302 THE WORLD OF ICH.

then, and we shall try what effect a blast will
have.”

“ My opeenion is,” remarked Saunders, who passed
at the moment with two large bags of gunpowder
under his arms, “that itll have no effect ata. Itll
just loosen the ice roond the ship.”

The captain smiled as he said, “ Zhat is all the
effect I hope for, Mr. Saunders. Should the outward
ice give way soon, we shall then be in a better posi-
tion to avail ourselves of it.”

As Saunders predicted, the effect of powder and
saws was merely to loosen and rend the ice-tables in
which the Dolphin was imbedded; but deliverance
was coming sooner than any of those on board ex-
pected. That night a storm arose, which, for intensity
of violence, equalled, if it did not surpass, the severest
gales they had yet experienced. It set the great
bergs of the Polar Seas in motion, and these moving
mountains of ice slowly and majestically began their
voyage to southern climes, crashing through the floes,
overturning the hummocks, and ripping up the ice-
tables with quiet but irresistible momentum. For two
days the war of ice continued to rage, and sometimes
the contending forces, in the shape of huge tongues
and corners of bergs, were forced into the Bay of
Mercy, and threatened swift destruction to the little
eraft, which was a mere atom that might have been
erushed and sunk and scarcely missed in such a wild
scene.

At one time a table of ice was forced out of the