southward might be a hundred yards in width; the former of these
areas being owing to the form of the basin, and the latter to the shape of
the shore.

In the first of the basins named, the schooner wore short round on her
heel, her foresail being set to help her. A breathless moment passed as
she ran down towards the narrow strait. It was quickly reached, and that
none too soon; the opening now not exceeding sixty feet. The yards of the
vessel almost brushed the rocks in passing; but she went clear. As soon as
in the lower basin, as one might call it, the jib and foresail were taken
in, and the head of the mainsail was got on the craft. This helped her to
luff up towards the slip, which she reached under sufficient head-way
fairly to enter it. Lines were thrown to the people on the ice, who soon
hauled the schooner up to the head of her frozen dock. Three cheers broke
spontaneously out of the throats of the men, as they thus achieved the
step which assured them of the safety of the vessel, so far as the ice was
concerned! In this way do we estimate our advantages and disadvantages, by
comparison. In the abstract, the situation of the sealers was still
sufficiently painful; though compared with what it would have been with
the other schooner wrecked, it was security itself.

By this time it was quite dark; and a day of excitement and fatigue
required a night of rest. After supping, the men turned in; the
Vineyarders mostly in the house, where they occupied their old bunks. When
the moon rose, the party from the wreck arrived, with their carts well
loaded, and themselves half frozen, notwithstanding their toil. In a short
time, all were buried in sleep.

When Roswell Gardiner came on deck next morning, his first glance told him
how little was the chance of his party's returning north that season. The
strange floe had driven into the Great Bay, completely covering its
surface, lining the shores far and near with broken and glittering cakes
of ice; and, as it were, hermetically sealing the place against all
egress. New ice, an inch or two thick, or even six or eight inches thick,
might have been sawed through; and a passage cut even for a league, should
it be necessary. Such things were sometimes done, and great as would have
been the toil, our sealers would have attempted it, in preference to
running the risk of passing a winter in that region. But almost desperate
as would have been even that source of refuge, the party