THE WORLD OF ICE. 308

water and reared up, like a sloping wall of glass,
close to the stern of the Dolphin, where all the crew
were assembled with ice-poles ready to do their ut-
most; but their feeble efforts could have availed them
nothing had the slowly-moving mass continued its
onward progress.

“ Lower away the quarter-boat,” cried the captain,
as the sheet of ice six feet thick came grinding down
towards the starboard quartev.

Buzzby, Grim, and several others sprang to obey,
but before they could let go the fall-tackles, the mass
of ice rose suddenly high above the deck, over which
it projected several feet, and caught the boat. In
another moment the timbers yielded, the thwarts
sprang out or were broken across, and slowly, yet
forcibly, as a strong hand might crush an egg-shell,
the boat was squeezed flat against the ship’s side.

“Shove, lads! if it comes on we're lost,’ cried the
captain, seizing one of the lone poles with which the
men were vainly straining every nerve and muscle.
They might as well have tried to arrest the progress
of a berg. On it came, and crushed in the starboard
quarter bulwarks. Providentially at that moment it
grounded and remained fast; but the projecting point
that overhung them broke off and fell on the deck
with a crash that shook the good ship from stem to
stern. Several of the men were thrown violently down,
but none were seriously hurt in this catastrophe.

When the storm ceased the ice out in the strait
was all in motion, and that round the ship had