Chapter 122
In the Uttermost Parts of the SeaSOME years ago, large ships were sent towards the north
pole, to explore the distant coasts, and to try how far men could
penetrate into those unknown regions. For more than a year one of
these ships had been pushing its way northward, amid snow and ice,
and the sailors had endured many hardships; till at length winter
set in, and the sun entirely disappeared; for many weeks there
would be constant night. All around, as far as the eye could reach,
nothing could be seen but fields of ice, in which the ship remained
stuck fast. The snow lay piled up in great heaps, and of these the
sailors made huts, in the form of bee-hives, some of them as large
and spacious as one of the "Huns' graves," and others only
containing room enough to hold
