that?'

I sniffed, for there was a poisonous rank smell in the cold air--a
smell that I had smelt before.

'If I was on land I should say that it was an alligator. It smells
like musk,' I answered.

'Not ten thousand alligators could make that smell' said Zuyland; 'I
have smelt them.'

'Bewitched! Bewitched!' said Frithiof. 'The sea she is turned upside
down, and we are walking along the bottom.'

Again the _Rathmines_ rolled in the wash of some unseen ship, and a
silver-gray wave broke over the bow, leaving on the deck a sheet of
sediment--the gray broth that has its place in the fathomless deeps
of the sea. A sprinkling of the wave fell on my face, and it was so
cold that it stung as boiling water stings. The dead and most
untouched deep water of the sea had been heaved to the top by the
submarine volcano--the chill still water that kills all life and
smells of desolation and emptiness. We did not need either the
blinding fog or that indescribable smell of musk to make us
unhappy--we were shivering with cold and wretchedness where we stood.

'The hot air on the cold water makes this fog,' said the captain; 'it
ought to clear in a little time.'

'Whistle, oh! whistle, and let's get out of it,' said Keller.