!"

He ran aft where the crew, provided with beams and bars, were standing
ready to repel this formidable assault.

The avalanche came on, growing larger at every moment as it caught up
the floating ice in its eddy; by Hatteras's orders the cannon was
loaded with ball to break the threatening line. But it came on and ran
towards the brig; a crash was heard, and as it came against the
starboard-quarter, part of the rail had given way.

[Illustration: "A crash was heard, and as it came against the
starboard-quarter, part of the rail had given way."]

"Let no one stir!" shouted Hatteras. "Look out for the ice!"

They swarmed on board the ship with an irresistible force; lumps of
ice, weighing many hundredweight, scaled the sides of the ship; the
smallest, hurled as high as the yards, fell back in sharp arrows,
breaking the shrouds and cutting the rigging. The men were overcome by
numberless enemies, who were heavy enough to crush a hundred ships
like the _Forward_. Every one tried to drive away these lumps, and
more than one sailor was wounded by their sharp ends; among others,
Bolton, who had his left shoulder badly torn. The noise increased
immensely. Duke barked angrily at these new enemies. The darkness of
the night added to the horrors of the situation, without hiding the
ice which glowed in the last light of the evening.

Hatteras's orders sounded above all this strange, impossible,
supernatural conflict of the men with the ice. The ship, yielding to
this enormous pressure, inclined to larboard, and the end of the
main-yard was already touching the ice, at the risk of breaking the
mast.

Hatteras saw the danger; it was a terrible moment; the brig seemed
about to be overturned, and the masts might be easily carried away.

A large block, as large as the ship, appeared to be passing along the
keel; it arose with irresistible power; it came on past the
quarter-deck; if it fell on the _Forward_, all was over; soon it rose
even above the topmasts, and began to totter.

A cry of terror escaped from every one's lips. Every one ran back to
starboard.

But at that moment the ship was relieved. They felt her lifted up, and
for an instant she hung in the air, then she leaned over and fell back
on the ice, and then she rolled so heavily that her planks cracked.
What had happened?

Raised by this rising tide, driven by the ice which attacked her aft,
she was getting across this impenetrable ice. After a minute of thi