A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder | Page 8

will carry us along fast enough."
Then I proposed that we should go ashore on the ice. To this Agnew objected, but
afterward consented, at my earnest request. So we tried to get ashore, but this time found
it impossible; for the ice consisted of a vast sheet of floating lumps, which looked like the
ruin of bergs that had been broken up in some storm. After this I had nothing to say, nor
was there anything left for us but to drift wherever the current might carry us.
So we drifted for some days, Agnew all the time maintaining that we were going north,
while I was sure that we were going south. The sky remained as cloudy as ever, the wind
varied incessantly, and there was nothing by which we could conjecture the points of the
compass. We lived on our seal, and for drink we chewed ice and snow. One thing was
certain--the climate was no colder. Agnew laid great stress on this.
"You see," said he, "we must be going north. If we were going south we should be frozen
stiff by this time."

"Yes; but if we were going north," said I, "we ought to find it growing warmer."
"No," said he, "not with all this ice around us. It's the ice that keeps the temperature in
this cold state."
Argument could do no good, and so we each remained true to our belief--his leading him
to hope, and mine dragging me down to despair. At length we finished the last fragment
of the seal that we had cooked, and, finding ourselves near some firm ice, we went ashore
and cooked all that was left, using the remainder of our wood for fuel, and all that we
dared to remove from the boat. Re-embarking with this, we drifted on as before.
Several more days passed. At last one night I was roused by Agnew. He pointed far away
to the distant horizon, where I saw a deep red glow as of fire. We were both filled with
wonder at the sight, and were utterly unable to account for it. We knew that it could not
be caused by the sun or the moon, for it was midnight, and the cause lay on the earth and
not in the skies. It was a deep, lurid glow, extending along the horizon, and seemed to be
caused by some vast conflagration.



CHAPTER III
A WORLD OF FIRE AND DESOLATION
At the sight of that deep-red glow various feelings arose within us: in me there was new
dejection; in Agnew there was stronger hope. I could not think but that it was our ship
that was on fire, and was burning before our eyes. Agnew thought that it was some
burning forest, and that it showed our approach to some habitable and inhabited land. For
hour after hour we watched, and all the time the current drew us nearer, and the glow
grew brighter and more intense. At last we were too weak to watch any longer, and we
fell asleep.
On waking our first thoughts were about the fire, and we looked eagerly around. It was
day, but the sky was as gloomy as ever, and the fire was there before our eyes, bright and
terrible. We could now see it plainly, and discern the cause also. The fire came from two
points, at some distance apart--two peaks rising above the horizon, from which there
burst forth flames and smoke with incessant explosions. All was now manifest. It was no
burning ship, no blazing forest, no land inhabited by man: those blazing peaks were two
volcanoes in a state of active eruption, and at that sight I knew the worst.
"I know where we are now," I said, despairingly.
"Where?" asked Agnew.

"That," said I, "is the antarctic continent."
"The antarctic fiddlestick," said he, contemptuously. "It is far more likely to be some
volcanic island in the South Sea. There's a tremendous volcano in the Sandwich Islands,
and these are something like it."
"I believe," said I, "that these are the very volcanoes that Sir James Ross discovered last
year."
"Do you happen to know where he found them?" Agnew asked.
"I do not," I answered.
"Well, I do," said he, "and they're thousands of miles away from this. They are south
latitude 77 degrees, east longitude 167 degrees; while we, as I guess, are about south
latitude 40 degrees, east longitude 60 degrees."
"At any rate," said I, "we're drifting straight toward them."
"So I see," said Agnew, dryly. "At any rate, the current will take us somewhere. We shall
find ourselves carried past these volcanic islands, or through them, and then west to the
Cape of Good Hope. Besides, even here we may find land