“Wherefore, Mr. Jeorling, I thank Providence for this, and hope revives in me to some extent. As the weather has been constantly fine, what is there to make it impossible for my brother and my fellow-countrymen to have landed on this coast, whither the wind and the tide bore them? What our schooner has done, their boat may have done! They surely did not start on a voyage which might be prolonged to an indefinite time without a proper supply of provisions! Why should they not have found the resources as those afforded to them by the island of Tsalal during many long years? They had ammunition and arms elsewhere. Fish abound in these waters, water-fowl also. Oh yes! my heart is full of hope, and I wish I were a few hours older!”
Without being quite so sanguine as Len Guy, I was glad to see he had regained his hopeful mood. Perhaps, if his investigations were successful, I might be able to have them continued in Arthur Pym’s interest—even into the heart of this strange land which we were approaching.
The Halbrane was going along slowly on these clear waters, which swarmed with fish belonging to the same species as we had already met. The sea-birds were more numerous, and were evidently not frightened; for they kept flying round the mast, or perching in the yards. Several whitish ropes about five or six feet long were brought on board. They were chaplets formed of millions of pearly shell-fish.
Whales, spouting jets of feathery water from their blow-holes, appeared at a distance, and I remarked that all of them took a southerly direction. There was therefore reason to believe that the sea extended far and wide in that direction.
The schooner covered two or three miles of her course without any increase of speed. This coast evidently stretched from north-west to south-east. Nevertheless, the telescopes revealed no distinctive features—even after three hours’ navigation.
The crew, gathered together on the forecastle, were looking on without revealing their impressions. West, after going aloft to the fore-cross-trees, where he had remained ten minutes, had reported nothing precise. Stationed at the port side, leaning my elbows on the bulwarks, I closely watched the sky line, broken only towards the east.
At this moment the boatswain rejoined me, and without preface said:
“Will you allow me to give you my opinion, Mr. Jeorling?”
“Give it, boatswain,” I replied, “at the risk of my not adopting it if I don’t agree with it.”
“It is correct, and according as we get nearer one must really be blind not to adopt it!”