"If there is an open polar sea there is no doubt that there is life in it," was the answer, with a smile; "but what form such creatures would assume we cannot tell."
"Perhaps hideous monsters?" suggested the imaginative Billy.
"More likely creatures like whales or seals," returned Captain
Hazzard.
"If there is such a thing as a creature with a South Polar flea in its fur I would like to catch it," hopefully announced the scientist.
"Seals are covered with them," rejoined the officer.
"Pooh, those are just common seal-fleas," returned the professor. "I would like to find an insect that makes its home at the pole itself."
"Well, perhaps you will," was the rejoinder.
"I hope so," said the professor. "It would be very interesting."
All this time the two vessels were steaming slowly westward along the inhospitable barrier that seemed, as Frank said, to have been erected by nature to keep intruders away from the South Polar regions. As the professor concluded his last remark the lookout gave a sudden hail.
"Shipwrecked sailors!"