Sometimes Tom and the mate would have a boat lowered, and would set off bear-hunting.

One day Tom brought home a young seal.

It was such a beauty, with soft eyes and long, warm, fluffy hair.

It was so small that even Pansy could carry it a little way in her arms.
"Oh, do let us have it for a pet!" cried Aralia, and her uncle consented.
So they called the seal "Flossy", and warmed frozen milk for it--great stores of which had been taken on board,--and fed it with a spoon, and soon the wee thing knew Pansy, and used to crawl and waddle after her.
The dogs didn't know what to make of Flossy at first, and Briton used to roll it all round the deck with his big nose; but Flossy rather liked this.

But one day, when Briton tried to lift it up by the tail, it struck him a slap with its flipper that could be heard from stem to stern.
"Take that," Flossy seemed to say, "and leave my tail alone!" The vessel was now kept farther to the east, and every day they passed between great patches of ice, big pieces of which kept striking the ship with such a noise that when anyone wanted to be heard he had to shout aloud.
The professor was very busy now, taking soundings almost every day, and doing all kinds of clever work that even Tom, smart as he was, couldn't understand.