“Can you?”
“We’ve been driven right through the opened-up ice somewhere a long way east and north of Spitzbergen. I should say about where land was sighted in one of the expeditions up beyond Gillis Land, toward where the Austrians saw a coast which they called Franz Josef.”
“Ah!”
“I don’t say that’s it; but we’re somewhere thereabouts, and—”
He stopped short to use his glass for a few minutes, Steve watching him impatiently.
“Yes,” he said at last, “there’s land yonder.”
“Where? amongst that ice?”
“Yes; look,” said the mate, handing the glass; “right in the nor’-east yonder. There’s land miles away. Quite mountainous. See it?”
“I can see a glittering pyramid of ice; yes, and a big, heavy mass beside it.”
“That’s right; that’s it.”