gshead, we paid no attention
to; let the cut-water knock them aside. But there were plenty of
large, angular, ugly-looking masses, which, if struck would have
endangered the schooner's side. These were sheered off from: so that
our course was made up of a series of curves and windings in and out.
It seemed odd to see so much ice, and feel the deadly chill of the
water, with so hot a sun on deck that the pitch started on the deal
planks. In our companion-way the thermometer rose to eighty-seven
degrees, with icebergs glittering at every point of the compass.

By eight o'clock, A.M., we were abreast the cliffs of Resolution
Island, at a distance of a couple of miles. With our glasses we
examined them attentively. Hoary, gray, and bare, they were, as when
first split out of the earth's flinty crust, and thrust above the
waves. The sun poured a flood of warm light over them; but no green
thing could be discerned. Either there was no soil, or else the bleak
frost-winds effectually checked the outcrop of life. To the south the
Button Islands showed like brown patches on the shimmering waves. The
width of the straits at this point is given on the chart at twelve
leagues,--thirty-six miles. We could see the land on either side.

By eleven, A.M., we were twenty miles inside the outer cape. The
cliffs continued on the north side, and the schooner was headed up
within a mile of them. There were no signs of reefs or sunken ledges,
however; and, on heaving the lead, a hundred fathoms of line were run
out without touching bottom. The cliffs seem thus to form the side of
an immense chasm partially filled by the ocean. Raed estimated their
height above the sea to be near four hundred feet. At the distance of
a mile they appeared to tower and almost impend over us.

Toward noon the wind flawed for half an hour, then dropped altogether.
The current, which was setting out to sea, began to drag us back with
it slowly. There wasn't a breath of air stirring. Blazes! how the sun
poured down! Guard got round in the thin shadow of the mainsail, and
actually lolled among icebergs. There we were stuck. That is one of
the disadvantages of a sailing-vessel: you have to depend on the
wind,--the most capricious thing in the universe. I suppose the
air-current had veered about from north-east to north, so that the
lofty cliffs intercepted them completely.

Dinner was eaten. One o'clock,--two o'clock. We were glad to take
refuge with Guard in the s