PULLING FOR LIFE. 49 



Scone-showers which had driven us forward ; so we 

 sprang to the ice-poles, and exeited our strength in 

 endeavoring to push the vessel off There were no 

 idle hands. Danger respects not the dignity of the 

 quarter-deck. 



After we had fatigued ourselves at this hard labor 

 without any useful result, the berg came again to our 

 relief. A loud report first startled us ; another and 

 another followed in quick succession, until the noise 

 grew deafening, and the whole air seemed a reservoir 

 of frightful sound. The opposite side of the berg had 

 split off, piece after piece, tumbling a vast volume of 

 ice into the sea, and sending the berg revolving back 

 upon us. This time the movement was quicker ; frag- 

 ments began again to fall ; and, already sufficiently 

 startled by the alarming dissolution which had taken 

 place, we were in momentary expectation of seeing 

 the whole side nearest to us break loose and crash 

 bodily upon the schooner, in which event she would 

 inevitably be carried down beneath it ; as hopelessly 

 doomed as a shepherd's hut beneath an Alpine ava- 

 lanche. 



By this time Dodge, who had charge of the boat, 

 had succeeded in planting an ice-anchor and attaching 

 his rope, and greeted us with the welcome signal, 

 '•' Haul in" We pulled for our lives, long and steadily. 

 Seconds seemed minutes, and minutes hours. At 

 length we began to move off. Slowly and steadily 

 sank the berg behind us, carrying away the main- 

 boom, and grazing hard against the quarter. But we 

 were safe. Twenty yards away, and the disruption 

 occurred which we had all so much dreaded. The side 

 nearest to us now split off, and came plunging wildly 

 down into the sea, sending over us a shower of spray, 



4 



