"What's to be done now?" I asked, with several others, in a voice of
despair.

"Trust in God," answered Andrew in a solemn voice. "Peter, remember we
have been in a worse position before, and He saved us. He may, if He
wills it, save us again."

"But how are we ever to get back to the ship, with only one boat to
carry us?" asked some one.

"Captain Rendall is not a man likely to desert his people," observed
David. "The ship will come back and take us off, when the gale is
over--no fear of that, mates."

Notwithstanding the tone of confidence with which he spoke, I suspected
that he did not feel quite as much at his ease as he pretended to be.
Our position was indeed, I felt, most critical, though I did not express
my fears. The gale might continue for days, and our ship, if she
escaped shipwreck, which too probably would be her lot, would be at all
events driven so far to the south, that she would find it utterly
impossible to return. The ice, even, on which we stood, might any
instant break up from the force of the waves; and if we could not
retreat farther back in time, our destruction would be almost certain.
We had a boat; but even in smooth water she could scarcely do more than
contain us all, and in such a sea as was likely to be running for some
time she could not live ten minutes. We could have no hope, therefore,
of regaining the ship in her; and should we be compelled, therefore, to
quit the ice, she could afford us no refuge.

We had a small quantity of provisions,--enough, with economy, to sustain
life for two or three days, though not more than was intended to supply
a couple of good meals, should we have been kept away from the ship a
sufficient time to require them. We had some boats' sails, a cooking
apparatus, two harpoons, spears, and two fowling-pieces, brought by the
harpooners to kill a few dovekies for our messes. Several things, with
a set of lines and harpoons, had been lost in the other boat.

For some time after the fatal catastrophe I have described, we stood
looking out seaward, undecided what steps to take. The wrenching
asunder of some huge masses of the ice, which the sea drove up close to
the boat, and the violent heaving to which the whole body was subjected,
showed us that we must rouse ourselves to further exertion. We had no
need of consultation to judge that we must without delay get farther
away from the sea; and, having laden our boat with all our stores, we
be