expedient of Captain Poke made manifest its merits. Protected
by the massive timbers and false ribs, the bilge of the ship resisted
the pressure; and as, under such circumstances, something must yield,
luckily nothing but the attraction of gravitation was overcome. The
skids, through their inclination, acted as wedges, the links pressing
against the keel; and in the course of an hour the Walrus was
gradually lifted out of the water, maintaining her upright position,
in consequence of the powerful nip of the floes. No sooner was this
experiment handsomely effected, than Mr. Poke jumped upon the ice, and
commenced an examination of the ship's bottom.

"Here's a dry-dock for you, Sir John!" exclaimed the old sealer,
chuckling. "I'll have a patent for this, the moment I put foot ag'in in
Stunin'tun."

A feeling of security, to which I had been a stranger ever since we
entered the ice, was created by the composure of Noah, and by his
self-congratulation at what he called his project to get a look at the
Walrus's bottom. Notwithstanding all the fine declarations of exultation
and success, however, that he flourished among us who were not mariners,
I was much disposed to think that, like other men of extraordinary
genius, he had blundered on the grand result of his "ice-screws," and
that it was not foreseen and calculated. Let this be as it may, however,
all hands were soon on the floe, with brooms, scrapers, hammers, and
nails, and the opportunity of repairing and cleaning was thoroughly
improved.

For four-and-twenty hours the ship remained in the same attitude, still
as a church, and some of us began to entertain apprehensions that she
might be kept on her frozen blocks forever. The accident had happened,
according to the statements of Captain Poke, in lat. 78 degrees 13'
26"--although I never knew in what manner he ascertained the important
particular of our precise situation. Thinking it might be well to get
some more accurate ideas on this subject, after so long and ticklish a
run, I procured the quadrant from Bob Ape, and brought it down upon the
ice, where I made it a point, as an especial favor, the weather being
favorable and the proper hour near, that our commander would correct his
instinct by a solar observation. Noah protested that your old seaman,
especially if a sealer and a Stunin'tunner, had no occasion for such
geometry operations, as he termed them; that it might be well enough,
perhaps necessary, for yo