"Yes; didn't you see it. There, high up yonder, this side of the sharp point which runs out to the east. I daresay that was the cause of the wreck. Here, take the glass." He handed his telescope to the doctor, who made a long inspection, and then passed it to Steve, who took it with hands trembling from eagerness to view what was in all probability the remains of his uncle's vessel, whose return had been so anxiously awaited all through the past winter, but in the spring given up as being ice-bound somewhere in the north. Yes, there was the hull of a good-sized ship fast on the rocks, and with decks ripped up by the waves, so that, as the vessel lay over on its port side, Steve could peer with the glass right into the hold between the deck beams. There was the stump of the bowsprit pointing upward toward the stony cliffs, but the masts were completely gone, and an ugly gap in the port side suggested that it would not be long before the timbers quite disappeared. Steve handed the glass back with a sigh, and his face contracted. "No, no; don't look like that," said the captain gently; "we don't know that this is the _Ice Blink_." "You are saying that to comfort me," replied the boy sadly. "It must be." "Why?" "You said it was possible that they might have made for Jan Mayen and been frozen up there." "I did." "Well, there is the vessel," said Steve piteously. "How do you know?" The boy looked at him almost angrily, and pointed to the wreck, as if there was the answer to the question. "That is not satisfactory proof. I have been looking hard, but the stern is battered away, and there is no name. It may be any one of the hundreds of boats that sailed north during the past ten years, or a derelict brought up by the current and washed ashore." But Steve shook his head. "Ah! you are determined to take the worst view of it, my lad," said the captain kindly. "Even if it is the wreck of the _Ice Blink_, Steve, my boy, they must have had plenty of stores and timber, and we may find them with a snug cabin built up, and all well and hearty." "You think so?" cried Steve eagerly. "I do not say I think so, my boy. I say it is possible, if--mind _if_-- that is the wreck of the _Ice Blink_." "Of course," said the doctor encouragingly, as he used his glass. "They may be up one of those gullies in some sheltered spot inland." "No," said the captain decisively; "I doubt very much whether there are any sheltered spots inland. To me it seems as if the whole of the interior is one icy desert. Look at that gully, Handscombe, there to the right. A regular alpine glacier running nearly down to the shore." "Yes; but still there may be sheltered valleys." "Of course; but it strikes me that if we find our friends it will be somewhere along the narrow stretch of shore. But we'll see." "What are you going to do, sir--land?" cried Steve eagerly.