When Captain Parry was on Melville Island, he knew the thermometer to fall to 56 degrees," said Procope.
As the explorers advanced, they seemed glad to pause from time to time, that they might recover their breath; for the air, becoming more and more rarefied, made respiration somewhat difficult and the ascent fatiguing.

Before they had reached an altitude of 600 feet they noticed a sensible diminution of the temperature; but neither cold nor fatigue deterred them, and they were resolved to persevere.

Fortunately, the deep striae or furrows in the surface of the rocks that made the bottom of the ravine in some degree facilitated their progress, but it was not until they had been toiling up for two hours more that they succeeded in reaching the summit of the cliff.
Eagerly and anxiously did they look around.

To the south there was nothing but the sea they had traversed; to the north, nothing but one drear, inhospitable stretch.
Servadac could not suppress a cry of dismay.

Where was his beloved France?
Had he gained this arduous height only to behold the rocks carpeted with ice and snow, and reaching interminably to the far-off horizon?
His heart sank within him.
The whole region appeared to consist of nothing but the same strange, uniform mineral conglomerate, crystallized into regular hexagonal prisms.