"Remember the Palæocrystic Sea!" I suggested.
"True," he answered, "but remember it was narrow, and that we have never seen it in the winter."
"Of all our experiences," I observed reflectively, "the present situation strikes me as the most remarkable, skurrying through these frozen regions like a comet, and spying out the land by the light of a candle. It is surely not the method most in vogue among pioneers!"
"It has certainly not been done frequently before," he answered; "but now that we know the way, a trip to the interior by either of the poles may become a desirable pleasure excursion; in fact it may grow into a fashionable fad, who can tell, and the future may develop——!"
He stopped suddenly, and we both became transfixed with horror at the sight that confronted us.
Directly below, but standing on the very pinnacle of one of the ice hummocks, was a human being, revealed by our headlight. The man was facing us, and waving his arms furiously. Could anything be more blood-curdling than such a sight in such a place? No ship or sled, nor indication of life was visible, save this solitary, deserted creature. The region was impenetrable to human beings; we knew it; it seemed incredible, and yet there it was, a living man, and alone, in this untraversed, and untraversable wilderness of ice.
Such solitude, such isolation, such an impossible fact, was like a sudden vision of the supernatural.
We had been moving at tremendous speed, but before we had quite passed this weird object Torrence had slowed down the air ship and a minute later had brought it to a halt.
We quickly wrapped ourselves in the heaviest eiderdown and fur garments we possessed, not daring to open a window for communication until thoroughly protected, as, of course, we intended taking the poor creature aboard, and to save his life, were it possible to do so. When every precaution had been taken, we backed the vessel, and lowered ourselves to a level with the ice. When the headlight had been brought to shine against the ice mass, a great white bear lowered himself down the side and leisurely walked away. He had been alarmed, and his curiosity aroused at the sight of our light, hence the mistake! We had a roaring laugh over the absurdity of our error, and then proceeded upon our journey at the former rate of speed.
We passed three ranges of lofty mountains, which looked as if they must forever bar the entrance to these regions of cold and darkness; for they were flanked with terrible glaciers and precipices, thousands of feet high, and sheathed in great ridges of glittering ice.