chsias, or the aromatic fragrance of the Winter's-bark,
admonishes them of breakfast being served; the doctor likewise soon
proclaiming it. And so for a time the glacier is forgotten.

But after the meal has been dispatched, it again becomes the subject of
discourse, as the old sealer once more begins to regard it through the
glass with evident apprehension.

"It 'ud seem beyond the possibility of belief," he says, "thet them
conglomerations uv ice, hard froze an' lookin' ez tight fixed ez a
mainstay, for all thet hev a downard slitherin' motion, jest like a
stream o' water, tho' in coorse thousands or millions o' times slower."

"Oh! that's well understood," asserts the skipper, acquainted with the
latest theory of glacier movement.

"So it may be, Captin'," pursues Seagriff; "but thar's somethin' 'bout
these breakin' off an' becomin' bergs ez ain't so well understood, I
reckin'; leastways, not by l'arned men. The cause of it air well enough
know'd 'mong the seal-fishers ez frequent these soun's an' channels."

"What is the cause, Chips?" asked young Gancy, like all the others,
interested in the subject of conversation.

"Wall, it's this, Mister Ned. The sea-water bein' warmer than the ice,
melts the glasheer when thar's high-tide, an' the eend of it dips under;
then at low tide,--bein', so to speak, _undermined_, an' not havin' the
water to rest on,--it naterally sags down by its own weight, an' snaps
off, ez ye'll all easily understan'."

"Oh! we quite understand," is the universal response, every one
satisfied with the old sealer's explanation as to the origin of
icebergs.

"How I should like to see one launched," exclaims Leoline; "that big one
over there, for instance. It would make such a big plunge! Wouldn't
it, Mr Chips?"

"Yes, Miss, sech a plunge thet ef this child tho't thar was any
likelihood of it comin' loose from its moorin's while we're hyar, he
wouldn't be smokin' his pipe so contented. Jest look at thet boat."

"The boat! what of her?" asks the skipper, in some apprehension, at
length beginning to comprehend the cause of Seagriff's uneasiness.

"Wall, Captin', ef yon glasheer war to give off a berg, any sort of a
big 'un, it mout be the means o' leavin' us 'ithout any boat at all."

"But how?"

"How? Why, by swampin' or smashin' the only one we've got, the which--"

"Thunder an' airthquakes! See yonder! The very thing we're talkin'
'bout, I vow!"

No need for him to explain