e are to put back, there is not a moment to
lose, for it may be even now questioned whether the ship would claw off,
as we are, with a sending sea, and this heavy norther."

I believe I would, at that moment, gladly have given up all my social
stakes to be well rid of the adventure. Still pride, that substitute
for so many virtues, the greatest and the most potent of all hypocrites,
forbade my betraying the desire to retreat. I deliberated, while the
ship flew; and when, at length, I turned to the captain to suggest a
doubt that might, at an earlier notice, possibly have changed the whole
aspect of affairs, he bluntly told me it was too late. It was safer to
proceed than to return, if indeed, return were possible, in the present
state of the winds and waves. Making a merit of necessity, I braced my
nerves to meet the crisis, and remained a submissive, and, apparently, a
calm spectator of that which followed.

The Walrus (such was the name of our good ship) by this time was under
easy canvas, and yet, urged by the gale, she rolled down with alarming
velocity towards the boundary of foam where the congealed and the still
liquid element held their strife. The summits of the frozen crags waved
in their glittering glory in a way just to show that they were afloat;
and I remembered to have heard that, at times, as their bases melted,
entire mountains had been known to roll over, engulfing all that lay
beneath. To me it seemed but a moment, before the ship was fairly
overshadowed by these shining cliffs, which, gently undulating, waved
their frozen summits nearly a thousand feet in air. I looked at Noah,
in alarm, for it appeared to me that he intentionally precipitated us
to destruction. But, just as I was about to remonstrate, he made a sign
with his hand, and the vessel was brought to the wind. Still retreat was
impossible; for the heave of the sea was too powerful, and the wind too
heavy, to leave us any hope of long keeping the Walrus from drifting
down upon the ragged peaks that bristled in icy glory to leeward. Nor
did Captain Poke himself seem to entertain any such design; for, instead
of hugging the gale, in order to haul off from the danger, he had caused
the yards to be laid perfectly square, and we were now running, at a
great rate, in a line nearly parallel with the frozen coast, though
gradually setting upon it.

"Keep full! Let her go through water, you Jim Tiger," said the old
sealer, whose professional ardor