thrust into
an ice-crevice, whereupon all hands "beat it" as fast as ever they
can--and a little bit faster.

Then comes a deafening explosion that rocks the ship: and the ice
rains on the deck in chunks, like bursting shells in an artillery
bombardment.

With all the watchfulness, and the desperate risks the skipper takes
as he drives the vessel into the pack ice, there is an excellent
chance of missing the main herd entirely. An "Aerial Observation
Company," started by a plucky Australian flyer at Botswood, was
successful in showing the sealers of 1922 where to go, by dropping
letters on or near the ships--but they could not make their way
through the ice to the place indicated. During 1923 the fog was so
dense that the sealing-season was almost a failure.

On his first voyage to the sealing grounds Grenfell saw the seals like
black dots by the thousands, all over the floes as far as the horizon.
The ships butted and rammed their way into the thick of the herd, the
men overjoyed at the prospect of plenty. As soon as the engines
stopped they were over the side, booted and sweatered, in a jiffy.

There was plenty of work for Dr. Grenfell. Many a man twisted his leg
or his ankle as he slipped between the blocks of ice. Presently there
were thirty or forty at a time surrounding him begging him to put some
liniment in their eyes to cure the snow-blindness due to the fierce
glare of the sun upon the ice-fields.

The Eskimos, not having glasses, use spectacles of wooden discs with
narrow slits, and do not suffer so much--but very few of the sealers
from "the Old Rock," as Newfoundland is called, think to provide
themselves with smoked glasses.

One day Grenfell was kept busy for a long time rubbing arms and legs
and anointing smarting eyes. The men were nearly all scattered about
on the ice, near and far, when he got through--so he thought he would
drop over the side and watch them at their work. By this time it was
late afternoon.

Till now, a strong wind had been blowing, and this had kept the ice
packed together. The wind died down and the bits of ice began to "run
abroad" as the sailors say. Grenfell and a dozen men with whom he
found himself were far from the ship, and darkness was fast coming
on.

Of course they had no boat, and the only way they could get back to
the ship was to float on one piece of ice to another. They had no oars
with which to propel themselves--all they could do was to beat the
water