of noise like the report of a cannon fired deep
down--advised me that the work of dissolution was perpetually
progressing, and that this prodigious island which appeared to barricade
the horizon might in a few months be dwindled into half a score of
rapidly dissolving bergs.

My slender repast ended, I pulled the oar out of the crevice, and found
it would make me a good pole to probe my way with and support myself by
up the slope. The boat was now held by the mast, which I shook and found
very firm. I put an empty beer-bottle in my pocket, meaning to see if I
could fill it, if the snow above was sweet enough to be well-tasted, and
then with a final look at the boat I started.

The slope was extremely craggy. Blocks of ice lay about, some on top of
the others, like the stones of which the pyramids are built; the white
glare of the snow caused these stones at a little distance to appear
flat--that is, by merging them into and blending them with the soft
brilliance of the background; and I had sometimes to warily walk fifty
or sixty paces round these blocks to come at a part of the slope that
was smooth.

I speedily found, however, that there was no danger of my being buried
by stepping into a hollow full of snow; for the same hardness was
everywhere, the snow, whether one or twenty feet deep, offering as solid
a surface as the bare ice. This encouraged me to step out, and I began
to move with some spirit; the exercise was as good as a fire, and before
I was half-way up I was as warm as ever I had been in my life.

I had come to a stand to fetch a breath, and was moving on afresh, when,
having taken not half a dozen steps, I spied the figure of a man. He was
in a sitting posture, his back against a rock that had concealed him.
His head was bowed, and his knees drawn up to a level with his chin, and
his naked hands were clasped upon his legs. His attitude was that of a
person lost in thought, very easy and calm.

I stopped as if I had been shot through the heart. Had it been a bear,
or a sea-lion, or any creature which my mind could instantly have
associated with this white and stirless desolation, I might have been
startled indeed; but no such amazement could have possessed me as I now
felt. It never entered into my head to doubt that he was alive, so
natural was his attitude, as of one lost in a mood of tender melancholy.

I stood staring at him, myself motionless, for some minutes, too greatly
astonished and thund