It could not even be proposed, now that necessity obliged us to return northwards, and not to delay a single day in this portion of the Antarctic regions.

At any rate, though I resolved not again to speak of the matter to the captain, I lost no opportunity of sounding the boatswain.

Often when he had finished his work, Hurliguerly would come and join me; we would chat, and we would compare our recollections of travel.
One day as we were seated on the summit of the iceberg, gazing fixedly on the deceptive horizon, he exclaimed,-- "Who could ever have imagined, Mr.Jeorling, when the _Halbrane_ left Kerguelen, that six and a half months afterwards she would be stuck on the side of an icemountain ?" "A fact much more to be regretted," I replied, "because only for that accident we should have attained our object, and we should have begun our return journey." "I don't mean to contradict," replied the boatswain, "but you say we should have attained our object, Do you mean by that, that we should have found our countrymen ?" "Perhaps." "I can scarcely believe such would have been the case, Mr.
Jeorling, although this was the principal and perhaps even the only object of our navigation in the polarseas." "The only one--yes--at the start," I insinuated.

"But since the half-breed's revelations about Arthur Pym--" "Ah! You are always harking back on that subject, like brave Dirk Peters." "Always, Hurliguerly; and only that a deplorable and unforeseen accident made us run aground--" "I leave you to your delusions, Mr.Jeorling, since you believe you have run aground--" "Why?
Is not this the case ?" "In any case it is a wonderful running aground," replied the boatswain.

"Instead of a good solid bottom, we have run aground in the air." "Then I am right, Hurliguerly, in saying it is an unfortunate adventure." "Unfortunate, truly, but in my opinion we should take warning by it." "What warning ?" "That it is not permitted to us to venture so farin these latitudes, and I believe that the Creator forbids His creatures to climb to the summit of the poles." "Notwithstanding that the summit of one pole is only sixty miles away from us now." "Granted, Mr.Jeorling, but tilese sixty miles are equal to thousands when we have no means of making them! And if the launch of the schooner is not successful, here are we condemned to winter quarters which the polar bears themselves would hardly relish!" I replied only by a shake of my head, which Hurliguerly could not fail to understand.
"Do you know, Mr.Jeorling, of what I think oftenest ?" "What do you think of, boatswain ?" "Of the Kerguelens, whither we are certainly not travelling.
Truly, in a bad season it was cold enough there! There is not much difference between this archipelago and the islands situated on the edge of the Antarctic Sea! But there one is not far from the Cape, and if we want to warm our shins, no iceberg bars the way.