-knot
breeze. At first the surface of the snow was so smooth and hard, that
Benjy, being busy with the obdurate regulator, did not appreciate the
speed.

When he gave up his attempts with a sigh of despair, he had leisure to
look around him. The sledge was gliding on with railway speed. One or
two solitary hummocks that looked like white sentinels on the level
plain, went past him with an awful rush, and several undulations caused
by snow-drift were crossed in a light leap which he barely felt. Benjy
was fully aware of his danger. To meet with a hummock no bigger than a
wheelbarrow, would, in the circumstances, have entailed destruction; he
therefore seized a pole which formed part of the sledge-gear, and tried
steering. It could be done, but with great difficulty, as he had to sit
in the front of the sledge to keep it down.

Recklessly jovial though he was, the boy could not contemplate his
probable fate without misgiving. Nothing was visible in all the white
illimitable plain save a hummock here and there, with a distant berg on
the horizon. He could not expect the level character of the ice to
extend far. Whither was he going? South he knew; but in that
direction, his father had often told him, lay the open sea. The moon
seemed to smile on him; the aurora appeared to dance with unwonted
vigour, as if in glee; the very stars winked at him!

"What if a chasm or a big hummock should turn up?" thought Benjy.

The thought seemed to produce the dreaded object, for next moment a
large hummock appeared right ahead. Far away though it was, the awful
pace brought it quickly near. The poor boy struggled--he absolutely
agonised--with the pole. His efforts were successful. The hummock went
past like a meteor, but it was a horribly close shave, and Benjy felt
his very marrow shrink, while he drew himself up into the smallest
possible compass to let it go by.

A bump soon after told that the ice was getting more rugged. Then he
saw a ridge before him. Was it large or small? Distance, the uncertain
light, and imagination, magnified it to a high wall; high as the wall of
China. In wild alarm our hero tugged at the regulator, but tugged in
vain. The wall of China was upon him--under him. There was a crash.
The sledge was in the air. Moments appeared minutes! Had the vehicle
been suddenly furnished with wings? No! Another crash, which nearly
shut up his spine like a telescope, told him that there were no w