creek with our glasses he sung out:

"Mountains split in two!"

Sure enough, a dark blue gash ran up the hills to their very summit,
and as soon as the ship came abreast of the creek we saw that the
range of frozen precipices had been riven apart, and a streak of dark
blue water lay between, on which the ship might possibly reach the
polar sea beyond.

Dare we venture into that inviting gulf?

The officers crowded around me. "Well, gentlemen," said I, "what do
you say, shall we try the passage?"

"We only measure fifty feet on the beam, while the fissure is at least
one hundred feet wide; so we have plenty of room to work the ship,"
said the captain.

"But, captain," said I, "if we find the width only fifty feet a few
miles from here, what then?"

"Then we must come back," said he, "that's all."

"Suppose we cannot come back--suppose the walls of ice should begin to
close up again?" I said.

"I don't believe they will," said Professor Goldrock, who was our
naturalist and was well informed in geology.

"Why not?" I inquired.

"Well," said he, "to our certain knowledge this range of ice hills
extends five hundred miles east and west of us. The sea is here over
one hundred and fifty fathoms deep. This barrier is simply a
congregation of icebergs, frozen into a continuous solid mass. It is
quite certain that the mass is anchored to the bottom, so that it is
not free to come asunder and then simply close up again. My theory is
this: Right underneath us there is a range of submarine rocks or hills
running north and south. Last night an earthquake lifted this
submarine range, say, fifty feet above its former level. The enormous
upward pressure split open the range of ice resting thereon, and,
unless the mountains beneath us subside to their former level, these
rent walls of ice will never come together again. The passage will
become filled up with fresh ice in a few hours, so that in any case
there is no danger of the precipices crushing the ship."

"Your opinion looks feasible," I replied.

"Look," said he; "you will see that the top of the crevasse is wider
than it is at the level of the water, one proof at least that my
theory is correct."

The professor was right; there was a perceptible increase in the width
of the opening at the top.

[Illustration: I SIGNALLED THE ENGINEER FULL SPEED AHEAD, AND IN A
SHORT TIME WE CROSSED THE ICE-FOOT AND ENTERED THE CHASM.]

To make ourselves still more sure we to