siness before sentiment, Mr.
Rodney."

He stirred the figure again with his foot.

"Well, presently," said he, "this armour will want the hatchet. Now, my
friend, to view the work of the gale."

The increased heel of the ship brought the larboard fore-channel low,
and we stepped without difficulty from it on to the ice. The rent or
fissure that I have before spoken of went very deep; it was nearly two
feet wide in places, but, though the light poured brilliantly upon it, I
could see no bottom.

"If only such another split as this would happen t'other side," said the
Frenchman, "I believe this block would go adrift."

"Well," said I, after musing a little whilst I ran my eye over the
hollows, "I'll tell you what was in my mind just now. There is a great
quantity of gunpowder in the hold; ten or a dozen barrels. By dropping
large parcels of it into the crevices on the right there, and firing it
with slow-matches--"

He interrupted me with a cry: "By St. Paul, you have it! What crevices
have you?"

We walked briskly round the vessel, and all about her beam and starboard
quarter I found, in addition to the seams I had before noticed, many
great cracks and fissures, caused no doubt by the fall of the shoulder
of the slope. I pushed on further yet, going down the ravine, as I have
called it, until I came to the edge; and here I looked down from a
height of some twelve or fourteen feet--so greatly had the ice sunk or
been changed by the weather--upon the ocean. I called to Tassard. He
approached warily. I believe he feared I might be tempted to give him a
friendly shove over the edge.

"Observe this hollow," said I; "the split there goes down to the water,
and you may take it that the block is wholly disconnected on that side.
Now look at the face of the ice," said I, pointing to the starboard or
right-hand side; "that crack goes as far as the vessel's quarter, and
the weakness is carried on to past the bows by the other rents. Mr.
Tassard, if we could burst this body of ice by an explosion from its
moorings ahead of the bowsprit, where it is all too compact, this cradle
with the schooner in it will go free of the parent body."

He answered promptly, "Yes; it is the one and only plan. That crack to
starboard is like telling us what to do. It is well you came here. We
should not have seen it from the top. This valley runs steep. You must
expect no more than the surface to be liberated, for the foot of the
cliff will