300 HAYES, HALL AND OTHER ADVENTURER* 



one of these huge masses, great blocks falling which would have 

 crushed the ship if they had struck her. 



This peril escaped, another threatened them. A long tongue 

 from the berg projected immediately beneath the schooner, and the 

 keel slipped and grinded upon it until it seemed probable that the 

 ship would be hurled into the air, or else capsized. Here again the 

 berg proved their safety. A loud report was heard; another and 

 another followed in swift succession; the roar seemed to fill the air 

 with a thousand echoes. The opposite side of the berg had split off, 

 piece after piece, tumbling a vast volume of ice into the waves, 

 and sending the revolving berg careening back upon the ship. The 

 movement now was quicker; fragments began again to fall; and, 

 already sufficiently alarmed by the dissolution which had taken 

 place, Dr. Hayes and his followers were in momentary expectation 

 of seeing the whole side nearest to them give way, and crash down 

 upon the steamer. 



They escaped this danger by planting an ice-anchor and draw- 

 ing the vessel away from the berg. They were barely in time to 

 escape destruction. Scarcely were they twenty yards distant when 

 the expected disruption occurred. The side nearest them split off 

 and crashed wildly into the sea, raising a tremendous swell and 

 covering the tossing waters with fragments of ice. Luckily for 

 them they were beyond its reach, and they hastened to get away 

 from that scene of peril. 



September had arrived when they at length crossed Melville 

 Bay and entered Smith Sound. The young ice was forming 

 fast and the season near its close, and it became necessary to seek 

 winter quarters. A place was selected in a sheltered cave about 

 twenty miles by latitude, but eighty miles by the coast line, south 

 of Dr. Kane's wintering place at Rensselaer Harbor. On their 

 way thither they had picked up Hans, the Eskimo, who had done 

 such good service for Kane and his party. With him were his wife 

 and child, who did not prove welcome additions to the ship's crew. 



