"Do you know, Doctor," said Johnson, "that it is pleasant to talk about cold in our present circumstances?"
"Exactly, Johnson; we can call practice to the aid of theory. These countries are a vast laboratory where curious experiments on low temperatures can be made. Only, be always careful; if any part of your body is frozen, rub it at once with snow to restore the circulation of the blood; and if you come near the fire, be careful, for you may burn your hands or feet without noticing it; then amputation would be necessary, and we should try to leave nothing of ourselves in these lands. And now I think it would be well for us to seek a few hours of sleep."
"Willingly," answered the doctor's companions.
"Who keeps watch over the stove?"
"I do," answered Bell.
"Well, my friend, take care the fire does not fall out, for it's most abominably cold this evening."
"Don't be uneasy, Doctor; it's very sharp, but see, the sky is all ablaze!"
"Yes," answered the doctor, going up to the window, "it's a magnificent aurora. What a glorious sight! I should never get tired of looking at it!"
In fact, the doctor admired all these cosmic phenomena, to which his companions paid but little attention; he had noticed, besides, that their appearance always preceded disturbances of the magnetic needle, and he was preparing some observations on the subject which he intended for Admiral Fitz-Roy's "Weather Book."