recipitous here, full of cracks and flaws and sharp
projections. Indeed, had the breadth of the island been as it was at the
extremity I might have counted upon the first violent commotion of the
sea snapping this part of the ice, and converting the northern part of
the body into a separate berg.

I climbed without difficulty into the fore-chains, the snow being so
hard that my feet and hands made not the least impression on it, and
somewhat warily--feeling the government of a peculiar awe, mounting into
a sort of terror indeed--stood awhile peering over the rail of the
bulwarks; then entered the ship. I ran my eyes swiftly here and there,
for indeed I did not know what might steal or leap into view. Let it be
remembered that I was a sailor, with the superstitious feelings of my
calling in me, and though I do not know that I actually believed in
ghosts and apparitions and spectrums, yet I felt as if I did;
particularly upon the deck of this silent ship, rendered spirit-like by
the grave of ice in which she lay and by the long years (as I could not
doubt) during which she had thus rested. Hence, when I slipped off the
bulwark on to the deck and viewed the ghastly, white, lonely scene, I
felt for the moment as if this strange discovery of mine was not to be
exhausted of its wonders and terrors by the mere existence of the
ship--in other words, that I must expect something of the supernatural
to enter into this icy sepulchre, and be prepared for sights more
marvellous and terrifying than frozen corpses.

So I stood looking forward and aft, very swiftly, and in a way I dare
say that a spectator would have thought laughable enough; nor was my
imagination soothed by the clear, harping, ringing sounds of the wind
seething through the frozen rigging where the masts rose above the
shelter of the sides of the hollow.

Presently, getting the better of my perturbation, I walked aft, and,
stepping on to the poop-deck, fell to an examination of the companion or
covering of the after-hatch, which, as I have elsewhere said, was
covered with snow.

CHAPTER X.

ANOTHER STARTLING DISCOVERY.

This hatch formed the entrance to the cabin, and there was no other road
to it that I could see. If I wanted to use it I must first scrape away
the snow; but unhappily I had left my knife in the boat, and was without
any instrument that would serve me to scrape with. I thought of breaking
the beer-bottle that was in my pocket and scratc