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Slack.com slash DHQ. Chapter 15. Accident or Incident.

The next day, the 22nd of March, at 6 in the morning, preparations for departure were begun.

The last gleams of twilight were melting into night. The cold was great. The constellations

shown with wonderful intensity. In the zenith, glittered that wondrous southern cross, the polar

bear of Antarctic regions. The thermometer showed 120 below zero, and when the wind freshened

it was most biting. Flakes of ice increased on the open water. The sea seemed everywhere

alike.

The first blackish patches spread on the surface, showing the formation of fresh ice. Evidently,

the southern basin, frozen during the six winter months, was absolutely inaccessible.

What became of the whales in that time? Doubtless, they went beneath the icebergs, seeking

more practical seas. As to the seals and morsels, accustomed to live in a hard climate,

they remained on these icy shores. These creatures had the instinct to break holes in the

ice field and keep them open. To these holes they come for breadth. When the birds driven

away by the cold have immigrated to the north, these sea mammals remained sole masters of

the polar continent. But the reservoirs were filling with water, and the nautilus was

slowly descending. At a thousand feet deep it stopped, its screw beat the waves, and

it advanced straight towards the north at a speed of fifteen miles an hour.

...