eight o’clock in the morning
Two months earlier we would have enjoyed perpetual daylight in this latitude ; but night already fell for three or four hours , and later it would cast six months of shadow over these circumpolar regions . On March 15 we passed beyond the latitude of the South Shetland and South Orkney Islands . The captain told me that many tribes of seals used to inhabit these shores ; but English and American whalers , in a frenzy of destruction , slaughtered all the adults , including pregnant females , and where life and activity once existed , those fishermen left behind only silence and death . Going along the 55th meridian , the Nautilus cut the Antarctic Circle on March 16 near eight o'clock in the morning . Ice completely surrounded us and closed off the horizon . Nevertheless , Captain Nemo went from passageway to passageway , always proceeding south . `` But where 's he going ? ''