l the tide
turns, which will be in about an hour. I can notice no change in the
wind, nor do I think we have shifted our relative position to its
course. Should the storm decrease towards morning, we shall probably
find ourselves up the straits, in the vicinity of the capes. Only one
danger can possibly assail us, and that is being ground to pieces on the
New Brunswick shore. We must keep a watch to-night, commencing at about
twelve o'clock. Regnar, will you keep the first watch of an hour and a
half, and then call me?"

"Yes, sir; all right. I wake any time, and I know what 'nip' means. We
must not get caught napping if that happens."

"Can't we get ashore and off of this horrid floe, if we strike on the
other shore?" asked Waring, a little dolorously.

"I'm afraid not, my dear George. The straits here, nearly thirty miles
wide, converge to about twelve at the capes; and this terrible gale,
although we feel it scarcely at all in the heart of this berg, will
drive us with the rising ebb, at a velocity little less than ten miles
an hour, through that narrow, choked pass, bordered by the ice-cliffs
which form, on the shallows every winter, to the height of from ten to
twenty feet above the water."

"Should this berg be driven against the verge of these immovable cliffs,
our only resource will be to take to our boats and retreat farther off
on the floes; for a single mishap in crossing the terrible chasm which
borders the irresistible course of this great ice-stream, would consign
us all to irremediable destruction. I propose that we thank God for his
mercies thus far, and implore his aid in the future. Then we may lie
down secure in His protection, and gather new strength for whatever may
be before us."

Thus saying, La Salle knelt, and in solemn but unfaltering tones
repeated the short but inimitable prayer which embodies the needs of
every petitioner. Peter crossed himself at the close, and broke out,--

"I feel 'fraid, all time till now. I hear Lund see ghost. I think we
never get back. Now I feel sure all go right, and I worry like woman no
more."

"Thank you, Peter. I shall depend on good service from you; and I may
say that I have little doubt of landing somewhere to-morrow, if the
weather clears so that we can see. Come, Regnie, get the rest of those
dry decoys out of the boat, and we'll turn in for two or three hours,
when you must take the first watch."

Regnar brought in about twenty bundles more of fi