ubber off the seal and narwhal, we found that
we had an enormous heap of it,--as much, at least, in quantity, as five
good barrels full,--and, since the sun was very warm, there was great
danger, not only that it would spoil, but that much of it would melt and
run away. Fortunately, very near our hut there was a small glacier
hanging on the hillside, coming down a narrow valley from a greater mass
of ice which lay above. From the face of this glacier a great many lumps
of ice had broken off, and there were also deep banks of snow which the
summer's sun had not melted.

"In the midst of this accumulation of ice and snow we had little
difficulty in making, partly by excavating and partly by building up, a
sort of cave, large enough to hold twice as much blubber as we had to
put into it. Here we deposited our treasure, which was our only reliance
for light in case we invented a lamp, and our chief reliance for fire
if the winter should come and find us still upon the island.

"After we had thus secured, in this snow-and-ice cave, our stock of
blubber, we constructed another much like it near by for our food, and
into this we had soon gathered a pretty large stock of ducks and eggs.

[Illustration: John Hardy and the Dean provide for the Future.]

"When we contemplated all that we had done in this particular, you may
be sure our spirits rose very much."

"Odd, wasn't it?" said Fred, "having a storehouse made of ice and snow.
But, Captain Hardy, if you'll excuse me for interrupting you, what did
this glacier that you spoke about look like? and what was it anyway?"

"A glacier is nothing more," replied the Captain, "than a stream of ice
made out of snow partly melted and then frozen again, and which,
forming, as I have said before, high up on the tops of the hills, runs
down a valley and breaks off at its end and melts away. Sometimes it is
very large,--miles across,--and goes all the way down to the sea; and
the pieces that break off from it are of immense size, and are called
_icebergs_. Sometimes the glaciers are very small, especially on small
islands such as ours was. This little glacier I tell you of lay in a
narrow valley, as I said before; and, as the cliffs were very high on
either side, it was almost always in shadow, and the air was very cold
there; so you see how fortunate it was that we thought of fixing upon
that place for our storehouses. Then another great advantage to us was,
that it was so near our hut,