The speed of the _Paracuta_ 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 our finding the passes open, and being able to get round the iceberg 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 would 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 Pym.

For three or four hours, sparks, accompanied by a sharp noise, shot out of our fingers' ends, our hair, and our beards.