-quarters, and
getting ready to take advantage of any favourable opening in the ice
that might occur.

"Do you hope to effect much?" enquired Captain Ellice of Captain Guy,
who stood at the gangway watching the men as they leaped over the side,
and began to cut holes with ice chisels preparatory to fixing the saws
and powder-canisters.

"Not much," replied the captain; "but a _little_ in these latitudes is
worth fighting hard for, as you are well aware. Many a time have I seen
a ship's crew strain and heave on warps and cables for hours together,
and only gain a yard by all their efforts; but many a time, also, have I
seen a single yard of headway save a ship from destruction."

"True," rejoined Captain Ellice; "I have seen a little of it myself.
There is no spot on earth, I think, equal to the Polar regions for
bringing out into bold relief two great and _apparently_ antagonistic
truths--namely, man's urgent need of all his powers to accomplish the
work of his own deliverance, and man's utter helplessness and entire
dependence on the sovereign will of God."

"When shall we sink the canisters, sir?" asked Bolton, coming up and
touching his hat.

"In an hour, Mr Bolton; the tide will be full then, and we shall try
what effect a blast will have."

"My opeenion is," remarked Saunders, who passed at the moment with two
large bags of gunpowder under his arms, "that it'll have no effect at
a'. It'll just loosen the ice roond the ship."

The captain smiled as he said: "_That_ is all the effect I hope for, Mr
Saunders. Should the outward ice give way soon, we shall then be in a
better position to avail ourselves of it."

As Saunders predicted, the effect of powder and saws was merely to
loosen and rend the ice-tables, in which the _Dolphin_ was imbedded; but
deliverance was coming sooner than any of those on board expected. That
night a storm arose, which, for intensity of violence, equalled, if it
did not surpass, the severest gales they had yet experienced. It set
the great bergs of the Polar seas in motion, and these moving mountains
of ice slowly and majestically began their voyage to southern climes,
crashing through the floes, overturning the hummocks, and ripping up the
ice-tables with quiet, but irresistible momentum. For two days the war
of ice continued to rage, and sometimes the contending forces, in the
shape of huge tongues and corners of bergs, were forced into the Bay of
Mercy, and threatening swi