y better explanation, we accepted this
theory, though it was not very clear.

We were going back toward the crevice, when a loud gurgling roar,
followed by a report like the discharge of a twenty-four-pounder, made
the berg tremble; and, turning, we saw the water streaming from the
well. Another gurgle and another report succeeded, almost in the same
instant. Jets of water, and bits of ice, were spouted high into the
air, and came down splashing and glancing about. We made off as
expeditiously as we could. Fortunately none of the pieces of ice
struck us; though Wade and Raed, who were a little behind, were well
bespattered. We hurried down to the boat, greatly to the relief of
Weymouth, who expected we had "got blown up."

[Raed begs me to add that he hopes the reader will be able to suggest
a better explanation of this singular phenomenon than the one that has
occurred to him.]

Jumping to the boat, we pulled round to "The Curlew." The sailors were
watching for us, with a touch of anxiety on their rough, honest faces.

"Throw us a line!" shouted Capt. Mazard; "and bear a hand at those
pike-poles to shove her off. We'll get clear of this iceberg as quick
as we can. Something the matter with its insides: liable to bust, I'm
afraid."

Catching the line, we bent to the oars, and, with the help of the men
with the poles tugged the schooner off, and gradually towed her to a
distance of three or four hundred yards from the berg. The boat was
then taken in, sail made, and we were again _bumping_ on up the
straits.

CHAPTER IV.

The Fog lifts.--A Whale in Sight.--Craggy Black Mountains
capped with Snow.--A Novel Carriage for the Big
Rifle.--Mounting the Howitzer.--A Doubtful Shot.--The Lower
Savage Isles.--A Deep Inlet.--"Mazard's Bay."--A Desolate
Island.--An Ice-Jam.--A Strange Blood-red Light.--Solution of
the Mystery.--Going Ashore.--Barren Ledges. Beds of Moss.--A
Bald Peak.--An Alarm.--The Schooner in Jeopardy.--The Crash
and Thunder of the Ice.--Tremendous Tides.

The rain had now pretty much ceased. Some sudden change took place in
the air's density; for the fog, which had all along lain flat on the
sea, now rapidly rose up like a curtain, twenty, thirty, fifty feet,
leaving all clear below. We looked around us. The dark water was
besprinkled with white patches, among which the seals were leaping and
frisking about. Half a mile to the left we espied a lazy water-jet
pl