y could.

Everybody set to work with ardor. It was a touching spectacle to see
this little handful of men taxing their pygmy muscles to resist the
forces of nature--trying with anchors, chains, and planks to fill up the
fissures made in the ice and to cover them with snow, so that there
might be a uniformity of motion among the mass. After four or five hours
of almost superhuman exertions, and when their strength was exhausted,
they were in no less danger, for the storm had increased.

Erik held a consultation with his officers, and it was decided that they
should make a depot on the ice-field for their food and ammunition in
case the "Alaska" should be unable to resist the powerful shocks to
which she was being subjected. At the first moment of danger every man
had received provisions enough for eight days, with precise instructions
in case of disaster, besides being ordered to keep his gun in his belt
even while he was working. The operation of transporting twenty tons of
provisions was not easy of accomplishment, but at last it was done and
the food was placed about two hundred yards from the ship under a
covering of tarred canvas, which was soon covered by the snow with a
thick white mantle.

This precaution, having been taken, everybody felt more comfortable as
to the result of a shipwreck, and the crew assembled to recruit their
strength with a supper supplemented with tea and rum.

Suddenly, in the midst of supper, a more violent shock than any that had
as yet agitated the vessel, split the bed of ice and snow around the
"Alaska." She was lifted up in the stern with a terrible noise, and then
it appeared as if she were plunging head-foremost into an abyss. There
was a panic, and every one rushed on deck. Some of the men thought that
the moment had come to take refuge on the ice, and without waiting for
the signal of the officers they commenced clambering over the bulwarks.

Four or five of these unfortunate ones managed to leap on a snow-bank.
Two others were caught between the masses of floating ice and the beams
of the starboard, as the "Alaska" righted herself.

Their cries of pain and the noise of their crushed bones were lost in
the storm. There was a lull, and the vessel remained motionless. The
lesson which the sailors had been taught was a tragical one. Erik made
use of it to enforce on the crew the necessity of each man's retaining
his presence of mind, and of waiting for positive orders on all
occ