there was
no use, for the present at least, in looking for ships, as none could
come near us. The storm made a very wild and fearful spectacle of the
sea, as the waves went dashing over the pieces of ice and against the
icebergs. When I looked out upon this scene, and listened to the noises
made by the waves and the crushing ice, and heard the roaring wind, I
wondered more than ever what could possess anybody to go to such a sea
in a ship, for it seemed to me that the largest possible gains would not
be a sufficient reward for the dangers to be encountered.

"But so it always was, and always will be, I suppose. Whenever there is
a little money to be made, men will encounter any kind of hazard in
order to get it. Thus the risks in going after whales and seals for
their blubber, which is very valuable, are great; but then, if the ship
makes a good voyage, the profits are very large, and when the sailors
receive their 'lay,' that is, their share of the profits on the oil and
whalebone which have been taken, it sometimes amounts to quite a
handsome sum of money to each, and they consider themselves well
rewarded for all their privations and hardships. And it must be owned
that the whalers and sealers are a very brave sort of men, especially
the whalers who go among the ice; for besides the dangers to the vessel,
and the danger always encountered in approaching a whale to harpoon him
(for, as you must know, he sometimes knocks the boat to pieces with his
monstrous tail, and spills all the crew out in the water), he may, while
swimming off with the harpoon in him, and dragging the boat by the line
which is fast to it, take it into his head to rush beneath the ice, and
thus destroy the boat and drown the people.

"But this is too long a falling to 'leeward' of our story, as the
sailors would call it; so we will come right back into the wind again.

"When the weather cleared off after the storm, we went to work as
before. But everything about looked gloomy enough. The cliffs were
besprinkled with snow, and about the rocks the snow had drifted, and it
lay in streaks where it had been carried by the wind. The sea was still
very rough, and, as there were many immense pieces of ice upon the
water, when the waves rose and fell, the pounding of it on the rocks
made a most fearful sound.

"The sun coming out warm, however, soon melted the snow, and, getting
heated up with work, we got on bravely. Indeed, we soon became not less
s