“Maybe, Steve, my lad,” said the captain sadly; “but as far as we can make out there is no chance for a human being to exist there. Any one wrecked in such an inhospitable place would certainly have taken to a sheltered spot under the cliffs, where he would be protected from the coldest winds. Aloft there!”
“Ay, ay, sir!”
“What do you make out over the cliffs there to westward and north?”
“Ice and snow, sir,” came for answer from the crow’s-nest.
“No good land?”
“No, sir. All ice and snow piled up higher and higher. There’s that frozen river goes winding up right into the mountains.”
“No place for a camp?”
“No, sir; not as far as I can see.”
These were the quiet, sober words of Johannes, who was aloft once more, armed with a telescope.
“Any opening where we could land on the ice-floe?” cried Captain Marsham.