tinued comparatively calm. A few
minutes after seven, the boat was lowered. Raed and the rest of us
boys, with the captain and Weymouth, got in, and pulled round to the
windward of the berg. It was a vast, majestic mass, rising from forty
to fifty feet above the water, and covering three or four acres. On
the south, south-east, and east sides it rose almost perpendicularly
from the sea. No chance to scale it here; and, even if there had been,
the water was much too rough to the windward to bring the boat up to
it. We continued around it, however, and, near the north-west corner,
espied a large crevice leading up toward the top, and filled with
broken ice.

"Might clamber up there," suggested the captain.

It looked a little pokerish.

"Let's try it," said Kit.

The boat was brought up within a yard or so of the ice. Watching his
chance, Capt. Mazard leaped into the crack.

"Jump, and I'll catch you if you miss," said he.

Raed jumped, and got on all right; but Kit slipped. The captain caught
him by the arm, and pulled him up, with no greater damage than a
couple of wet trousers-legs. Wade and I followed dry-shod.

"Shove off a few yards, Weymouth, and be ready in case we slip down,"
directed the captain.

But we had no difficulty in climbing up.

The top of the berg was irregular and rough, with pinnacles and
"knolls," between which were many deep puddles of water,--fresh water:
we drank from one. For some time we saw nothing which tended to
explain the explosions; though the dull, roaring noise still
continued, seeming directly under our feet: but on crossing over to
the south-west side, beneath which the schooner lay, Wade discovered a
large, jagged hole something like a well. It was five or six feet
across, and situated twenty or twenty-five yards from the side of the
berg. Standing around this "well," the rumbling noises were more
distinct than we had yet heard them, and were accompanied by a great
splashing, and also by a hissing sound, as of escaping air or steam;
and, on peering cautiously down into the hole, we could discern the
water in motion. The iceberg heaved slightly with the swell: the
gurgling and hissing appeared to follow the heaving motion.

"I think there must be great cavities down in the ice, which serve as
chambers for compressed air," remarked Raed; "and somehow the heaving
of the berg acts as an air-pump,--something like an hydraulic ram, you
know."

As none of us could suggest an