current drew us nearer, and the glow grew brighter and more intense.
At last we were too weak to watch any longer, and we fell asleep.

On waking our first thoughts were about the fire, and we looked
eagerly around. It was day, but the sky was as gloomy as ever, and the
fire was there before our eyes, bright and terrible. We could now see
it plainly, and discern the cause also. The fire came from two points,
at some distance apart--two peaks rising above the horizon, from which
there burst forth flames and smoke with incessant explosions. All was
now manifest. It was no burning ship, no blazing forest, no land
inhabited by man: those blazing peaks were two volcanoes in a state of
active eruption, and at that sight I knew the worst.

"I know where we are now," I said, despairingly.

"Where?" asked Agnew.

"That," said I, "is the antarctic continent."

"The antarctic fiddlestick," said he, contemptuously. "It is far more
likely to be some volcanic island in the South Sea. There's a
tremendous volcano in the Sandwich Islands, and these are something
like it."

"I believe," said I, "that these are the very volcanoes that Sir James
Ross discovered last year."

"Do you happen to know where he found them?" Agnew asked.

"I do not," I answered.