"But," asked the boatswain, "how is the state the boat is in to be explained?" "And especially," added West, "the disappearance of all the iron?" "Indeed," said I, "it looks as though every bit had been violently torn off." Leaving the _Paracuta_ in the charge of two men, we again took our way to the interior, in order to extend our search over a wider expanse. As we were approaching the huge mound the mist cleared away, and the form stood out with greater distinctness. It was, as I have said, almost that of a sphinx, a dusky-hued sphinx, as though the matter which composed it had been oxidized by the inclemency of the polar climate. And then a possibility flashed into my mind, an hypothesis which explained these astonishing phenomena. "Ah!" I exclaimed, "a loadstone! that is it! A magnet with prodigious power of attraction!" I was understood, and in an instant the final catastrophe, to which Hearne and his companions were victims, was explained with terrible clearness. The Antarctic Sphinx was simply a colossal magnet. Under the influence of that magnet the iron bands of the _Halbrane's_ boat had been torn out and projected as though by the action of a catapult. This was the occult force that had irresistibly attracted everything made of iron on the _Paracuta_. And the boat itself would have shared the fate of the _Halbrane's_ boat had a single bit of that metal been employed in its construction. Was it, then, the proximity of the magnetic pole that produced such effects? [Illustration: An antarctic mystery.] At first we entertained this idea, but on reflection we rejected it. At the place where the magnetic meridians cross, the only phenomenon produced is the vertical position of the magnetic needle in two similar points of the terrestrial globe. This phenomenon, already proved by observations made on the spot, must be identical in the Antarctic regions. Thus, then, there did exist a magnet of prodigious intensity in the zone of attraction which we had entered. Under our eyes one of those surprising effects which had hitherto been classed among fables was actually produced. The following appeared to me to be the true explanation. The Trade-winds bring a constant succession of clouds or mists in which immense quantities of electricity not completely exhausted by storms, are stored. Hence there exists a formidable accumulation of electric fluid at the poles, and it flows towards the land in a permanent stream. From this cause come the northern and southern auroras, whose luminous splendours shine above the horizon, especially during the long polar night, and are visible even in the temperate zones when they attain their maximum of culmination.