48 FIGHTING AN ICEBERG. 



the side of a berc^ which rose a hundred feet above 

 our topmasts, then slipped past another of smaller 

 dimensions. By pushing against them with our ice- 

 poles we changed somew^iat the course of the schoon- 

 er ; but w^hen we thought that w^e were steering clear 

 of the mass w^hich we so much dreaded, an eddy 

 changed the direction of our drift, and carried us al- 

 most broadside upon it. 



The schooner struck on the starboard quarter, and 

 the shock, slight though it was, disengaged some frag- 

 ments of ice that were large enough to have crushed 

 the vessel had they struck her, and also many little 

 hunps wdiich rattled about us ; but fortunately no per- 

 son was hit. The quarter-deck wTiS quickly cleared, 

 and all hands, crowding forward, anxiously watched 

 the boat. The bero^ now beo^an to revolve, and was 

 settling slowly over us ; the little lumps fell thicker 

 and faster upon the after-deck, and the forecastle was 

 t])e only place where there was the least chance of 

 safetv. 



At leno^th the bero; itself saved us from destruction. 

 An immense mass broke off from that part which w^as 

 l)eneatli the surface of the sea, and this, a dozen times 

 larger than the schooner, came rushing up within a few 

 vards of us, sendin^: a vast volume of foam and water 

 tlying from its sides. This rupture arrested the revo- 

 kition, and the bei*g l^egan to settle in the opposite 

 direction. And now came another danger. A long 

 tongue was protruding immediately underneath the 

 schooner ; already the keel w^as slipping and grinding 

 upon it, and it seemed probable that we should be 

 knocked up into the air like a foot-ball, or at least 

 capsized. The side of our enemy soon leaned from us, 

 and we were in no danger from the worse than hail- 



