Chapter 14
The South PoleI RUSHED UP onto the platform. Yes, open sea! Barely a few
sparse floes, some moving icebergs; a sea stretching into the
distance; hosts of birds in the air and myriads of fish under the
waters, which varied from intense blue to olive green depending on
the depth. The thermometer marked 3° centigrade. It was as if a
comparative springtime had been locked up behind that Ice Bank,
whose distant masses were outlined on the northern horizon.
"Are we at the pole?" I asked the captain, my heart
pounding.
"I've no idea," he answered me. "At noon we'll fix our
position."
"But will the sun show through this mist?" I said, staring at
the grayish sky.
"No matter how faintly it shines, it will be enough for me," the
captain replied.
To the south, ten miles from
