s, and an
unknown sea full of ice-islands through which we must pass. Not an eye
was closed that night. Again we were close to one, but we were now
better able to distinguish them than at first. This time we had to keep
away, and run to the northward; but before long, there arose ahead of us
a fourth iceberg. Again we sprung to the braces, the helm was put down,
and, once more close-hauled, we weathered the danger.

Thus we hurried on--narrowly escaping danger after danger till daylight
approached. Before, however, the sun arose, the gale fell; the clouds
cleared away; and a bright gleam appeared in the eastern sky. Up shot
the glorious sun, and never shall I forget the scene of gorgeous
magnificence his bright rays lighted. Both sky and sea became of a deep
blue--the water calm and clear as crystal--while all around us floated
mountains of brilliant whiteness, like masses of the purest alabaster,
of every varied form and size. Many were 200 feet high, and nearly a
third of a mile in length. Some had perpendicular sides, with level
summits--fit foundations, it might seem, for building cities of marble
palaces, or fortresses for the kings of the East. Some, again, were
broken into every fantastic form conceivable--towers and turrets, spires
and minarets, domes and cupolas; here, the edifices found most commonly
under the symbol of the crescent; there, those of the cross: Norman
castles, Gothic cathedrals, Turkish mosques, Grecian temples, Chinese
pagodas, were all here fully represented, and repeated in a thousand
different ways. Others had been broken or melted into the forms of
jagged cliffs, gigantic arches, lofty caverns, penetrating far away into
the interior. Scarcely a shape which is to be found among the butting
crags, sea-beat headlands, or mountain summits, in every part of the
world, was not there represented in the most brilliant and purest of
materials. Whole cities, too, were there to be seen pictured; squares
and streets, and winding lanes, running up from the water's edge, like a
ruined Genoa, with marble palaces, and churches, and alabaster
fountains, and huge piles of buildings of every possible form standing
proudly up amid the ocean, the whole appearing like some scene of
enchantment rather than a palpable reality. Here was seen a lofty
mountain rent in two by some fierce convulsion of nature; there, a city
overturned: here, rocks upheaved and scattered around in wild confusion;
there, d