A HAZARDOUS PASSAGE. 69 



had the deck, and Charley, as dare-devil an old sailor 

 as ever followed the fortunes of the sea, had the helm ; 

 and it seemed to me, as I sat upon the fore-yard, that 

 there was some quiet understanding between the two 

 to see how near they could come to the icebergs with- 

 out hitting them. We passed through many narrow 

 places ; but instead of finding the schooner in the 

 middle of the channel, she generally managed to fall 

 off to one side or the other at the critical moment (of 

 course, by mere accident) ; and w^hen I shouted a re- 

 monstrance at the lubberly steering, I was answered 

 with the assurance that the schooner would not obey 

 her helm with so much after-sail on, when running be- 

 fore the wind ; so I accordingly hove the schooner to, 

 and close-reefed the mainsail ; and now, either from 

 the want of a reasonable excuse for doing otherwise, 

 or from a real difficulty being overcome, the vessel 

 was made to keep somew^hat nearer to a straight 

 course ; and we dashed on through the waveless 

 waters with a celerity which, in view of our surround- 

 ings, fairly made one's head swim. 



I was once not a little alarmed. Before us lay what 

 appeared to be two icebergs separated by a distance 

 of about twenty fathoms. To go around them was to 

 deviate from our course, and I called to Dodge to 

 know if he could steady the schooner through the 

 narrow passage. Ever ready when there was a spice 

 of danger, he willingly assumed the responsibility of 

 the schooner's behavior, and we approached the en- 

 trance ; but, when it was too late to turn either to the, 

 right or left, I discovered, much to my amazement, 

 that the objects which I had supposed to be two bergs 

 were in fact but portions of the same mass, connected 

 together by a link which was only a few feet below 



