238 THE WORLD OF ICE.

the ice-belé by the light of a clear, starry sky. At
the end of that time clouds beean to gather to the
westward, rendering the way less distinct, but still
leaving sufficient light to render travelling tolerably
easy. Then they came to a part of the coast where
the ice-belt clung close to a line of perpendicular
cliffs of about three miles in extent. The ice-belt
here was about twenty feet broad. On the left the
cliffs referred to rose sheer wp several hundred feet ;
on the right the ice-belt descended only about three
feet to the floes. Here our three adventurous travel-
lers were unexpectedly caught in a trap. The tide
rose so high that it raised the sca-ice to a level with
the ice-belt, and, welling up between the two, com-
pletely overflowed the latter.

The travellers pushed on as quickly as possible, for
the precipices on their left forbade all hope of escape
in that direction, while the gap between the ice-belt
and the floes, which was filled with a curgling mix-
ture of ice and water, equally hemmed them in on
the right. Worse than all, the tide continued to
rise, and when it reached half-way to their knees,
they found it dangerous to advance for fear of stepping
into rents and fissures which were no longer visible.

“What's to be done noo?” inquired Saunders,
coming to a full stop, and turning to Buzzby with
a look of blank despair.

“Dun’no’,” replied Buzzby, with an equally blank
look of despair, as he stood with his legs apart and
his arms hanging down by his side

 

the very per-