" A pretty noisy one, I expect," replied the Doctor, "but not cold. We had better take every precaution, and fasten down our tent with good big stones."
"You are right, Mr. Clawbonny. If the hurricane swept away our tent, I don't know where we should find it again."
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The tent held fast, but sleep was impossible, for the tempest was let loose and raged with tremendous violence.
"It seems to me," said the Doctor, during a brief lull in the deafening roar," as if I could hear the sound of collisions between icebergs and ice-fields. If we were near the sea, I could really believe there was a general break-up in the ice."
"I can't explain the noises any other way," said Johnson.
"Can we have reached the coast, I wonder?" asked Hatteras.
"It is not impossible," replied Clawbonny. "Listen! Do you hear that crash? That is certainly the sound of icebergs falling. We cannot be very far from the ocean."
"Well, if it turn out to be so, I shall push right on over the ice- fields."
"Oh, they'll be all broken up after such a storm as this. We shall see what to-morrow, brings; but all I can say is, if any poor fellows are wandering about in a night like this, I pity them.