ese unwieldy animals. Of a sudden
the wind changed to the southward, and the small icebergs which were
then to windward rapidly closed with the large one upon which we were
fishing. The harpooners observed it, and recommended me to return to
the ship, but I was so amused with the sport that I did not heed their
advice. A sea-horse was lying in a small cave accidentally formed on
the upright edge of the iceberg, and wishing to attack him, I directed
my boat to pull towards it. At this time there was not more than twenty
yards of water between the two icebergs, and a sudden squall coming on,
they closed with great rapidity. The men in the other boats immediately
pulled away, and, as I afterwards learnt, when I arrived at Marseilles,
they escaped, and returned home in the ship; but those in mine, who were
intent upon watching me, as I stood in the bow of the boat with the
harpoon to strike the animal, did not perceive the danger until the
stern of the boat was touched by the other iceberg. The two now coming
within the attraction of cohesion of floating bodies, were dashed like
lightning one against the other, jamming the men, as well as the boat,
into atoms.

Being in the bow of the boat, and hearing the crash, I had just time, in
a moment of desperation, to throw myself into the cave upon the back of
the sea-horse, when the two enormous bodies of ice came in contact--the
noise I have no doubt was tremendous, but I did not hear it, as I was
immediately enclosed in the ice. Although at first there were
interstices, yet, as the southerly gale blew the icebergs before it into
the northern region, all was quickly cemented together by the frost, and
I found myself pent up in an apartment not eight feet square, in company
with a sea-horse.

I shall not detain your highness by describing my sensations: my ideas
were, that I was to exist a certain time, and then die for want of fresh
air; but they were incorrect. At first, indeed, the cave was
intolerably hot from the accumulation of breath, and I thought I should
soon be suffocated. I recollected all my past sins, I implored for
mercy, and lay down to die; but I found that the ice melted away with
the heat, and that, in so doing, a considerable portion of the air was
liberated, so that in a few minutes my respiration became more free.
The animal in the meantime, apparently frightened at his unusual
situation, was perfectly quiet; and, as the slightest straw will be
ca