Page 1 of 159 CHAPTER I. THE KERGUELEN ISLANDS - An Antarctic Mystery

The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Antarctic Mystery, by Jules Verne

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[ Redactor’s Note: An Antarctic Mystery (Number V046 in the T&M numerical listing of Verne’s works, is a translation of Le Sphinx de Glaces (1897) translated by Mrs. Cashel Hoey who also translated other Verne works. AN ANTARCTIC MYSTERY

BY JULES VERNE

TRANSLATED BY MRS. CASHEL HOEY

ILLUSTRATED

1899

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Tasman to the rescue frontispiece
The approach of the Halbrane 11 Going aboard the Halbrane 29 Cook’s route was effectively barred by ice floes 83 Taking in sail under difficulties 103 “There, look there! That’s a fin-back!” 117 Hunt to the rescue 127 Four sailors at the oars, and one at the helm 139 Hunt extended his enormous hand, holding a metal collar 161 Dirk Peters shows the way 179 The half-breed in the crow’s nest 189 The Halbrane fast in the iceberg 227 The Halbrane, staved in, broken up 253 “I was afraid; I got away from him” 267 William Guy 299 An Antarctic Mystery 321 The Parcuta 329

TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. The Kerguelen Islands. Chapter II. The Schooner Halbrane Chapter III. Captain Len Guy Chapter IV. From the Kerguelen Isles to Prince Edward Island Chapter V. Edgar Poe’s Romance Chapter VI. An Ocean Waif Chapter VII. Tristan D’Acunha Chapter VIII. Bound for the Falklands Chapter IX. Fitting out the Halbrane Chapter X. The Outset of the Enterprise Chapter XI. From the Sandwich Islands to the Polar Circle Chapter XII. Between the Polar Circle and the Ice Wall Chapter XIII. Along the Front of the Icebergs Chapter XIV. A Voice in a Dream Chapter XV. Bennet Islet Chapter XVI. Tsalal Island Chapter XVII. And Pym Chapter XVIII. A Revelation Chapter XIX. Land? Chapter XX. “Unmerciful Disaster" Chapter XXI. Amid the Mists Chapter XXII. In Camp Chapter XXIII. Found at Last Chapter XXIV. Eleven Years in a Few Pages Chapter XXV. “We Were the First" Chapter XXVI. A Little Remnant

AN ANTARCTIC MYSTERY (Also called THE SPHINX OF THE ICE FIELDS)

CHAPTER I. THE KERGUELEN ISLANDS

No doubt the following narrative will be received: with entire incredulity, but I think it well that the public should be put in possession of the facts narrated in “An Antarctic Mystery.” The public is free to believe them or not, at its good pleasure.

No more appropriate scene for the wonderful and terrible adventures which I am about to relate could be imagined than the Desolation Islands, so called, in 1779, by Captain Cook. I lived there for several weeks, and I can affirm, on the evidence of my own eyes and my own experience, that the famous English explorer and navigator was happily inspired when he gave the islands that significant name.

		Boldness be my friend. William Shakespeare