The Press., 1902-01-02

made fast to drive with 1t until an opening should occur. The side on which we were was as straight up and down as a wall. and, though the wind was whistling far overhead. it was scarcely to be felt on deck. We passed a very quiet night. and soon after sun- rise next morning the captain ordered me to take two men and pass over the field ice and get a view of the western face of the berg. If found that 1t could be done. l was to chamber up and look to the north for clear water. AS the great cakes of ice were wedged together in the greatest confusion. our pace was necessarily slow. and it was a matter of two hours before we turned the corner of the berg and lost sight of the bark. l judged the western face to be a mile long. but 1t was not as steep as the southern. About midway Of its length we came to gully, up which we toiled for matter of POO yards. We then found our way blocked by cliff fifty feet high. It was cliff of Ice, of courses though here and there
 one could see bowlder creeping out.
 1t was blue ice. almost as reflective as a mirror. and 1t would have turned the edge of an ax like granite. We
 stood staring and resting. bot enough with our oexertions. when one of the sailors leaped aside and cried out:
 "I'N be shot ifrthere are not ship
 wrecked people right here above us!
 Look here. sir! And why haven't they
 raised shout?"
 What l saw and what we all gazed at with open mouths was sight few 4men will ever. boast of seeing. About thirty feet. above -ourT heads man dressed as a mountain tourist. an Eng lishman apparently, was lying at full
 length with his face toward us. One arm was doubled up under him. the other outstretched. He was fully dress ed. had cap on his head. and his eyes were wide open. There was a rope
 around his waist. and that rope led back to the body of a guide and still a second o.se. ! say guide because from their dress and looks believed them to be such. One was huddled up as if his bones were broken. while the other
 lay spra wled on his back. The three of us had waved our caps and cheered before the thought came to us that these men were dead-dead and frozen into that 6inty ice for heaven only knows how long. And yet 1t was hard
 Co believe 1t. We could see every line
 in their faces, and every instant it seemed as if they would move leg or an arm. :" We had brought rope with
 us,r and managed to lasso a powder and pull myself up on a level with the
 victims. l judged that there was at least three feet of solid ice before them,
 but 1t was wonderfully transparent.
 It was easy to guess what had hap pened. Somswhere thousands of miles away. where a great glacier crept down to the sea. the tourist had set out with the guides to explore, and snow or ice had given way under them and drop ped them down perhaps hundred feet.
 In time the crevasse filled up solid,
 and as the ice was pushed down to the
 sea berg was born, and the corpses were carried away with it. One could not say from the dress how long time had elapsed. We must judge from the factsthat, though we reported the case
 three months later, the identity of the
 tourist has not yet been discovered. We returned to the bark 10 report what wc# had seen. and offered te take ropes and axes and blasting DOW der and return and secure the dead.
 The captain favored the idea. perhaps
 thinking it would profit us in some
 way. but circumstance stepped in to prevent me from carrying out my
 plan. As we were getting ready the berg began to revolve in slow and stately way. and at the end of an hour the western face had turned due south, aud such a sea was beating on 1t that no landing was possible. To make our way over the berg we should have needed wings. The move ment of the berg crowded the icefields, and the result was the opening of narrow lane to the north. We were watching and waiting for 1t. and the bark was soon warped in and sail made. We were lucky enough to keep this lane until 1t led us quite out of the floating ice and further danger, and looking back as we sailed every
 man of the crew saw the figures as the three of us had seen them. The
 spray seemed to dash against their
 frozen faces and the waves to rant and growl like hungry wolves. but we
 knew they would not be given to the
 sea until their strange coffin had drift
 ed out of that frozen and desolated
 sea into sunshine and warmth.