of shapes. Look overhead, if there isn't a man's face!' I
looked up as the sailor had directed me, and, sure enough, there was a
man's face plainly to be seen in the lines of an immense tongue of ice
which was projecting from the side of a berg on the right, and under
which we were about to pass.

"I became now really terrified. In addition to these strange spectral
objects, the air was filled with loud reports, and deep, rumbling
noises, caused by the icebergs breaking to pieces, or masses splitting
off from their sides and falling into the sea. These noises came at
first from the icebergs in front of us; but when we had got fairly into
the wilderness of ice which covered the sea, they came from every side.
It struck me that we had passed deliberately into the very jaws of
death, and that from the frightful situation there was no escape.

"I merely mention this as the feeling which oppressed me, and which I
could not shake off. Indeed, the feeling grew upon me rather than
decreased. The fog came on very thick, settling over us as if it were
our funeral shroud. Some snow also fell, which made the air still more
gloomy. The noises were multiplying, and we could no longer tell whence
they came, so thick was the air. We were groping about like a traveller
who has lost his way in a vast forest, and has been overtaken by the
dark night.

"It seemed to me now that our doom was sealed,--that all our hope was
left behind us when we passed the opening to this vast wilderness of
icebergs; and the more I thought of it, the more it seemed to me that
the figure standing on the corner of the iceberg where we entered,
whether it was ice or whatever it was, had been put there as a warning.
How far my fears were right you shall see presently.

"The fog, as I have said, kept on thickening more and more, until we
could scarcely see anything at all. I have never, I think, seen so thick
a fog, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the ship was kept
from striking the icebergs. Then, after a while, the wind fell away
steadily, and finally grew entirely calm. The current was moving us
about upon the dead waters; and in order to prevent this current from
setting us against the ice, we had to lower the boats, and, making lines
fast to the ship and to the boats, pull away with our oars to keep
headway on the ship, that she might be steered clear of the dangerous
places. Thus was made a slow progress, but it was very hard work. At
leng