-morrow's expedition, when the ship slowly but steadily
swung around her stern to the mountain of ice--the engines had been
moving slowly to keep her head to the wind. Captain Burrows jumped to
his feet in joy. 'A current!' he shouted; 'a current, and toward the
north, too--old man Providence again, son; he allus takes care of his
own!'

"Some staves were thrown overboard, and, sure enough, they floated
toward the ice; but there was no evidence of an opening in the mighty
ring, and I remarked to Captain Burrows that the current evidently went
under the ice.

"'It looks like it did, son; it looks like it did; but if it goes under,
we will go over.'

"After we had taken a few hours of sleep, the long-boat landed our
little party of five men and seven dogs. We had food and drink for a two
weeks' trip, were well armed, and carried some of our instruments. It
appeared to be five or six miles to the top of the mountain, but it
proved more than thirty. We were five days in getting there, and did so
only after a dozen adventures that I will tell you at another time.

"We soon began to find stones and dirt in the ice, and before we had
gone ten miles, found the frozen carcass of an immense mastodon--its
great tusks only showing above the level; but its huge, woolly body
quite plainly visible in the ice. The ice was melting, and there were
many streams running towards the open water. It was warmer as we
proceeded. Dirt and rocks became the rule, instead of the exception, and
we were often obliged to go around a great boulder of granite. While we
were resting, on the third day, for a bite to eat, one of the men took a
dish, scooped up some sand from the bottom of the icy stream, and
'panned' it out. There was gold in it: gold enough to pay to work the
ground. About noon of the fifth day, we reached the summit of the
mountain, and from there looked down the other side--upon a sight the
like of which no white men had ever seen before.

"From the very summits of this icy-ring mountain the northern side was a
sheer precipice of more than three thousand feet, and was composed of
rocks, and rocks only, the foot of the mighty crags being washed by an
open ocean; and this was lighted up by a peculiar crimson glow. Great
white whales sported in the waters; huge sea-birds hung in circles high
in the air; yet below us, and with our glasses, we could see, on the
rocks at the foot of the crags, seals and some other animals that were
stra