Chapter 56—Polar Cosmography
Of course, to eat at table, they were obliged to sit on the ground.
“But,” said Clawbonny, “who would n’t give all the tallies and dining-rooms in the world, to dine in north latitude 89°59’15”?”
The thoughts of each one were about their situation. They had no other idea than the North Pole. The dangers they had undergone to reach it, those to overcome before returning, were forgotten in their unprecedented success. What neither Europeans, Americans, nor Asiatics had been able to do, they had accomplished.
Hence they were all ready to listen to the doctor when he told them all that his inexhaustible memory could recall about their position.
It was with real enthusiasm that he first proposed their captain’s health.
“To John Hatteras!” he said.
“To John Ha
