Captain Wallace had caused to be put up in each of our four cabins the following tables of Arctic progress made since Hudson's voyage in 1607:
| RECORD OF HIGHEST LATITUDES REACHED. | |
| Hudson | 80' 23" in 1607 |
| Phipps | 80' 48" in 1773 |
| Scoresby | 81' 12" in 1806 |
| Payer | 82' 07" in 1872 |
| Meyer | 82' 09" in 1871 |
| Parry | 82' 45" in 1827 |
| Aldrich | 83' 07" in 1876 |
| Markham | 83' 20" in 1876 |
| Lockwood | 83' 24" in 1883 |
"Does it not seem strange," said I, "that nearly three hundred years of naval progress and inventive skill can produce no better record in polar discovery than this? With all our skill and experience we have only distanced the heroic Hudson three degrees; that is one degree for every hundred years. At this rate of progress the pole may be discovered in the year 2600."
"It is a record of naval imbecility," said the captain; "there is no reason why our expedition cannot at least touch the 85th degree. That would be doing the work of two hundred years in as many days."
"Why not do the work of the next 700 years while we are at it?" said Professor Rackiron. "Let us take the ship as far as we can go and then bundle our dogs and a few of the best men into the balloon and finish a job that the biggest governments on earth are unable to do."
"That's precisely what we've come here for," said I, "but we must have prudence as well as boldness, so as not to throw away our lives unnecessarily. In any case we will beat the record ere we return."