eas met together, or dashed in
heavy rollers on the coast.

While the midshipmen and Reuben were talking, they became conscious that
the ship was moving; her deck rose and fell very slowly certainly, but
they felt the sensation of which perhaps only seamen could have been
aware that they were standing on a floating body. They instantly called
Devereux, and he was convinced of the awful fact that the frigate was
moving. In her present condition she could not float long, and though
they might lower a boat, it was impossible that a boat could live among
the masses of ice rushing by. Perhaps the frigate might ground again.
They sounded the well; she had not made much water since they came on
board, so she might float for some time longer. Perhaps she was still
in shallow water, and just gliding over the bottom. A lead was found
and hove for soundings; but instead of striking the water, it came upon
hard ice. The mystery was explained. The whole floe in which the ship
was embedded was floating away. There could be little doubt about that.
But where was it driving to? That was the question. It might drive
out to sea, and becoming broken by the force of the waves, allow the
ship to sink between its fragments. Still even then they might possibly
be able to escape in a boat. One was therefore cleared and got ready
for landing, and a supply of provisions, a compass, and water, were
placed in her, with some spare cloaks and blankets to afford them a
slight shield and protection from the inclemency of the weather. After
this they could do no more than pray that warning might be given them of
the ship's sinking, and wait patiently for day.

The cold was so intense that they would have been almost frozen to death
had they not been able to keep up a fire in the cabin stove, round which
officers and men now clustered. It might possibly be their last meeting
on this side a watery grave, and yet they had all, young and old, been
so accustomed to face death, that they did not allow the anticipation of
it altogether to quench their spirits. They talked of the past and even
of the future, although fully aware that that future on earth might not
be for them.

Day came at last, cold and grey. They looked out; they were, as they
had conjectured, surrounded by a solid floe of ice--so thick that there
seemed little danger of its immediately breaking up. Beyond it was the
leaden sea foaming and hissing--but, in spite of the gal