o banquet on the remaining flesh. The operation, which
lasted five hours, being concluded, the crew were piped to supper.

"There, Archy, you have seen our first whale killed," observed Max. "I
hope we shall have many more before long, and soon be back home again;
and if you are tired of the life, you can go on shore and look after
your mother's farm."

CHAPTER THREE.

THE "KATE" ENCOUNTERS A FEARFUL GALE AMID ICEBERGS, AND NARROWLY ESCAPES
A FALLING BERG.--CALM AFTER STORM.--THOUGH SCOFFED AT BY HIS SHIPMATES,
ARCHY TRIES, UNSUCCESSFULLY, TO FOLLOW THE ADVICE GIVEN HIM BY CAPTAIN
IRVINE.

Captain Irvine was anxious to reach the northern point of Baffin Bay,
where whales were said to abound. He used, therefore, every exertion to
force the ship through the ice. Sometimes she threaded her way through
narrow passages, at the risk of being caught and nipped by the floes
pressing together; at others, to avoid this catastrophe, she had to take
shelter in a dock, cut out as rapidly as the crew could use their saws,
in one side of a floe. Scarcely had she been thus secured when another
floe, with a sullen roar, pressed on by an unseen power, would come
grinding and crashing against the first with irresistible force, and the
before level surface, rent and broken asunder, would appear heaved up
into large hillocks, and huge masses, many hundred tons in weight, would
be lifted on to the opposing barrier, threatening to overwhelm the ship.
Suddenly the whole field of ice would be again in motion, the broken
fragments would be thrown back on each other or pressed down beneath the
surface, and a lane of water would appear, edged on each side by a wall
of ice. The boats would then be lowered to tow the ship along, or,
should the wind be favourable, the sails were set, and in spite of the
blows she might receive from the floating fragments, she would force her
way onwards towards the open water.

Often and often as Archy watched what was taking place, he fully
expected to find the ship crushed to fragments, and wondered that
Captain Irvine could venture into so fearfully dangerous a position.
Still the ship, escaping all dangers, made her way to the north, and by
degrees Archy grew accustomed to the scenes he witnessed, and viewed
them with the same indifference as the rest of the crew.

For a whole day she had made her way through open water, with a strong
breeze. The weather began to lour--the wind blew stronger and