power of the ice. One of our ships was lying in a narrow lane of water, between two floes, unable to go on, as the passage was closed ahead; when, soon after she had made fast, one floe began to set down upon the other, and before she could haul out of the way the ice took her, crushed her heavy oak rudder like a piece of pie-crust, and lifted her six feet out of water. It was quite a calm, and, to those who did not belong to the ship, was an interesting thing to witness. The ice was only three feet thick, there was no violent commotion; in fact, one could hardly see that it was moving, yet it nipped the rudder off like a carrot, and lifted the vessel with as much ease as it would a shaving lying on its surface. If thin ice in a calm would do this, what would thick ice in a breeze of wind effect, thought we! After this, whenever we were obliged to stop between two floes, we cut a dock with our ice-saws, and hauled the ship in, so that if the weather floe came down the ship would be safe, and even if the dock should be forced in, as sometimes happened, little harm could be done, with a bow of such enormous thickness as ours was

presented to the floe, and with the rudder unshipped and slung across the stern.

Our pigs, of which we had by this time killed the last, had, during the voyage, developed a wonderful faculty. They had been kept on very short commons, as we could spare but little to feed them on, and the cold intensified their hunger. On our upper deck we had a quantity of coal in bags, and somehow or other, piggy one day analysed a sample, and found that it was a heat-producing substance, and forthwith began to eat it. The discovery soon got wind among the rest, and nothing afterwards could keep piggy from the coal bags; all day and night they were munching and crunching the coals. By the marvellous chemistry of nature coal was turned into fat, and upon that diet, helped down with a little snow, they not only existed, but thrived.

CHAPTER VIII.

On our way up Baffin Bay we fell in with the whale fleet, of about fourteen or fifteen ships, the crews of which formed a procession and came down over the floe to welcome us; and in Melville Bay we all got beset together, and remained for nearly a month as firmly packed in ice as if we had been bedded in cement, and so thick was it that a train of loaded waggons might have passed over it without making any impression whatever. With the exception of occasional fogs, the weather was lovely, and the scenery unrivalled. The great glacier of Greenland and the line of bergs inshore, distorted by mirage, in the still sunny weather, were particularly beautiful.

After we had been for some time hard and fast in the ice, without a prospect of its opening, I started off one morning with the intention of reaching the main land, which, owing to the deceptive clearness of the atmosphere, had the

appearance of being only a few miles distant. The weather was warm and bright, the floe level, and by noon the ships were hull down, though the land did not seem one whit nearer. There were large pools of water in the ice, and in them narwhals gambolling with one another, with horns of white ivory six or seven feet long; and it was surprising to see how nimbly they avoided running them into their comrades, as they darted and spun round, full of enjoyment in the sun. I reluctantly left the handsome, dappled fellows, and pushed on. After I had gone a few miles farther, happening to turn round, I saw to my amazement that the two steamers of our squadron were getting their steam up. Surely, I thought, the ice is not opening and, looking round, I could see no signs of it. However, I started back with all haste, and in a very short time made out that the steamers were moving ahead, with the other ships in tow, and also saw that the ice was breaking up all round. Narrow lanes of water opened out across my route, which I jumped; then they got wider and wider, and I tried to paddle myself across on loose bits of ice, but soon had to give that up, as I got capsized into

the water, and had some difficulty in scrambling out; so I got upon a large piece of floe and watched the course of events.

Not

Rapidly and noiselessly the great ice-fields were breaking up and drifting away to the southward under the influence of the current; rapidly, too, the squadron was steaming away in the opposite direction, leaving me on a piece of ice drifting out into the open sea. a chance in those seas of a stray ship picking me up, but the bitterest thought of all was of my dear old father at home, and of those whom I should never see again. Then I knelt down and prayed in that vast solitude to God; and because all human help was past, I felt His presence more. I felt alone with Him, and could speak to Him as a man speaketh to his friend. I reminded Him of His promise-'Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee;' and if ever mortal held unobscured converse with his Maker, one did that day, looking up into those Arctic skies. Hence it Iwas that when next I looked round I saw the ships come to a standstill; then they went on again, and their course altered and altered until they had turned completely round, and were