“Now, one morning early in September, a dense bright fog dropped suddenly upon the waters.  We were making what sail we could—­with our crippled spars and stunted trees of masts—­and this it were useless to shorten, and so invite a rearward bombardment from the chasing hummocks.  So we kept our course by the compass, and trailed on through a blind mist while fear drummed in our throats.  The demoralization of my friend was by this time complete.  For myself, I seldom had a thought but that Nature would sheathe her claws when she played with me.

“‘This cannot last long!’ said the captain.

“The words were on his lips when we struck with a noise like the splintering of glass.  We were all thrown down, and my companion screamed like a mad thing.  The captain rose and ran to the bows; and in a moment he came back and his beard was shaking.

“‘God save us!’ he cried, ‘and fetch aft the rum!’

“There you have man in his invincible moods.  They drank till they were in a condition to face death; and then they found that our situation was rather improved than otherwise by the collision.  For—­so it appeared—­we had run full tilt for a perpendicular fissure in a huge block, and into that our bows were firmly wedged, the nature of the impact distributing the shock, and the berg itself carrying us along with it and protecting us.

“Now the dipping motion of the vessel was exchanged for a heavy regular wash along its stern quarters; for the bows were so much raised as that I felt a little strain on my knees as I went forward to satisfy my curiosity with a view of the icy mass into which we were penetrated.  I waited, indeed, until the crew were come aft again from looking, and my friend crept timidly at my shoulder; but when we reached the stem, there was one of the hands, a little soberer than his fellows, sprawled over the bulwarks, and staring with all his eyes into the green lift of the wall against him.

“‘Is it a mermaid you see, Killigrew?’ I asked.

“The man shifted his gaze to me slowly and solemnly.

“‘Nowt, nowt,’ said he; ’but a turble monster, like a pram stuck in jelly.’

“I laughed, and went to his side.  The fog, as I have said, was dense and bright, and one could see into it a little way, as into a milky white agate.  But now and again a film of it would pull thin, and then sunlight came through and made a dim radiance of the ice.

“‘I can make out nothing,’ I said.

“He cocked an eye and leered up at me.  ‘Look steady and sober,’ he said, ‘and you’ll make en owut like as in a glass darkly.’

“I gave a little gasp and my friend a cry before the words were issued from the man’s mouth.  Drawn by some current of air, the fog at the moment blew out of the cleft, like smoke from a chimney; and there, before our gaze, was a great curved tusk coming up through the ice and inside it.