iceberg. I have read that sometimes they drift away on bergs that
become detached and are sighted by steamers quite far south."

"Why,--do you want a polar bear skin," asked Billy, "you can buy lots
of them in New York."

"Oh, I don't care about the polar bear," said the professor quickly,
"but the creatures have a kind of flea on them that is very rare."

At the idea of hunting such great animals as polar bears for such
insignificant things as fleas, the boys all had to laugh. The
professor, who was very good-natured, was not at all offended.

"Small animals are sometimes quite as interesting as large ones," was
all he said.

The next day the rigging and bowsprit were refitted and further and
further south steamed the Brutus with the polar ship in tow. The fires
of the Southern Cross had now been started and her acetylene gas plant
started going as the heat and light were needed. Icebergs were now
frequently met with and the boys often remained on deck at night,
snugly wrapped in furs, to watch the great masses of ice drift by.

Although they were as dangerous as ever, now that the ships were in
cooler water the bergs did not create a fog as they did in the warmer
region further north. By keeping a sharp lookout during the day and
using the searchlights at night, Captain Barrington felt fairly
confident of avoiding another encounter with an ice mountain. The
damage the ship had sustained in her narrow escape from annihilation
had proved quite difficult to repair, though before the vessel reached