ICE DANGERS. 
61 
to be always kept in view, and as be fears they may be 
forgotten when occasion will demand their most careful 
attention, these, with other hints of equal value for our 
guidance, he has carefully written down and presented 
to us. We distinctly remember one solemn warning 
he gave us against too hastily landing upon ice, or 
even ice-bergs, in pursuit of game, and told us that once 
he himself had incautiously stepped on to a huge mass, 
with the intention of shooting an Arctic bear, when the 
great berg, so finely balanced in the sea that it needed 
but the addition of his weight to make it come crashing 
down with an awful noise, toppled over into the sea. 
The sea itself was lashed into a fury by the fall, and in 
the confusion that ensued he narrowly escaped being 
drowned. These enormous masses of ice often rolled 
over as we gazed upon them, owing to the water, being 
warmer below, causing the ice to thaw more rapidly, 
when the upper part, which is heavier, totters, the ice 
beneath is suddenly overbalanced, and the portion 
that was lately submerged is now suddenly tilted 
into the air through the disturbance of the equili¬ 
brium of the mass. At last the time came to part 
with our gallant friend, and our attention being 
drawn off from the receding tug-boat, we began to 
notice the fact that our schooner was already battling 
bravely with a high and heavy sea, the result of 
