en running forward, Captain Marsham shouted to the men to
seize hitchers, sweeps, anything, to try and thrust off the vessel from
the ice-floe, but all in vain. Vessel and ice continued to grind slowly
together, the ship yielding to the mighty pressure of the floe; and as
every one had now rushed on deck, it seemed as if the next thing would
be to lower the boats and escape before the ice rode right over the
_Hvalross_ and sank her in the icy depths.

The men toiled and thrust, but their efforts were utterly without
effect, for the two heavy floating bodies had an attraction one for the
other, and the grinding noise continued, till it sounded to Steve as if
the ice would soon work its way through the stout copper and planks; but
a few minutes later three pieces of stout spar were lowered down between
the vessel's hull and the ice to be rubbed into shreds, while the
_Hvalross_, after yielding and careening over foot by foot to the
tremendous, pressure, began to right herself till she floated upon an
even keel.

If anything the fog was now more dense, making it impossible to take any
observations. All they knew was that they were changing their position
as they floated steadily along in a heavy current, and that the ice
which seemed to hold them fast was gradually revolving, till, from being
pointed north-west, the _Hvalross'_ bowsprit was south-east.

All this time, while the other sailors seemed excited and startled by
the risk, the Norwegians were perfectly calm and cool, Johannes
expressing his opinion that they would not hurt now, but that the vessel
would hug the great floe till the wind sprang up. But Captain Marsham
was not so confident of their not coming to harm grinding against an ice
rock whose extent, save that it was some twenty feet above the water, it
was impossible to compute; and as soon as he had convinced himself that
they would not have to take to the boats, he had given orders which
resulted in the rattling of iron doors and a dull roar from the
engine-room, while the semi-darkness grew more dense as the grey
fog-cloud began to be pervaded by another and a blacker cloud, which
poured out of the funnel and then spread itself around in the calm,
dense air, till the branches, as it were, of some huge tree, of which
the vessel's funnel was the stem, were spread overhead, giving the
gleaming ice a peculiarly weird look. For the engineer and his two
assistants were hard at work trying to get up steam