hard and fast in the pack, and we saw that
her crew were sawin' and cuttin' away at the ice, tryin' to get into the
lead that we'd got into. So we hailed them, and said we would wait for
'em outside the pack, if we got through. But the words were no sooner
spoken, when the wind it died away, and we were becalmed about half a
mile from the _Bullfinch_.

"`You'd better go down to breakfast, boys,' says our captain, says he,
`the breeze won't be long o' comin' again.'

"So down the men went, and soon after that the steward comes on deck,
and, says he to the captain, `Breakfast, sir.' `Very good,' says the
captain, and down he went too, leavin' me at the wheel and the mate in
charge of the deck. He'd not been gone three minutes when I noticed
that the great field of ice on our right was closin' in on the field on
our left, and the channel we was floatin' in was closin' up. The mate
noticed it, too, but he wouldn't call the captain 'cause the ice came so
slowly and quietly on that for a few minutes we could hardly believe it
was movin' and everything around us looked so calm and peaceful like
that it was difficult to believe our danger was so great. But this was
only a momentary feelin', d'ye see. A minute after that the mate he
cries down to the captain:--

"`Ice closin' up, sir!'

"And the captain he runs on deck. By this time there was no mistake
about it; the ice was close upon us. It was clear that we were to have
a nip. So the captain roars down the hatchway, `Tumble up there! tumble
up! every man alive! for your lives!' And sure enough they did tumble
up, as I never seed 'em do it before--two or three of 'em was sick; they
came up with their clothes in their hands. The ice was now almost
touchin' our sides, and I tell _you_, sir, I never did feel so queerish
in all my life before as when I looked over the side at the edge of that
great field of ice which rose three foot out o' the water, and was, I
suppose, six foot more below the surface. It came on so slow that we
could hardly see the motion. Inch by inch the water narrowed between it
and our sides. At last it touched on the left side, and that shoved us
quicker on to the field on our right. Every eye was fixed on it--every
man held his breath. You might have heard a pin fall on the deck. It
touched gently at first, then there was a low grindin' and crunchin'
sound. The ship trembled as if it had been a livin' creetur, and the
beams began to