Left on Labrador

ng Icebergs.-A Shower and a Fog.-An Anxious Night.-A Strange Rumbling.-Singular Noises and Explosions.-Running into

ho!" sang out our old sea-dog

as chalk. The ocean took a pale French gray tint. Overhead the clouds drifted in ghostly troops, and far up in the sky an unnatural sort of glare eclipsed the sparkle of stars. Properly speaking, there was no night. One could read easily at one o'clock. Twilight and dawn joined hands. The sun rose far up in the north-east. Queer nights these! Until we got used to it, or rather until fatigue conquered us, we had no little difficulty in going to sleep. We were not accustomed to naps i

and i

ut!" shou

s shining brightly. Scarcely any wind; sea like gla

our land?"

young Hobbs, pointi

liffs, low in the water. Between us and them

cape, captain

latitude. Can't be any thing els

h," said Raed. "Those cliffs correspon

off?" a

ight leagues," re

ht to be in sight, to the south-west," remarked Raed, looki

ss, and climbed up to t

shouted. "Low down;

e chart?" he asked, sliding down the shro

hard to find the 'north-west passage' by sailing through Hudson's Straits. During the first half of the eighteenth century, the London merchant

outh-west of us is Cape Chid

of Labrador down to the south-east of the Button

Labrador, I presume. Couldn't say whether they are the cape proper or not

filled. The schooner was headed W.N.W. to run under the c

ied Palmleaf from

e sea was now smooth, sky clear, and the wind fair, yet we knew that it was rather the exception than the average. The idea of being caught here among these cliffs and icebergs in a three-days' fog or a north-east gale, with the whole fury of the Atlantic at

etter day nor a fairer wi

e; I'm convinced

s as large as a hogshead, we paid no attention to; let the cut-water knock them aside. But there were plenty of large, angular, ugly-looking masses, which, if struck would have endangered the schooner's side. These were sheered off from: so that our course was made up of a series of curves

th's flinty crust, and thrust above the waves. The sun poured a flood of warm light over them; but no green thing could be discerned. Either there was no soil, or else the bleak frost-winds effectually checked the outcrop of

eefs or sunken ledges, however; and, on heaving the lead, a hundred fathoms of line were run out without touching bottom. The cliffs seem thus to form the side of an immense chasm

zes! how the sun poured down! Guard got round in the thin shadow of the mainsail, and actually lolled among icebergs. There we were stuck. That is one of the disadvantages of a sailing-vessel: y

sails. All around us was a stillness which passes words, broken loudly by our steps on the hot deck,

ttered Kit; "and here we are i

e it driving along in a glittering procession of white bergs. The wisdom of keeping on the north side of the strait was apparent from this; though it seemed l

e-black clouds loomed suddenl

er!" cr

" exclaime

in sail!" shou

case of fierce gusts. Low, heavy peals of thunder began to rumble behind the cliffs. The dark cloud-mass heaved up, till a misty line of foamy, driving rain and hail showed over the flinty crags. Bright flashes gleamed out, followed shortly by heavy, hollow peals. The naked ledges added vas

foresail!"

traits diagonally to the south-west. We could see it raining heavily on the ice-flecked water a few mile

og, I'm afraid,

"I never seed a scud on the 'Banks' b

n hour, it had fallen twenty degrees more. This sudden change was probably due to the veering of the wind from east round to north. The cold blasts from "Greenland's icy mountains" speedily dissipated our miniature summer. There was a general rush for great-coats and thick jackets. Thin lines of vapor streamed up from the wat

ming hastily up the companion-stairs. "Either a rain-storm, or a sm

be done?"

the straits into the open sea again,

o hinder. The gale will come before morning, if it comes at all; and the

we do?" Wade demanded,

en trust to good luck to escape being smashed or jammed. The farther we get u

that every thing was very dim at fifty yards. But for the mist, and the danger of striking against large fragments of ice, we should have set the mainsail and the topsail to make the most of our wind ere it blew too hard; for it was plainly rising. Now and then a gust w

m fallin' fast. Srink 'im all up, ser cold. Now, dis forenoon it am quite comf'ble; warm 'nuf ter take a nap in the sun: but now-oo-oo-ooo! aw

thicker, and the sky darker. By half-past ten, P.M., although the sun must have been still high above the horizon, it was dark as one often sees it on a stormy night when there is a moon in the heavens. In fact, it grew too dark to make o

forward?" shouted the capt

d pretty heavily a

ng too dark for us,

the fores

le with the gusts. Soon it began to rain,-rain and snow together. The dreariness and uncertainty of our situation can hardly be imagined. We

tationary as we can," said the captain. "Between wind

ow nearl

Kit. "No use standing here in

rigging above. Chuck-chock, chock-chuck, went the waves under the stern; while every few minutes a heavy jarring bump, followed by a long raspy grind along the side, told of the icy processions floa

captain was standing

saying. "Get up,

eard, indistinctly, a

s the matter?" cri

ring it for some time," replied the

and thick. The deck was soppy. Hobbs was at the wheel. Donovan and Weymouth wer

!" said t

ring-mill in full operation, could be plainly heard above t

t isn't thunder

"It's the sea on the rock

, who was just poking his head up out of the

ienced ear aport, listened

ir," p

in the world

tentively. The steady rumble c

rull, shaking his head. "Nev

manded Kit. "I'm afraid we're drifti

or Trull nor Donovan coul

n; we could just hear it: but it grows louder. It's either coming towards us, or

eef!" exclaimed Kit; "some hole or cave

the captain. "Starbo

plosion boomed out, followed mom

ens!" excl

Wade: "it's a ve

nnon here, even if wrecked. There wouldn't be one chanc

o

splashing noise that followed

heavy rumbling noise began afresh, and sounded louder than before. We were completely m

on these straits, s

d ever he

ography," said Raed. "But

that even this improbable sugges

moke?" replied Kit. "Methin

s the captain had surmised, drifting with the storm against the current; or perhaps, before this, the tide coming in had made a counter-current up the

d, captain? Isn't

trained

adow loomed before the schooner. For a moment we gazed, uncertain whe

t's an

oard!" yelled

more, and the bowsprit punched heavily against the ice-mountain. The shock sent the schooner staggering back like a pugilist with a "blimmer" between the eyes. Had we been sailing at our usual rate,

for so near was the iceberg, that we could easil

hooner off while she drifted past. The rumbling noise, lou

before it splits or explod

ke a big grist-mill in

d judge from the blasts we heard

f from our dangerous neighbor. After fending along its massy

thunder-mill!

pushed off from it, and set the fore-sail. The sail merely flapped occasionally, and hung idly; and again the iceberg came grinding against us. There were no means of getting off, save to let down the boat, and tow the schooner out into the w

inutes. "There doesn't seem to be any great danger in it. This side of

oing business," remarked the ca

hed Weymouth. "That sort of thing use

and roar!" said Raed. "It seems to come

e rain-water and the water from the melted ice on top strea

-how would you account

ve an idea, however, that they resulted from

as,-till daylight at least. Planks were got up from below, and thrust down b

outh were set to watch the ice, and the rest of us went down to breakfast. The schooner lay so still, that it seemed like being on shore again. We had got as far as our second cup of cof

from

deck, accompanied by a hollow, rattling sound. Droppi

Trull?" demand

sir, as big as

me that

top o' the barg, sir, at that thunde

where it had struck, and pieces of ice

from the top of the ber

; went up thirty or forty feet, then turned in the air, and came down on us. Thought 'twould sink us, sir, sure. Ther

nd that at all,"

great danger in letting down the boat as soon as it gets fairly light, will there, captain? This iceberg seems to be a r

with the captain and Weymouth, got in, and pulled round to the windward of the berg. It was a vast, majestic mass, rising from forty to fifty feet above the water, and covering three or four acres. On the south, south-east, and east sides it rose almost perpendicularly from the

p there," sugges

a little

ry it,"

or so of the ice. Watching his chanc

catch you if you

caught him by the arm, and pulled him up, with no greater damage

th, and be ready in case we sl

difficulty i

crossing over to the south-west side, beneath which the schooner lay, Wade discovered a large, jagged hole something like a well. It was five or six feet across, and situated twenty or twenty-five yards from the side of the berg. Standing around this "well," the rumbling noises were more distinct than we ha

ambers for compressed air," remarked Raed; "and somehow the heaving of t

ter explanation, we accepted this t

r gurgle and another report succeeded, almost in the same instant. Jets of water, and bits of ice, were spouted high into the air, and came down splashing and glancing about. We made off as expeditiously as we could.

e able to suggest a better explanation of this singu

rlew." The sailors were watching for us, with a

-poles to shove her off. We'll get clear of this iceberg as quick as we

the schooner off, and gradually towed her to a distance of three or four hundred yards from