Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 2.djvu/354

 From time to time the voice of Hatteras was heard amid all the din and clamor of this strange, preternatural, impossible contest between men and icebergs. The brig, yielding to the enormous pressure, leaned over on her larboard till her mainmast touched the ice-fields.

Hatteras understood the danger: it was a moment of terrible anxiety, for each instant the brig might turn over completely, or her masts be torn away.

Presently an enormous mass began to rise at the side of the ship, extending right along her hull. It seemed forced upward by some irresistible power, higher and higher, till at last it was on a level with the poop. Should it fall on the Forward, all was over. It turned and stood on end, higher than the tallest mast, and tottered on its base. A cry of terror escaped all lips, and there was a general rush to the other side.

Suddenly the vessel was entirely lifted up, and for a brief space seemed to float in the air. Then she came down again and fell back on the ice, to be caught up next minute in a tremendous roller, which made her timbers shiver, and swept her right over to the other side of the insurmountable barrier, on to an ice-field, into which she sank at once by her own weight, and regained her proper element.

"We are over the icebergs!" exclaimed Johnson.

"Praise God!" said Hatteras.

But though the ice barrier was surmounted, the brig was motionless, fast locked in on all sides, and though the keel was in the water, yet unable to stir.

It was soon evident, however, that if the brig was motionless, the field was not, and Johnson called out to the captain:

"We are driving, sir."

"Well, we must just drive!" replied Hatteras.

And, indeed, what else could they do? Resistance was impossible.

The day came, and it was quite clear that, owing to the action of some submarine current, the ice-field was moving rapidly north.

To provide for any possible catastrophe, for the brig might be dashed on some coast or crushed with the pressure of the ice, Hatteras had a great quantity of provisions brought up on deck, together with the tents and all the requi-