s Sunday. Shandon, you will take care that religious
service be attended to; it has a beneficial effect on the minds of
men, and a sailor above all needs to place confidence in the Almighty."

"It shall be attended to, captain," answered Shandon, who went out
with the lieutenant and the boatswain.

"Doctor!" said Hatteras, pointing towards Shandon, "there's a man
whose pride is wounded; I can no longer rely upon him."

Early the following day the captain caused the pirogue to be lowered
in order to reconnoitre the icebergs in the vicinity, the breadth
of which did not exceed 200 yards. He remarked that through a slow
pressure of the ice the basin threatened to become narrower. It became
urgent, therefore, to make an aperture to prevent the ship being
crushed in a vice of the mountains. By the means employed by John
Hatteras, it is easy to observe that he was an energetic man.

He first had steps cut out in the walls of ice, and by their means
climbed to the summit of an iceberg. From that point he saw that it
was easy for him to cut out a road towards the south-west. By his
orders a blasting furnace was hollowed nearly in the heart of the
mountain. This work, rapidly put into execution, was terminated by
noon on Monday. Hatteras could not rely on his eight or ten pound
blasting cylinders, which would have had no effect on such masses
as those. They were only sufficient to shatter ice-fields. He
therefore had a thousand pounds of powder placed in the blasting
furnace, of which the diffusive direction was carefully calculated.
This mine was provided with a long wick, bound in gutta-percha, the
end of which was outside. The gallery conducting to the mine was filled
up with snow and lumps of ice, which the cold of the following night
made as hard as granite. The temperature, under the influence of an
easterly wind, came down to twelve degrees.

At seven the next morning the _Forward_ was held under steam, ready
to profit by the smallest issue. Johnson was charged with setting
fire to the wick, which, according to calculation, would burn for
half an hour before setting fire to the mine. Johnson had, therefore,
plenty of time to regain the brig; ten minutes after having executed
Hatteras's order he was again at his post. The crew remained on deck,
for the weather was dry and bright; it had left off snowing.

Hatteras was on the poop, chronometer in hand, counting the minutes;
Shandon and the doctor were with him. At eig