ers and sharp points,
whence I suspected many fissures in which the snow might not be so hard
but that I might sink deep enough to be smothered. I saw no cave nor
hollow that I could make a bedroom of, and the improved circulation of
my blood giving me spirits enough to resolve quickly, I made up my mind
to use my boat as a bed.

So I went to work. I took the oar and jammed it into such another
crevice as the mast stood in, and to it I secured the boat by another
line. This moored her very safely. There was as good promise of a fair
quiet night as I might count upon in these treacherous latitudes; the
haven in which the boat lay was sheltered and the water almost still,
and this I reckoned would hold whilst the breeze hung northerly and the
swell rolled from the north-east. I spread the sail over the seats,
which served as beams for the support of this little ceiling of canvas,
and enough of it remained to supply me with a pillow and to cover my
legs. I fell to this work whilst there was light, and when I had
prepared my habitation, I took a bottle of ale and a handful of victuals
ashore and made my supper, walking briskly whilst I ate and drank.

I caught myself sometimes looking yearningly towards the brow of the
slope, as though from that eminence I should gain an extensive prospect
of the sea and perhaps behold a ship; but I wanted the courage to climb,
chiefly because I was afraid of tumbling into a hole and miserably
perishing, and likewise because I shrank from the idea of being
overtaken up there by the darkness. There was a kind of companionship in
the boat, the support of which I should lose if I left her.

The going of the sun was attended by so much glory that the whole weight
of my situation and the pressure of my solitude did not come upon me
until his light was gone. The swell ran athwart his mirroring in lines
of molten gold; the sky was a sheet of scarlet fire where he was, paling
zenithwards into an ardent orange. The splendour tipped the frozen coast
with points of ruby flame which sparkled and throbbed like sentinel
beacons along the white and silent range. The low thunder of far-off
hills of water bursting against the projections rolled sulkily down upon
the weak wind. Just beyond the edge of the slope, about a third of a
mile to the north of my little haven, stood an assemblage of exquisitely
airy outlines--configurations such as I have described; their
crystalline nature stole out to the lustrou