“Yes, sir; nothing but a few floating blocks of no consequence; and there are more openings farther on.”
“That’s right. Now look out, both of you, for a good deep inlet. That is what we want next.”
Johannes held the glass at this time, and he said to Steve, as the captain turned away:
“There are two fiords that appear to be just right if we can reach them; but I cannot make out anything for certain yet. Have a try, sir?”
Steve took the glass, rested his arms on the rail, and began to try and make out the inlets by following the course of the open water from just ahead right up to the piled-up mountainous land.
“It looks like a bit of my own country,” said Johannes, “and does not seem to be an island, for there is high ground as far as I can see.”
“More seals,” said Steve; “good big ones, too!”
“Where?”
“Away to the left of that big ice-field, right on its edge. Why, there must be fifty of them. See ’em?”
“Yes,” said Johannes gravely; “more likely a hundred, sir; and, as you say, very fine ones indeed. The captain will not have any difficulty in loading up with oil to take back.”