"How are we ever going to get on the top of it?" asked Billy.
"We must steam along to the westward till we find a spot where it
shelves," was the reply.
"Then it is not as high as this all the way round the polar regions?"
"No, in places it shelves down till to make a landing in boats is
simple. We must look for one of those spots."
"What is the nature of the country beyond?" asked Frank, deeply
interested.
"Ice and snow in great plateaus, with here and there monster
glaciers," was the reply of Captain Hazzard. "In places, too, immense
rocky cliffs tower up, seeming to bar all further progress into the
mystery of the South Pole."
"Mountains?" gasped Billy.
"Yes, and even volcanoes. This has given rise to a supposition that at
the pole itself there may be flaming mountains, the warmth of which
would have caused an open polar sea to form."
"Nobody knows for certain, then?" asked Frank.
"No, nobody knows for certain," repeated Captain Hazzard, his eyes
fixed on the great white wall. "Perhaps we shall find out."
"Perhaps," echoed Frank, quite carried away by the idea.
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