begins to waddle towards the edge. He has nearly gained the water, when the quick word is given to fire, and a volley, well directed, knocks over all but one. This one seems to bear a charmed life, for he rallies through the crowd of prostrate companions, in a hail of bullets, without receiving a single wound, and while all on board are madly intent upon the chase, no one, not even the steersman, heeds the position of the ship, now in such close proximity to the ice, and before the danger can be averted, our schooner bears down upon the point-end and the jibboom bends like a bow as it comes full-tilt against the hummock of ice which lately afforded a resting-place to the seals. The loud barking of the dog, with the wild shout the sailors. raised to "blaze 'em," as they say, in order to bewilder the escaping seal, was rapidly hushed, and the dead silence which ensued was only broken by the falling of the head-gear which came tumbling down in consequence of the shock. There lay the seals on the ice abeam of us, the old and savage bladder-nose, the leader of the family, glaring grimly at us, the loose skin over his nose distended to the utmost, giving him a hideous appearance; his whole aspect full of threatening should we dare to approach. Every thought is now turned to the safety of the ship, and it is not until after proper order is restored on board, that the

DANGER AVERTED.

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men proceed to flence and bring in their valuable booty.

The cold northern wind at length arrives and the ice begins to slack off perceptibly; up to this time it had been twisting about in a curious way, although seemingly jammed closely and compactly together. The motion is now more clearly defined-now it threatens us with a squeeze, but we manage to give the mass a different direction, pushing it on one side, and compelling it to vent its force upon its icy neighbour. We get the warps and ice anchors out, make sail, and with a boat all ready to take the men from hummock to hummock, we commence the arduous task of "boring out." After a few hours we get into a stream running to the southward, the ice also slacking off, and also trending in the same direction.

The 11th of June we speed on our way, keeping a sharp look out for the point ends as we coast; the ice yields but little game, one seal only falling to our gun, and we pushed on some forty miles to the northwards without any further gain worthy of notice. There we saw a steamer far in the pack, and near her the ice is covered with seals; thousands and thousands of these animals recline upon the ice in long lines, and every block of ice in sight appeared quite blackened by the numbers upon them. These

were the mothers with their young on their northward passage-interspersed amongst them were a few bladder noses. This steamer can force herself in amongst the ice without much risk or difficulty. With our schooner it would be impossible to attempt so much, and our boats are unable to force their way after seals, yet we lose no chance that may present itself of following up the sport. While we loiter here in doubt respecting the course to be pursued, the question is finally settled by the appearance of two fresh arrivals on the scene; two steamers come puffing and screaming towards us, following their system of joining in the sport whenever they find any indication of the presence of seal hunters, who, though lacking some of the advantages of the steamer, have far greater opportunities of sport, being less noisy and demonstrative than they necessarily are in their progress under steam. There is now nothing for it, but to stand away far to the north of the new comers, and to wait for the arrival of the seals which are sure to be driven in our direction by the steamers to the southward of us.

The men say that after the month of August no seals are to be found on the west ice so far to the

south, and we begin again to speculate upon their northernmost haunts.

CHAPTER III.

"So on we journey'd through the evening air,
Gazing intent far onward as our eyes

With level view could stretch against the bright
Vespertine ray and lo! by slow degrees
Gathering, a fog made toward us, dark as night
There was no room for 'scaping; and that mist

Bereft us both of sight and the pure air.”—Caley's DANTE.

STEAM-VESSELS intended for the ice require to be not only of a very strong construction but of a peculiar model. It is essentially necessary that a vessel frequenting the Arctic seas should be full-rigged, and sailed, in case of a break-down of the engines, or the running short of coal; when the vessel would be in a safe condition to prosecute her voyage. The construction of a ship for this purpose is also novel when compared with others. The sharp run and clean entrance into the water of a steamship has to be kept in view, as well as the peculiar breadth of beam necessary to all sailing craft to give her hold in the water, but something must be given up to ensure both sailing and steaming qualities; everything depends upon a judicious economy of steam propelling power with a small consumption of coal, so that it may last with

care the whole of a voyage, where there are no places to replenish. Consequently, the necessary beam for sailing purposes should be retained with a moderate sharp bow, but the stowage of cargo in the hold has to give way; the flat floor is changed to a sharp, wedgeshaped bottom, which answers all the purposes of clean entry and fine run, the room for stowage of cargo being given up. Were some of our men-of-war, of what is called the composite-class, built after the fashion of whaling-ships, we might have the two qualities combined. Whereas, the long bows, rising three feet above the level of the afterpart, with thin, narrow ways in wake of the foremast, give them no hold in the water, and when on a wind they are useless; nor can they beat off a lee shore, even in a light breeze with little sea. To be able to run up in the wind's eye and about without loss of way is an

go

essential quality in weathering a long tongue of ice. The engines require to be made on the compound principle, and no expense should be spared to ensure their perfect structure. It often happens that, when under sail, the two square sails on fore and mizen mast have often to be hove back, to save the vessel's bows from striking the large pieces of ice when navigating the narrow channels.

These steamships are specially built for the Arctic

seas.

They are fast, and easily handled, consume a