elephant or lion had been taken, or a number of fur-seals had been made to
pay their tribute to the enterprise and address of his people.

As for Roswell, though he complied with his promise, and carried on the
duty with industry and success, his eye was constantly turned on those
signs that denote the advance of the seasons. Now he scanned the ocean to
the northward, and noted the diminished number as well as lessened size of
the floating bergs; proofs that the summer and the waves had been at work
on their sides. Next, his look was on the sun, which was making his daily
course, lower and lower, each time that he appeared, settling rapidly away
towards the north, as if in haste to quit a hemisphere that was so little
congenial to his character. The nights, always cool in that region, began
to menace frost; and the signs of the decline of the year that come so
much later in more temperate climates, began to make themselves apparent
here. It is true, that of vegetation there was so little, and that little
so meagre and of so hardy a nature, that in this respect the progress of
the seasons was not to be particularly noted; but in all others, Roswell
saw with growing uneasiness that the latest hour of his departure was
fast drawing near.

The sealing went on the while, and with reasonable returns, though the
golden days of the business had been seriously interrupted by Macy's
indiscretion and disobedience. The men worked hard, for they too foresaw
the approach of the long night of the antarctic circle, and all the risk
of remaining too long. As we have had frequent occasion to use the term
'antarctic,' it may be well here to say a few words in explanation. It is
not our wish to be understood that these sealers had penetrated literally
within that belt of eternal snows and ice, but approximatively. Few
navigators, so far as our knowledge extends, have absolutely gone as far
south as this. Wilkes did it, it is true; and others among the late