whaler was to be seen on the fishing grounds. At the beginning of April these places are forsaken, and we arrived some weeks too late. We learned afterwards that had we arrived a little sooner, we should have met the vessels of the American expedition. In fact, on the first of February, by ninety-five degrees, fifty minutes longitude, and sixty-four degrees, seventeen minutes latitude, Lieutenant Wilkes was still exploring these seas in one of his ships, the Vicens, after having discovered a long extent of coast stretching from east to west. On the approach of the bad season he returned to Hobart Town in Tasmania. The same year, the expedition of the French captain Dumont-Derville, which started in 1838, discovered Adelaide land in sixty-six degrees, thirty minutes latitude, and thirty-eight degrees, twenty-one minutes east longitude, and Clare coast in sixty-four degrees, thirty minutes, and one twenty-nine degrees, fifty-four minutes, their campaign having ended with these important discoveries. The astrolab and the zeely left the Antarctic Ocean and returned to Hobart Town. None of these ships then were in those waters, so that when our nutshell Perakuta was alone on a lone, lone sea, beyond the ice barrier we were bound to believe that it was no longer possible we could be saved. We were fifteen hundred miles away from the nearest land, and winter was a month old. Hurley Gurley himself was obliged to acknowledge the last fortunate chance upon which he had counted failed us. On the sixteenth of April we were at the end of our resources. The sea began to threaten. The boat seemed likely to be swallowed up in the angry waves. A ship! cried the boat's son, and on the instant we made out a vessel about four miles to the northeast, beneath the mist which had suddenly risen. Signals were made, signals were perceived. The ship lowered her largest boat and sent it to our rescue. The ship was the Tasman, an American three-master, from Charlestown, where we were received with eager welcome and cordiality. The captain treated my companions as though they had been his own countrymen. The Tasman had come from the Falkland Islands, where the captain had learned that seven months previous the American schooner Halprayne had gone to the southern seas in search of the shipwrecked people of the Jane. But as the season advanced the schooner, not having reappeared, she was given up for lost in the Antarctic regions. Fifteen days after our rescue the Tasman disembarked the survivors of the crew of the two schooners at Milburn, and it was there that our men were paid the sums they had so hardly earned and so well deserved. We then learned from the maps that the Pericuta had debouched into the Pacific from the land called Claire by Dumont de Ville, and the land called Fabricia, which was discovered in 1838 by Bellany. Thus terminated this adventure and extraordinary expedition which cost alas too many victims. Our final word is that although the chances and the necessities of our voyage carried us further towards the South Pole than those who preceded us, although we actually did pass beyond the axial point of the terrestrial globe, discoveries of great value still remain to be made in those waters. Arthur Pym, the hero whom Edgar Poe has made so famous, has shown the way. It is for others to follow him and to rest the last Antarctic mystery from the sphinx of the ice-realm.