"'Later, a tame dog with a brass collar on his neck was taken from an ice-floe. Later still, by a few months, a small box and a snow-shoe drifted ashore. In your year 1890, the corpse of a white man, clothed in furs, was found on the beach, and the next morning two bodies of what are now known to have been Esquimaux, were found. As we lived on the ocean front, we knew whence these came. At this the State took up the work, made an appropriation, organised a party, and, well,' said he, 'they abundantly equipped an expedition, put me in charge, and I am here on my return to Cavitorus, after a five years' tour, covering the countries of all the outer globe.'" What masterly logic! What skill in the marshalling of details! "Well," adds Leo Bergin, soliloquizing, "if it is true, and it must be, for I am going there, how much stranger than fiction!" The notes continue:-- "The captain inquired about the harbors along the coast of Cavitorus; the Boston man inquired if there were any gold mines; the parson, how high the Shadowas built their church spires; and the engineer, what motive power was used in their transportation. "To these Mr. Oseba answered: 'I fear, if I should tell you one half the truth about these things we should be "discovered," to our sorrow.' "The hour was late, and as all seemed dazed by the recital, the party dispersed, to bed,-- 'To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub.'" BOILING IT DOWN. Well, that is rich! Leo had to cut it short, but he saved me a lot of trouble. Let's see. Here is a lot of interesting details--interesting if life were not so short--but I'll have to "boil it down," for "spice" is the word. The two adventurers left the _Irene_ at Amsterdam, ran to Hamburg, where they remained over winter, and being joined by Oseba's fellow-adventurers, they took a small steamer sent as a supply ship for a polar party "frozen up" in the seas north of Spitzbergen. Disembarking, they joined a party for the journey further north, intending to strike the open sea at a known point. As would be expected, "the cold was intense," but the party was splendidly equipped, and progress, for polar travel, was rapid. [Illustration: _Mitre Peak, Milford Sound_] "Oseba," say the notes, "had recourse to a magazine he had supplied for the purpose on his outward journey. Here were supplies of condensed food, articles of raiment that bid defiance to cold, instruments which by reflection converted light into warmth, and various scientific appliances, some that practically rendered the party immune from cold, and others that aided them in meeting many dangers." Leo Bergin had not a reputation for underestimating the trials of any adventure in which he embarked, but taking all in all, it seems from his report that, under the lead of this wizard from "Symmes' Hole," a visit to the jumping-off place at the north could be made with little inconvenience or risk to life or health.