s from the star-wrought apparitions of the broken slopes I asked
myself what should be my plans, what my chance for delivering myself
from this unparalleled situation. At this distance of time I cannot
precisely tell how long the provisions I had brought from the foundered
brig were calculated to last me, but I am sure I had not a week's
supply. This, then, made it plain that my business was not to linger
here, but to push into the ocean afresh as speedily as possible, for to
my mind nothing in life was clearer than that my only chance lay in my
falling in with a ship. Yet how did my heart sink when I reflected upon
the mighty breast of sea in which I was forlornly to seek for succour!
My eyes went to the squab black outline of the boat, and the littleness
of her sent a shudder through me. It is true she had nobly carried me
through some fierce weather, yet at the expense of many leagues of
southing, of a deeper penetration into the solitary wilds of the polar
waters.

However, I was sensible that I was depressed, melancholy, and under a
continued consternation, something of which the morning sun might
dissipate, so that I should be able to take a heartier view of my woful
plight. So after a good look seawards and at the heavens to satisfy
myself on the subject of the weather, and after a careful inspection of
the moorings of the boat, I entered her, feeling very sure that, if a
sea set in from the west or south and tumbled her, the motion would
quickly arouse me; and getting under the roof of sail, with my legs
along the bottom and my back against the stem, which I had bolstered
with the slack of the canvas, I commended myself to God, folded my arms,
and went to sleep.

CHAPTER VII.

I AM STARTLED BY A DISCOVERY.

In this uneasy posture, despite the intense cold, I continued to sleep
soundly during the greater part of the night. I was awakened by a horrid
dream of some giant shape stalking down the slope of ice to seize and
devour me, and sat up trembling with horror that was not a little
increased by my inability to recollect myself, and by my therefore
conceiving the canvas that covered me to be the groping of the ogre's
hand over my face.

I pushed the sail away and stood up, but had instantly to sit again, my
legs being terribly cramped. A drink of spirits helped me; my blood
presently flowed with briskness.

The moon was in the west; she hung large, red, and distorted, and shed
no light save her re