westward as was necessary, and
his present object was to find an opening, by means of which he could
enter among the floating chaos that was spread, far and wide, to windward.
As the breeze was driving the drifting masses to the northward, they
became loosened and more separated, every moment; and glad enough was
Gardiner to discover, at length, a clear spot that seemed to favour his
views. Without an instant's delay, the sheets were flattened in, a pull
was taken on the braces, and away went the little Sea Lion into a passage
that had a hundredfold more real causes of terror than the Scylla and
Charybdis of old.

One effect of the vicinity of ice, in extensive fields, is to produce
comparatively still water. It must blow a gale, and that over a
considerable extent of open sea, to produce much commotion among the
fields and bergs, though that heaving and setting, which has been likened
to the respiration of some monster, and which seamen call the
"ground-swell," is never entirely wanting among the waters of an ocean. On
the present occasion, our adventurers were favoured in this respect, their
craft gliding forward unimpeded by anything like opposing billows. At the
end of four hours, the schooner, tacking and waring when necessary, had
worked her way to the southward and westward, according to her master's
reckoning, some five-and-twenty miles. It was then noon, and the
atmosphere being unusually clear, though never without fog, Gardiner went
aloft, to take a look for himself at the condition of things around him.

To the northward, and along the very passage by which the vessel had
sailed, the ice was closing, and it was far easier to go on than to
return. To the eastward, and towards the south-east in particular,
however, did Roswell Gardiner turn his longing eyes. Somewhere in that
quarter of the ocean, and distant now less than ten leagues, did he expect
to find the islands of which he was in quest, if, indeed, they had any
existence at all. In that direction there were many passages open among
the ice, the latter being generally higher than in the particular place to
which the vessel had reached. Once or twice, Roswell mistook the summits
of some of these bergs for real mountains, when, owing to the manner in
which the light fell upon them, or rather did not fall upon them directly,
they appeared dark and earthy. Each time, however, the sun's rays soon
came to undeceive him; and that which had so lately been blac