Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 2.djvu/381

 creased by the fog rather than diminished. A terrible suspicion crossed the Doctor's mind.

"It is a bear!" he said to himself. And a bear it actually was, of huge dimensions. Bruin had lost his way in the fog like his neighbors, and was going hither and thither in all directions, almost knocking right against his enemies, though he little imagined their proximity.

"I'm in a pretty fix now," thought the Doctor, remaining quite still.

The animal sometimes came so close to him that he could feel his breath, and the next minute he disappeared in the frost rime. Sometimes he caught a glimpse of enormous paws beating the air, and more than once they touched him so near that his clothes were torn by the sharp claws, and he leaped back in affright.

But in leaping back the Doctor felt his foot struck rising ground, and by the help of his hand he succeeded in getting on the top of first one block of ice and then another and another, till he reached at last the summit of an iceberg nearly ninety feet high, and found himself in clear air, quite above the level of the fog.

"That's capital!" he said, and looking round, discovered his three companions also emerging from the frost rime.

"Hatteras!"

"Doctor Clawbonny!"

"Bell!"

"Simpson!"

These exclamations were almost simultaneous. The sky was illumined by a magnificent halo, which tinged the frost rime with its soft rays, and gave it the appearance of liquid silver, from which the peaks of the icebergs issued.

The travelers discovered they were in a sort of amphitheater about a hundred feet in diameter, and though they had each clambered up different icebergs, and were considerable distances apart, yet, thanks to the intense cold, and extreme purity of the atmosphere, they could hear one another's voice quite easily, and were able to carry on a conversation.

"Where's the sledge?" asked the captain.

"Down there, eighty feet below," replied Simpson.

"Is it all right?

"First-rate."