and, the spokes
were spun round, and the _Hvalross_ glided along in a sharp curve right
in between two towering walls of rocks facing each other at a distance
of some sixty yards. Then the engine was slowed down, and they passed
more quietly along a rugged channel which went straight in for a short
distance, and then bore sharply round to the left.

They were none too soon, for, long before they reached this curve, the
ice-floe touched the headland they had passed, and there arose a
crashing roar mingled with thunderous sounds that were deafening. It
was as if the huge fields of ice were about to be swept right over the
land, and the perpendicular rocks, as they bore the brunt, echoed the
terrible volleying noise. The sight was awful in its majesty: one floe
ploughed up another, and vast fragments fell over and over, to fall with
a crash upon others, or into the waters of the inlet, churning them up
as if in some furious tempest, driving billows up against the rocks on
either side, and making the _Hvalross_ rock and roll as she sped slowly
on. And all the while, driven by the almost irresistible force behind,
the ice-floes came on and on, filling up the inlet, and roaring with
fury as the vessel they seemed to be pursuing kept still beyond their
reach.

The lead was out again and rapidly heaved, but the water kept of a great
depth, and the channel was clear of scattered rocks, so that the opening
where it bore off to the left was reached with ease, and the _Hvalross_
bore round in answer to her helm, and began once more to make for the
north.

Ten minutes later the whole of the inlet that ran so nearly straight in
was jammed right up with mountainous masses of ice, which ran right
across the angle where they had turned off to the north, and then the
ice came on, mounting over that which was below, grinding, crackling,
and pressing it solid, deafening the ears of those who listened for a
few minutes, and then dying off into a more and more distant sound.
This soon grew fainter, heard as it seemed to be from the other side of
the cliffs on their left, while the water in the fiord, which had been
tremendously agitated, rushing on past the _Hvalross_ and leaving her
rolling and the crow's-nest in which Johannes stood describing a long
arc in the air, began to subside, the billows ceased to leap up the
cliffs, the loose fragments of ice to eddy and rush together, and the
vessel floated upon an even keel.

The peril