Chapter 53 Chapter 21 The Ocean of Freedom

The next morning, Johnson and Bell set out to load the bivouac items onto the boat.At eight o'clock, when the preparations for the departure were complete, and the time to leave the shore approached, the doctor began to think about the travelers who had left their footprints, and he couldn't help worrying about it. These people want to conquer the North?What gear are they equipped to cross the Arctic Ocean?Is it still possible to meet them on these new journeys? For three days there was no sign of the travellers; surely, in any case, they had not yet set foot in Port Altamon, which was still uninhabited and virgin territory.

Following his thoughts, the doctor wanted to browse the scenery here for the last time. He climbed up to a height of more than 100 meters, where he could scan the entire south. When he reached the top of the mountain, he put on the binoculars. It was so strange that he couldn't see anything. Needless to say, he couldn't see the plains in the distance, even a few steps away from him!This surprised him so much; he checked again, and finally he looked at the binoculars... the lens was missing. "Camera!" he yelled. It was to be understood what this momentary discovery meant to him; he uttered a loud cry, and his companions were shaken, and they were greatly disturbed to see him running down the hill.

"Oh! What happened again?" Johnson asked. The doctor was out of breath and could not utter a sound; at last he managed to utter a few words: "Footprints...footsteps...Squad!..." "So, what?" Hatteras asked. "... Stranger here?" "No!...No!..." The doctor took over, "...the lens...my lens...is mine..." He showed the missing part of the telescope to his companions. "Ah!" the American exclaimed, "...what you lost?..." "right." "Then these footprints..." "Ours too, my friends, ours!" said the doctor. "We got lost in the fog! We turned around and ended up back where we were!"

"Then how do you explain the shoe prints?" asked Hatteras. "Bell's shoes, Bell's own leather shoes, remember, after Bell's snowshoes crashed, he walked in the snow all day in leather shoes." "Indeed," Bell said. The evidence was so convincing that everyone could not help laughing, except Hatteras, who was not at all happy about the discovery. "How ridiculous we are!" said the doctor, when the laughter had subsided, "how rich our imaginations are! Strangers are on this shore! What a result! It seems that one must think on the spot before imagining. At last, the doubts are eliminated. Now, all we have to do is set off.”

"Go!" said Hatteras. A quarter of an hour later, everyone boarded the skiff and sat down. The foremastsail was unfurled, the mizzensail was hoisted, and the skiff sailed out of Altamont Harbor quickly. The voyage began on Wednesday, July 10; the navigators were at this moment very near the North Pole, to be precise; so close that sea navigation was the easiest way to reach it. There was little wind, but a tailwind.The thermometer marked 10°C, and the weather was hotter. The dinghy didn't suffer as many ordeals as the sledge; the dinghy was in good shape and easy to maneuver.Johnson took the helm; the Doctor, Bell and the American reclined in their most comfortable positions.Maintain the balance of the ship.

Hatteras sat on the bow, staring at the mysterious North Pole. His whole body was attracted by a powerful force, like a magnet being drawn to the North Pole.If several coasts appeared in front of him, he was the first to explore, and the honor belonged to him. In addition, he discovered that the surface of the Arctic Ocean was formed by the freezing of many small waves, as if the sea was blocked.He saw another sign of land showing there, and the doctor agreed with his observation. It's easy to appreciate Hatteras' strong desire to discover land in the Arctic.How important it was in his grand plan to conquer the North Pole to see how little land stretched out from the unpredictable and fickle sea.However, how to give this undetermined piece of land in the ocean a unique name?How to erect the national flag of our country around the sea?And how to occupy a piece of land belonging to His Majesty's name in the flowing sea?

At this moment, Hatteras focused his eyes, held a compass in one hand, and greedily threw it to the north. Nothing can limit the stretch of the Arctic Basin towards the horizon; in the distance, the sea blends with the blue sky.A few icebergs, fleeing far away, seemed to give way to these intrepid navigators. Does the strange landscape of this area make explorers extremely excited and highly excited?It's hard to tell.But the doctor, in his journal of exploration, described the strange features of the Arctic Ocean; as Penney described the beauty of these regions. "A most breathtaking map of the sea, dotted with thousands of sea creatures."

The sea presents the multi-level changes of the open sea. At this moment, it is surprisingly clear and quiet, and it seems to have extraordinary dispersing power, as if they are composed of sulfuric acid carbides.This transparency makes people want to explore the bottomless sea; the Arctic submarine basin is illuminated from below like a huge glass aquarium; what a magical landscape, produced on the seabed, illuminates the deepest layer of the seabed.The boat also seems to be suspended in a bottomless abyss. Thousands of birds fly in gangs like dense clouds or storms over these amazing water surfaces.Traveling birds and seabirds all form part of the large family of aquariums. Albatrosses from the south and penguins from the northern ocean exist in considerable proportions.Their calls are deafening and continuous.Just looking at them, the doctor forgets his natural science.He couldn't name all kinds of wonderful birds; he would subconsciously bow his head when they came whizzing by with powerful, indescribable wings.

Several kinds of gigantic birds stretched out, with a wingspan of twenty paces, and they flew down sufficiently to cover the boat in its entirety.Flocks of birds occur here, some of which have never been listed in the London Index of Ornithology. The doctor was shocked.In short, he was dismayed at his own scientific poverty. As he turned his eyes from the wonderful sky to the calm surface of the sea, he saw not only the amazing animal world of birds, but also others.The jellyfish, which can be as large as thirty paces across, is often a plentiful meal for birds, as it floats among the algae, forming tiny crystal-clear islands.What an obsessive subject!I would like to ask, what is the difference between the jellyfish here and the same kind living in the Greenland Sea observed under the microscope of Scones?It is amazing how this navigator reproduced jellyfish in a radius of two square miles!

From the flowing water to the quiet deep sea, the masters in the extraordinary world shuttle and jump; these sea elves with a complete range of tens of thousands sometimes dive into the deepest layer of mystery, making people's eyes keep getting smaller and smaller , The disappearing shadow roams the maze of the seabed; sometimes the dreamlike seabed is released, floating on the ocean surface, revealing the body leisurely.The giants of the sea are not afraid of the arrival of small boats.The navigators can't help stroking their large anal fins; here, professional whalers have real reason to panic, and the navigators are completely unaware of the danger they face, when certain animals at sea are in formidable numbers. the point.

Young and strong sailors are playing with them; dolphin-like magical narwhals, with their sharp cone-shaped defensive weapons, pierce the ice freely, chasing the most timid of the cetacean family; , spraying spectacular water column and mucus through their nostrils, and the sea surface is filled with their unique calls; the northern whale with a thick tail fin, relying on a nimble tail, breaks through the wind and waves at a speed as fast as the wind, and at the same time Forget to add the same agile scomb and other delicacies to yourself; while the generous beluga whale quietly enjoys the same lazy and gentle molluscs as itself. Deeper in the ocean, warm whales with sharp mouths, elongated and dark granling whales, huge sperm whales, all kinds of whales are scattered in the depths of the ocean, or swim in the amber seabed, or devote themselves to the tragic blood-stained Desperate battles in the red seas; cylindrical marine animals, giant sea beasts in Labrador, dolphins with backs as sharp as daggers, all families of seals and families of walruses, fur seals, sea horses, sea bears, sea lions, walruses, It's like grazing in a sea pasture in the Arctic Ocean; through the crystal clear marine zoo, the doctor appreciates the countless marine animal world composed of crabs, shrimps, fish, etc. How beautiful, how rich, how magical nature is!How amazing and incredible everything is in the ocean near the North Pole! The sky is supernaturally clear; it can be said that there is too much oxygen, and the navigators breathe this sweet air that makes life more passionate, without thinking about what the energy supply means at this time; their emotional functions, digestive functions, respiratory functions , are all running with supernatural energy, highly stimulating the imagination of the brain, to the extreme: for one hour, they enjoy the beauty of the whole day. In amazement and wonder, the dinghy sailed leisurely through the ocean, accompanied by the breeze brought by the fluttering wings of the huge albatross. Towards dusk, the coast of New America disappeared from the sight of Hatteras and his companions. The hours of the temperate night are as distinct as in the equatorial regions; but here the spiral disk of the sun is elongated and traces a complete circle, forming a landscape exactly like that of the Arctic Ocean.The boat, bathed in its setting sun, cannot leave this shining center. Animals active in high latitudes clearly feel the coming of night, as if the dazzling stars were robbed and locked behind the horizon.All the birds, fish, and whales disappeared.Where?Highest point in the sky?Or the deepest layer of the ocean?Who can tell?After their honking, hissing, and the quivering of the waves raised by the breath of the wonders of the sea, strangely peaceful; regained its tranquility. Since leaving Altamon Harbor the boat had advanced another degree to the north; and the next day the sky showed no sign, either of distant peaks of land, or special markings of islands or islands to which the sailors were eager to approach. land. The wind is fair and mild; the sea is calmer; the seabirds and fishes are returning in groups like the day before; the doctor leans towards the sea and sees the whales leaving their deep palaces of rest and gradually reemerging from the surface of the ocean; A floe drifted away one way or another, filling the monotony of the sea. In short, the ice floes were so small that they would not hinder the navigation of the ship.The sailing was as smooth as that of Disco Bay into Baffin Bay.This is no surprise.Therefore, the whole summer is like a tiger with wings added to sailing. This observation plays an important role in reality; in fact, if the whalers could pass through the northern oceans of America, or the northern oceans of Asia, to the Arctic ocean basin, they would undoubtedly return with a rich reward, because there seems to be a collection of All sea whales, seals and various marine animals are the treasure house of the marine animal world. At noon, the sea level and the horizon interweave to form a line of sea and sky; doctors began to doubt the existence of land in high latitudes. However, from the point of view of reasoning, the existence of land in the North Pole is unavoidable; in fact, at the beginning of creation, after the crust cooled, the water formed by the solidification of the air mass in the atmosphere should rush towards the equator under the action of centrifugal force, leaving the static pole of the earth. From here, suddenly arises the Arctic neighborhood.The doctor thought his reasoning was quite correct. It seems to be similar to Hatteras' idea. The captain's eyes wanted to pierce the clouds in the sky.The binoculars never left his eyes for a moment.He seeks in the multicolored waters, looks in the shapes of the waves, and in the whistling of the wind for signs of lands to be discovered.His brow stretched forward, deeply intoxicated with visions of adventure to be revealed.Who can decipher from his gestures the multiple frenetic desires and anxious doubts contained therein.

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