tastic form was there; there seemed in the distance cities and
palaces as white as chalk; pillars and reversed cones, pyramids and
mounds of every shape, valleys and lakes; and under the influence of
the optical delusions of the locality, green fields and meadows, and
tossing seas. Here the whole party rested soundly, and pushed on hard
the next day in search of land.

Several tracks of foxes and bears were now seen, but no animals
were discovered. The route, however, was changed. Every now and then
newly-formed fields of ice were met, which a little while back had
been floating. Lumps stuck up in every direction, and made the path
difficult. Then they reached a vast polinas, where the humid state of
the surface told that it was thin, and of recent formation. A stick
thrust into it went through. But the adventurers took the only course
left them. The dogs were placed abreast, and then, at a signal, were
launched upon the dangerous surface. They flew rather than ran. It was
necessary, for as they went, the ice cracked in every direction, but
always under the weight of the nartas, which were off before they
could be caught by the bubbling waters. As soon as the solid ice was
again reached, the party halted, deep gratitude to Heaven in their
hearts, and camped for the night.

But the weather had changed. What is called here the warm wind had
blown all day, and at night a hurricane came on. As the adventurers
sat smoking after supper, the ice beneath their feet trembled, shook,
and then fearful reports bursting on their ears, told them that the
sea was cracking in every direction. They had camped on an elevated
iceberg of vast dimensions, and were for the moment safe. But around
them they heard the rush of waters. The vast Frozen Sea was in one of
its moments of fury. In the deeper seas to the north it never freezes
firmly--in fact there is always an open sea, with floating bergs. When
a hurricane blows, these clear spaces become terribly agitated. Their
tossing waves and mountains of ice act on the solid plains, and break
them up at times. This was evidently the case now. About midnight our
travelers, whose anguish of mind was terrible, felt the great iceberg
afloat. Its oscillations were fearful. Sakalar alone preserved his
coolness. The men of Nijnei Kolimsk raved and tore their hair, crying
that they had been brought willfully to destruction; Kolina kneeled,
crossed herself, and prayed; while Ivan deeply reproached him