CHAPTER XXVIII 



WE BREAK ALL RECORDS 



BY an odd coincidence, soon after Marvin left us 

 on his fatal journey from 86° 38' back to land, 

 the sun was obscured and a dull, lead-colored 

 haze spread over all the sky. This grayness, in con- 

 trast to the dead white surface of the ice and snow 

 and the strangely diffused quality of the light, gave 

 an indescribable effect. It was a shadowless light 

 and one in which it was impossible to see for any 

 considerable distance. 



That shadowless light is not unusual on the ice- 

 fields of the polar sea; but this was the first occasion 

 on which we had encountered it since leaving the land. 

 One looking for the most perfect illustration of the 

 arctic inferno would find it in that gray light. A 

 more ghastly atmosphere could not have been imag- 

 ined even by Dante himself — sky and ice seeming 

 utterly wan and unreal. 



Notwithstanding the fact that I had now passed 

 the "farthest north'* of all my predecessors and was 

 approaching my own best record, with my eight com- 

 panions, sixty dogs, and seven fully loaded sledges in 

 far better condition than I had even dared to hope, 

 the strange and melancholy light in which we traveled 

 on this day of parting from Marvin gave me an inde- 

 scribably uneasy feeling. Man in his egotism, from 



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