The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Wreck of the South Pole. 9 had not been left, they probably would have died in that lonely place, for this cave was cut off from the ocean, as well as from the rest of the island. All along in front were breakers which rendered the approach of any boat impossible. The beach was thirty miles wide and was strewn with the wrecks of a thousand ships, which had been lost off Cape Horn and drifted to this place with the current. Once in this cove, it was impossible to leave it. During the afternoon of the first day which the party passed in this place, one of those thrilling occurrences which sailors, in either the Arctic or Antarctic Oceans, are always on the lookout for, happened. As the little party of adventurous men were exploring the valley, Capt. Reynolds saw in the distance what he thought was the work of human hands, but whether it was the portion of a ship which had escaped the anger of the breakers and been tossed up on the shore, or was really a human habitation, he could not say. But, approaching, they found that it was a hut, rudely and imperfectly yet warmly constructed out of ship’s timber. Many a time, and in most unlikely places, had such habitations been found by the crew during this cruise. The first thought of every man was to examine and see if there was any one living in it, although with but little hope, for if the four men who had been cast in Frenchman’s Valley could not survive, what chance could there be for any one in this deserted spot? And yet it was inhabited. As they drew near the cabin, a man, bearing no evidence of starvation or of hard- eonnicbooks (©)