had better luck than usual to get away."

"And where is the herd now?" said Steve, looking curiously after the
bear.

"Ah, gone far enough by this time, sir. The bear scared them, and they
go on swimming away for miles till they forget all about the danger, and
then get on the ice again."

A hail from the captain took them to his side. He was examining the
narrow rift which made its way amidst the piled-up ice, the rocks on
either side having prevented its being filled up, and, following this,
they made their way toward the boat, and wherever it was possible they
managed to trace it pretty well, till, as Johannes had surmised, they
came upon a place where the channel through the rocks was covered in,
but fortunately not choked, being completely arched over for about a
hundred yards.

"We must try and find our way to this in the boat to-morrow," said
Captain Marsham; "there must be a way, though we did not find it
to-day."

"It is hidden somewhere by the rocks, sir," said Johannes: "shall we
search?"

"No; they will be getting uneasy on board. I am satisfied with to-day's
work. We have found another road to the sea, one which is not blocked.
But," he added in a low voice to the doctor, "not a way out for the
ship."

They reached the boat a short time after, and plunged from the brilliant
sunshine into the chill and gloom of the weird rift, along which they
were rowed, listening to a good deal of splashing and echoing in the
darkest part.

"Fish?" whispered Steve, for the strangeness of the gloomy chasm had an
effect upon his spirits, and before he asked that question he had been
busy with his imagination conjuring up all manner of strange-looking,
dangerous creatures as being likely to inhabit the dark depths over
which they were riding, so he turned to Johannes and said, "Fish?"

"Seals," replied the Norseman laconically.

An hour later they were out in the sunshine once again, with the
magnificent glacier which filled up the northern end of the fiord
looking more lovely than when they saw it first, a fact due; perhaps, to
their having been threading a gloomy passage which at times was like a
huge cavern.

Then came a long row past the valleys which ran inland, and down one of
which the doctor declared that he saw a reindeer; and in due time the
fiord contracted, the rocks on either side towered up with their ledges
displaying row after row of sea-birds ready to take flight and utter
their wild clam