THE NEW YEAR, i8g5 57 



ladder, and thus imprison us like mice in a trap. True, 

 the passage up from the engine-room had been cleared 

 for this emergency, but this was a very narrow hole to 

 get through with heavy bags, and no one could tell how 

 long this hole would keep open when the ice once 

 attacked us in earnest. I ran up again to set free 

 the dogs, which were shut up in ' Castle -garden ' — an 

 enclosure on the deck along the port bulwark. They 

 whined and howled most dolefully under the tent as 

 the snow masses threatened at any moment to crush 

 it and bury them alive. I cut away the fastening with 

 a knife, pulled the door open, and out rushed most of 

 them by the starboard gangway at full speed.* 



Meantime the hands started bringing up the bags. 

 It was quite unnecessary to ask them to hurry up — the 

 ice did that, thundering against the ship's sides in a way 

 that seemed irresistible. It was a fearful hurly-burly 

 in the darkness ; for, to cap all, the mate had, in the 

 hurry, let the lanterns go out. I had to go down again 

 to get something on my feet; my Finland shoes were 

 hanging up to dry in the galley. When I got there the 

 ice was at its worst, and the half-deck beams were creak- 

 ing overhead, so that I really thought they were all com- 

 ing down. 



* The word jT'<:?//r/t'w, which has throughout been translated "gang- 

 way," means rather a sort of port-hole. As the svalkclcin, however, was 

 the means of exit from and entrance to the ship, "gangway" seemed the 

 most convenient expression for it. 



