ow at all,
but there was wind enough to serve to cast the schooner, and she went
slowly out of the rocky basin, under her mainsail, foretopsail, and jib.
The wind was at south-west,--the nor-wester of that hemisphere,--and it
was fresh and howling enough, on the other side of the island. After
Roswell had made a stretch out into the bay of about a mile, he laid his
foretopsail flat aback, hauled over his jib-sheet, and put his helm hard
down, in waiting for the other schooner to come out and join him. In a
quarter of an hour, Daggett got within hail.

"Well," called out the last, "you see I was right, Garner; wind enough out
here, and more, still further from the land. We have only to push in among
them bergs while it is light, pick out a clear spot, and heave-to during
the night. It will hardly do for us to travel among so much ice in the
dark."

"I wish we had got out earlier, that we might have made a run of it by
day-light," answered Roswell. "Ten hours of such a wind, in my judgment,
would carry us well towards clear water."

"The delay could not be helped. I had so many traps ashore, it took time
to gather them together. Come, fill away, and let us be moving. Now we are
under way, I'm in as great haste as you are yourself."

Roswell complied, and away the two schooners went, keeping quite near to
each other, having smooth water, and still something of a moderated gale,
in consequence of the proximity and weatherly position of the island. The
course was towards a spot to leeward, where the largest opening appeared
in the ice, and where it was hoped a passage to the northward would be
found. The further the two vessels got from the land, the more they felt
the power of the wind, and the greater was their rate of running. Daggett
soon found that he could spare his consort a good deal of canvass, a
consequence of his not being full, and he took in his topsail, though,
running nearly before the wind, his spar would have stood even a more
severe strain.

As the oldest mariner, it had been agreed between the two masters that
Daggett should lead the way. This he did for an hour, when both vessels
were fairly out of the great bay, clear of the group altogether, and
running off north-easterly, at a rate of nearly ten knots in the hour. The
sea got up as they receded from the land, and everything indicated a gale,
though one of no great violence. Night was approaching, and an Alpine-like
range of icebergs was glowing, t