During the day it became no longer doubtful that when the "Albatross" reached the confines of the Antarctic Sea her course was to be changed.

When the ice has formed about Cape Horn the lower regions of the Pacific are covered with icefields and icebergs.

The floes then form an impenetrable barrier to the strongest ships and the boldest navigators.

Of course, by increasing the speed of her wings the "Albatross" could clear the mountains of ice accumulated on the ocean as she could the mountains of earth on the polar continent--if it is a continent that forms the cap of the southern pole.

But would she attempt it in the middle of the polar night, in an atmosphere of sixty below freezing?
After she had advanced about a hundred miles to the south the "Albatross" headed westerly, as if for some unknown island of the Pacific.