ckets with crackers, and
slinging a slice of cooked bear's meat over my shoulder, I started off,
having been careful first to pile up several loose blocks of ice in the
form of a pillar, so that I might be able to find the place again. I
then struck--as it afterwards turned out most fortunately--for that side
of the berg where the surface shelved off gradually to the water. About
eleven o'clock, I found myself standing on quite a lofty peak of ice;
and, looking down, my eyes fell upon a sight that almost took away my
breath. Spread out before me on a level plain, there lay a large black
patch, which looked as though it must be earth; and on the farther side,
just where the berg began to slope towards the sea, I thought that I
saw something that looked like a building! Could it be that the island
was inhabited? Running, sliding, slipping down, as fast as I could go,
in a short time I found that I was not mistaken in supposing that it
was earth: for there lay, stretched out before me, an acre or so of
ground, almost as smooth and level as a garden; and, at the farther
end of the plot, there stood,--not an ordinary house, not a barn, not
an Esquimaux hut, not a country store, not a railroad depot, not a
meeting-house,--but, what do you imagine? I will tell you as soon as I
get there. Rushing like mad across the ground,--oh, how pleasant it was
to feel the soft soil under my cold feet!--I came to what looked like a
dismasted ship, embedded clear up to the gunwale[3] in the ice. There
lay the whole deck of a three-masted vessel, unbroken and undisturbed;
but, as I soon ascertained, there was no hull underneath, for the deck
had evidently been broken off from the lower parts of the ship, and
thrown up the smooth, inclined plane of ice to the spot where I found
it, and then been frozen in there. What a discovery this was! I did not
know how to contain or how to express my delight; and, before beginning
to explore the premises, the very first thing that I did was to rush up
to the bell, that hung near the bows, and ring it with all my might. You
can't tell how strange it sounded, up there in that solitary, silent,
arctic sea, to hear the loud clang of the old bell sounding out over the
waters, as I tugged and tugged away at the rope. It would have done the
hearts of "Hooper & Son, Boston, Mass.,"--whose name I saw printed on
it,--it would have done the whole firm good, to have heard it. After I
had ceased ringing, and slowly toll