illed it with snow, taking care to place the
cylinder in a horizontal position, so that a greater portion of the
ice might be submitted to the explosion; lastly, they lighted the
wick, which was protected by a gutta-percha tube. They worked at the
blasting, as they could not saw, for the saws stuck immediately in
the ice. Hatteras hoped to pass the next day. But during the night
a violent wind raged, and the sea rose under her crust of ice as if
shaken by some submarine commotion, and the terrified voice of the
pilot was heard crying:

"Look out aft!"

Hatteras turned to the direction indicated, and what he saw by the
dim twilight was frightful. A high iceberg, driven back north, was
rushing on to the ship with the rapidity of an avalanche.

"All hands on deck!" cried the captain.

The rolling mountain was hardly half a mile off; the blocks of ice
were driven about like so many huge grains of sand; the tempest raged
with fury.

"There, Mr. Clawbonny," said Johnson to the doctor, "we are in
something like danger now."

"Yes," answered the doctor tranquilly, "it looks frightful enough."

"It's an assault we shall have to repulse," replied the boatswain.

"It looks like a troop of antediluvian animals, those that were
supposed to inhabit the Pole. They are trying which shall get here
first!"

"Well," added Johnson, "I hope we shan't get one of their spikes into
us!"

"It's a siege--let's run to the ramparts!"

And they made haste aft, where the crew, armed with poles, bars of
iron, and handspikes, were getting ready to repulse the formidable
enemy. The avalanche came nearer, and got bigger by the addition of
the blocks of ice which it caught in its passage; Hatteras gave orders
to fire the cannon in the bow to break the threatening line. But it
arrived and rushed on to the brig; a great crackling noise was heard,
and as it struck on the brig's starboard a part of her barricading
was broken. Hatteras gave his men orders to keep steady and prepare
for the ice. It came along in blocks; some of them weighing several
hundredweight came over the ship's side; the smaller ones, thrown
up as high as the topsails, fell in little spikes, breaking the shrouds
and cutting the rigging. The ship was boarded by these innumerable
enemies, which in a block would have crushed a hundred ships like
the _Forward_. Some of the sailors were badly wounded whilst trying
to keep off the ice, and Bolton had his left shoulder torn open.