their situation still more unpleasant was the fact that all
the water which came aboard of them now soon froze. To this, however, the
men were accustomed, it frequently happening that the moisture deposited
on their rigging and spars by the fogs froze during the nights of the
autumn. Indeed, it has been thought by some speculators on the subject,
that the bergs themselves are formed in part by a similar process, though
snows undoubtedly are the principal element in their composition. This it
is which gives the berg its stratified appearance, no geological formation
being more apparent or regular in this particular than most of these
floating mountains.

About ten, the moon was well above the horizon; the fog had been
precipitated in dew upon the ice, where it congealed, and helped to arrest
the progress of dissolution; while the ocean became luminous for the hour,
and objects comparatively distinct. Then it was that the seamen first got
a clear insight into the awkwardness of their situation. The bold are apt
to be reckless in the dark; but when danger is visible, their movements
become more wary and better calculated than those of the timid. When
Daggett got this first good look at the enormous masses of the field-ice,
that, stirred by the unquiet ocean, were grinding each other, and raising
an unceasing rushing sound like that the surf produces on a beach, though
far louder, and with a harshness in it that denoted the collision of
substances harder than water, he almost instinctively ordered every sheet
to be flattened down, and the schooner's head brought as near the wind as
her construction permitted. Roswell observed the change in his consort's
line of sailing, slight as it was, and imitated the manoeuvre. The sea
was too heavy to dream of tacking, and there was not room to ware. So
close, indeed, were some of the cakes, those that might be called the
stragglers of the grand array, that repeatedly each vessel brushed along
so near them as actually to receive slight shocks from collisions with
projecting portions. It was obvious that the vessels were setting down
upon the ice, and that Daggett did not haul his wind a moment too soon.

The half-hour that succeeded was one of engrossing interest. It settled
the point whether the schooners could or could not eat their way into the
wind sufficiently to weather the danger. Fragment after fragment was
passed; blow after blow was received; until suddenly the field-ice
appe