“Not as far as I have been able to discover.”
The boys went to the forecastle to see what damage had been done there, and found the ship’s carpenter putting in some new lights of glass. One sailor had received a black eye from a chunk of falling ice, but otherwise little bodily harm had resulted.
“Well, I call that a narrow escape,” said Andy, after the excitement was over.
“So do I,” responded Chet. “I don’t want another such experience.”
“You will have to go through harder things than that up north,” said Barwell Dawson, who overheard the talk.
“We’ll be prepared then,” answered Andy. “This wasn’t expected.”
“I am afraid you boys don’t realize what you are up against,” went on the hunter and explorer. “We are going to face many perils in the polar regions. If you feel you don’t want to go further, you can leave us when we get to Upernivik.”
“No! no! we want to see this thing through, perils or no perils,” cried Andy, hastily.
“Indeed we do!” added Chet. “I guess you’ll find we can stand as much as anybody after we get used to it.”
Late that afternoon the steamer came in sight of a large flock of wild geese. Professor Jeffer calculated that there must be thousands of them, and ran for his camera, to take some snap-shots.