A VOYAGE IN THE NORTH SEAS. 



265 



< The cause is as plain as a hogshead, doctor," replied Bill, not 

 at all abashed at the discovery which had been made ; " you won't let 

 me have another tot, and I must have it ; so, once for all, will you give 

 me that there or not ?" 



It was in vain that Arundel beseeched, threatened, or reasoned with 

 him ; the burden of Bill's song still was, " that he must have another 

 tot before he went to h 1 at any rate." 



" Well, if you won't serve it out quietly, doctor," said he at length, 

 " I'll find a way to make you do it." As he spoke he stepped for- 

 ward, and drawing forth from the locker the beef and biscuit, which 

 formed their whole stock of provisions, swore that he would pitch it 

 overboard unless Frank would give him the brandy. 



Arundel was forced to comply prevailing with difficulty on the 

 ruffian to allow him to keep a little for Flora. In half an hour every 

 drop of Bill's brandy was gone, and he lay wallowing in the bottom 

 of the boat in a state of brutal intoxication. Frank took the oppor- 

 tunity to remove the fire-arms and ammunition (of which there was a 

 considerable quantity), as well as the provisions, aft, and having with 

 some difficulty succeeded in drawing the damp charges of the pistols 

 and loading them afresh, he thrust them into his breast, determined 

 rather to shoot the seaman than suffer him to destroy the remainder 

 of the provisions. Many hours passed over in this cheerless manner, 

 the piercing cold and inpenetrable fog still continuing, so that all hope 

 of escaping from their dreadful situation began to die away. 



A cracking and rending in the huge mass of ice to which they were 

 fixed, at length aroused them from the torpor into which they were 

 falling, and the breaking off of several projecting pinnacles round 

 about them, showed that some dreadful concussion had shaken the 

 solidity of the berg. Casting off the rope, therefore, with all expe- 

 dition, the seaman and Arundel betook themselves to the oars, and by 

 almost superhuman exertions, succeeded in getting to a considerable 

 distance from the iceberg, before, as they had anticipated, it fell to 

 pieces. The terrific crash, which sounded as if the very foundations 

 of the earth were broken up and returning to chaos, amid the myste- 

 rious darkness which encompassed all things the grinding and tearing 

 of the colossal fragments and the quaking of the ocean as the huge 

 masses dived down into its depths for a time, deprived the unhappy 

 voyagers of all resolution ; and it was not till the lipper, created by the 

 sudden disruption, had almost separated tho boat, that they gathered 

 their scattered energies, and attended to their immediate safety. 



They were now driven from their shelter, and were moreover 

 thoroughly afraid to attach themselves to another berg; however, 

 the wind had in some measure fallen, and by good fortune, in a short 

 time, getting to leeward of a large field of salt-water ice, the hummocks 

 of which did not rise more than eight or ten feet above the water, 

 they set as much canvas as was sufficient to keep them before it; and 

 then, as one of the old voyagers to the frozen seas quaintly and 

 piously expresses it, e( abiding the Lord's leisure, they continued with 

 patience." For three days the fog remained stationary, though the 

 wind, happily, fell to such a degree as rather to afford them assis- 

 tance in their perilous navigation, than otherwise. It would be 



M.M. No. 3. M 



