104 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 
older hands on board now offer their opinion as to 
what is best to be done. We hope to find streams of 
water leading to the westward, and we make the at¬ 
tempt. There was a long neck of ice about two miles 
broad, the sea breaking on the onter edne, the, swell 
lifting the inner pieces and threatening to grind the 
whole mass into powder. Into this commotion, the 
schooner is forced with all speed, charging the most 
likely place to make an entrance for us, as the surge rises 
and falls with awful fury. Thump she drives against 
the barrier, the bells ring out loudly on board, the 
glasses rattle, and the schooner shivers from stem to 
stern. The nerves of the uninitiated quiver the while, 
but we force our way, and, once inside, we take the ice 
