islands of floating ice in the forty-second degree of latitude.
"Really, you're too bad, Doctor!" exclaimed Shandon.
"But it is true. I have no reason to be astonished, then, at finding a floating iceberg in front of our ship, seeing we are ten degrees farther north."
"I declare, Doctor, you're a perfect well; you have only to let down the bucket."
"All right. I shall dry up sooner than you think; and now, all I want to make me the happiest of doctors is, to see this curious phenomenon a little nearer."
"Precisely," said Shandon. Johnson," he added, calling to his boatswain, "it seems to me the wind is getting up."
"Yes, sir," said Johnson, "we are losing speed, and the currents from the Straits of Davis will soon begin to affect us."
"You are right, Johnson; and if we want to be at Cape Farewell by the 20th of April, we must put on steam, or we shall be dashed against the coast of Labrador. Mr. Wall, will you give orders for the fires to be lighted immediately?"
His orders were executed forthwith, and in another hour the steam had acquired sufficient power to propel the screw, and the Forward was racing along against the wind with close-reefed sails at full speed.
CHAPTER VI
THE GREAT POLAR CURRENT
Before long, the numerous flights of birds—puffins, petrels, and others peculiar to these desolate shores—indicated that they were approaching Greenland. The Forward was steaming rapidly north, leaving leeward a long cloud of black smoke.
On Tuesday, the 17th of April, the ice-master signaled the blink of ice about twenty miles ahead, at least. A radiant band of dazzling whiteness lighted up all the surrounding atmosphere, in spite of somewhat heavy clouds. Experienced Arctic sailors cannot mistake this appearance; and the old hands on board at once pronounced it to be the
