_Hope_ that night, when the hunting party returned, much sooner than had
been expected, with the whip cracking, the men cheering, the dogs
howling, and the sledge well laden with fresh meat.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

THE CAUSE OF ICE-BERGS--FOX-CHASE--A BEAR.

One day, long after the walrus-hunt just described, Joe Davis stood on
the deck of the _Hope_, leaning over the side and looking out to sea--at
least in the direction of the sea, for, although mid-day, it was so dark
that he could not see very far in any direction. Joe was conversing
with Mr Dicey on the appearance of things around him.

"Do you know, Mr Dicey," said he, "wot it is as causes them there
ice-bergs?"

Mr Dicey looked very grave and wise for a few seconds without
answering. Then he said, in rather a solemn tone, "Well, Davis, to tell
you the real truth, I _don't_ know!"

Now, as this question is one of considerable interest, I shall endeavour
to answer it for the benefit of the reader.

The whole of the interior of Greenland is covered with ice and snow.
This snowy covering does not resemble that soft snow which falls on our
own hills. It is hard, and _never_ melts entirely away. The snow there
is in some places a thousand feet thick! It covers all the hill-tops
and fills up all the valleys, so that the country may be said to be a
buried land. Since the world began, perhaps, snow has been falling on
it every winter; but the summers there have been so short that they
could not melt away the snow of one winter before that of another came
and covered it up and pressed it down. Thus, for ages, the snow of one
year has been added to that which was left of the preceding, and the
pressure has been so great that the mass has been squeezed nearly as
hard as pure ice.

The ice that has been formed in this way is called _glacier_; and the
glaciers of Greenland cover, as I have said, the whole country, so that
it can never be cultivated or inhabited by man unless the climate
change. There are glaciers of this kind in many other parts of the
world. We have them in Switzerland and in Norway, but not on nearly so
large a scale as in Greenland.

Now, although this glacier-ice is clear and hard, it is not quite so
solid as pure ice, and when it is pushed down into the valleys by the
increasing masses above it, actually _flows_. But this flowing motion
cannot be seen. It is like the motion of the hour hand of a watch,
which cannot be perceived however