cards that
the adverse wind might be travelling at a higher speed than this, in
which event they would actually be driving more or less rapidly astern,
notwithstanding their apparent forward motion. It thus became necessary
to post a look-out at each end of the ship, in order to avoid all
possibility of collision with some towering iceberg, unless they chose
to rise high enough in the air to be clear of all danger; and this they
were reluctant to do, as they wished to experience, for at least once in
their lives, all the terrors of a polar gale. The baronet accordingly
volunteered to look out forward and the colonel to do the same aft, and
they hastened at once to their respective stations, Mildmay and the
professor superintending meanwhile the engine levers and other
appliances controlling the motion of the ship. It was well for them
that these precautions were so promptly taken, for the colonel had
scarcely reached his post when, through the thick whirling snow which
scurried past him, he descried a huge white ghostly mass looming vaguely
up in the semi-darkness directly astern, and before he well had time to
make up his mind that he actually saw something, the top of a gigantic
berg revealed itself close at hand, and his prompt warning cry was only
raised in barely sufficient time to prevent the _Flying Fish_ driving
stern foremost into it, when the loss of her propeller must inevitably
have resulted. Mildmay, however, whose quick ear first caught the
sound, promptly sent the engines at full speed ahead, and the danger was
averted.

Meanwhile, though the snow whirled so thickly around them and the fog
was so dense beneath that they were unable to see anything, they were
not allowed to remain entirely in ignorance of what was happening in
their near proximity. The howling of the bitter blast over the frozen
waste beneath resounded in their ears like the diapason of some huge
organ played by giant fingers, and mingled with these deeper tones there
rose up to them a constant grinding crunching sound with occasional
rifle-like reports, telling of the tremendous destruction going on among
the ice-floes beneath.

Suddenly the snow ceased, the fog was swept away upon the wings of the
gale, and the entire scene in all its terrific grandeur burst at once
upon their gaze. They were hovering immediately over the spot where two
immense floes had come into collision, and for miles to the right and
left of them the contigu