In the steady, strong northerly current, the Orion made rapid progress. The great glaciers of Southern Greenland were passed, and then the chain of mountains which traverses the land from north to south were reached. Keeping exactly along the backbone of the range, the Orion sped northward. On either side great canyons opened toward the west and east; immense rivers of ice and slow-moving glaciers extended toward the sea. The land was white with snow, save here and there where the black rocks of the mountains broke through. A barren, dreary waste was upon every side, and a scene of utter desolation presented itself to these few mortals far up in the clouds. Still the vessel moved northward; degree after degree was passed, and it was 12 dial when they reached the seventy-fifth degree of latitude. The sun lay like a ball of fire upon the plain of snow to the south, its disc just visible as it seemed to rest on the horizon. The three officers stood at the rail, and raised their fur caps in salutation. "Good-bye, old Sol; good-bye to your bright light!" cried Cobb, as he waved his cap. "It will be many an hour--days, even, and perhaps years, ere your face is seen by us again!" "Let us say days only, Junius," the others exclaimed, together. "We hope soon to see its glorious face again." "Perhaps!" With this single word, Cobb turned and entered the cabin, where he spread out before him a chart of the arctic regions, and examined it intently. Five degrees more and he would turn to the west! Dinner was soon announced, and eaten with a relish, as the bracing air had given each a good appetite. The sunlight had given place to twilight, and that, in turn, had been followed by night. The stars shone out with brilliancy, and studded the heavens in every direction. The Orion, being in an upper current, moved with surprising evenness. The pole-star was high in the sky, and the great bear directly over their heads. It was 18 dial by their chronometers, and they should be near the eightieth parallel. "Hugh," said Cobb, rising from his chair, "will you take the latitude from Polaris? Never mind the refraction; I want it only to within a few minutes." Hugh took the sextant, and left the cabin, while Cobb turned to Hathaway, and remarked: "Lester, this is a very comfortable room, this one of ours in the arctic regions, is it not?" "Indeed, it is," the other replied. "And we are going north, to the extremity of the earth?" "I understand such to be your intention." "It would be sad for you and Hugh if we never returned!" "I do not think of it in that light," smilingly returned his companion, as he lighted a fresh cigar. "There is no reason why we should not return, and return in a halo of glory." "I hope so." At this moment Hugh came, and announced that he made the latitude 79 degrees 55 minutes. Seven minutes later the course of the Orion was laid due west.