CHAPTER XXIX. 
• 
THE SEAL ! THE SEAL ! — THE FESTIVAL-TERRA FIRMA — PAUL 
ZACIIARIAS — THE FRAULEIN FLAISCHER — THE NEWS — AT THE 
SETTLEMENTS — THE AVELCOME. 
Things greAV worse and Avorse Avith us: the old 
difficulty of breathing came back again, and our feet 
SAvelled to such an extent that we were obliged to cut 
open our canvas boots. But the symptom Avhich gave 
me most uneasiness Avas our inability to sleep. A form 
of Ioav fever which hung by us Avhen at Avork had been 
kept doAvn by the thoroughness of our daily rest: all 
my hopes of escape were in the refreshing iniluences of 
the halt. 
It must be remembered that Ave Avere noAv in the 
open bay, in the full line of the great ice-drift to the 
Atlantic, and in boats so frail and unseaAvorthy as to 
require constant baling to keep them afloat. 
It Avas at this crisis of our fortunes that avc shav a 
large seal floating—as is the custom of these animals— 
on a small patch of ice, and seemingly asleep. It Avas 
an ussuk, and so large that I at first mistook it for a 
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