he brig was warped, and
for some time she lay safely here. It was just large enough to hold
her, and a long tongue of ice, projecting from the foot of it, kept off
the pressure of the sea-ice. Nevertheless a look of anxiety rested on
the captain's face after the ice-anchors had been made fast.

"You don't seem to like our position, captain," said young Gregory, who
had been watching the doings of the men and now and then lent them a
hand.

"I don't, Tom. The pack is closing tight up, and this berg may prove an
enemy instead of a friend, if it forces into our harbour here. Let us
hear what our mate thinks of it. What say you, Mr Mansell, shall we
hold on here, or warp out and take our chance in the pack?"

"Better hold on, sir," answered the mate gravely. "The pack is
beginning to grind; we should get a tight embrace, I fear, if we went
out. Here we may do well enough; but everything depends on that
tongue."

He looked as he spoke toward the point of ice which extended in front of
the brig's stern, and guarded the harbour from the outer ice in that
direction. The tongue was not a large one, and it was doubtful whether
it could stand the pressure that was increasing every minute.

The pack was indeed beginning to "grind," as the mate had said, for,
while they were looking at it, the edges of two floes came together with
a crash about fifty yards from the berg. They ground together for a
moment with a harsh growling sound, and then the two edges were suddenly
forced up to a height of about fifteen or twenty feet. Next moment they
fell on the closed-up ice, and lay there in a mound, or _hummock_, of
broken masses.

"That's how a 'ummuck is formed, Dr Gregory," said Mr Dicey, looking
uncommonly wise. "You'll see more things here in five minutes, by means
of your own eyes, than ye could learn from books in a year. There's
nothin' like seein'. Seein' is believin', you know. I wouldn't give an
ounce of experience for a ton of hearsay."

"Come, Mr Dicey, don't run down book-learning," said Gregory. "If a
man only knew about things that he had seen, he would know very little."

Before the second mate could reply the captain shouted to the men to
"Bear a hand with the ice-poles." The whole crew answered to the call,
and each man, seizing a long pole, stood ready for action.

The tongue to which I have referred more than once had broken off, and
the ice was rushing in. The bay was full in a minute, and al