At last it came.  A few cat’s-paws ruffled the surface of the sea, distending the sails for a moment, then leaving them flat and loose as before.  This, however, was sufficient; another such puff, and the ship was almost out of danger; but before it came the projecting summit of the smaller berg was overhanging the deck.  At this critical moment the wind began to blow steadily, and soon the Dolphin was in the open water beyond.  Five minutes after she had passed, the moving mountains struck with a noise louder than thunder; the summits and large portions of the sides fell with a succession of crashes like the roaring of artillery, just above the spot where the ship had lain not a quarter of an hour before; and the vessel, for some time after, rocked violently to and fro in the surges that the plunge of the falling masses had raised.

CHAPTER VI.

The gale—­Anchored to a berg which proves to be a treacherous one—­Dangers of the “pack”—­Beset in the ice—­Mivins shows an inquiring mind—­Walruses—­Gale freshens—­Chains and cables—­Holding on for life—­An unexpected discovery—­A “nip” and its terrible consequences—­Yoked to an iceberg.

The narrow escape related in the last chapter was but the prelude to a night of troubles.  Fortunately, as we have before mentioned, night did not now add darkness to their difficulties.  Soon after passing the bergs, a stiff breeze sprang up off shore, between which and the Dolphin there was a thick belt of loose ice, or sludge, while outside, the pack was in motion, and presented a terrible scene of crashing and grinding masses under the influence of the breeze, which soon freshened to a gale.

“Keep her away two points,” said Captain Guy to the man at the wheel; “we’ll make fast to yonder berg, Mr. Bolton.  If this gale carries us into the pack, we shall be swept far out of our course, if, indeed, we escape being nipped and sent to the bottom.”

Being nipped is one of the numberless dangers to which Arctic navigators are exposed.  Should a vessel get between two moving fields or floes of ice, there is a chance, especially in stormy weather, of the ice being forced together and squeezing in the sides of the ship; this is called nipping.

“Ah!” remarked Buzzby, as he stood with folded arms by the capstan, “many and many a good ship has been sent to the bottom by that same.  I’ve see’d a brig, with my own two eyes, squeezed together a’most flat by two big floes of ice, and after doin’ it they jist separated agin and let her go plump down to the bottom.  Before she was nipped, the crew saved themselves by jumpin’ on to the ice, and they wos picked up by our ship that wos in company.”

“There’s no dependin’ on the ice, by no means,” remarked Amos Parr; “for I’ve see’d the self-same sort of thing that ye mention happen to a small steamer in Davis’ Straits, only instead o’ crushin’ it flat, the ice lifted it right high and dry out o’ the water, and then let it down again, without more ado, as sound as iver.”