they had little or no nourishment during their inhumation.  I recollected this, and aware that the carcase of the animal would supply me for years, I began to indulge a hope that I might yet be saved, if driven sufficiently to the southward to admit of my being thawed out.  I was convinced that the ice about me could not be more than six or eight feet thick, as I had sufficient light to distinguish the day from the night.  Afterwards my eye-sight became so much more acute, that I could see very well to every corner of the cave in which I was embedded.

During the first month the calls of hunger obliged me to make frequent attacks upon the carcase of the sea-horse; after that, my appetite decreased, until at length I would not touch a mouthful of food in a week,—­I presume from the want of fresh air and exercise, neither of which I could be said to enjoy.  I had been about two months in this hole, when a violent shock like that of an earthquake took place, and I fell from the top of the cave to the bottom, and for a minute was knocked about like a pea in a rattle.  I had almost lost my senses before it was over, and I found myself lying upon what was before the top of the cave.  From these circumstances I inferred that the iceberg in which I was inclosed had come in contact with another, and that I had been broken off from it, and was floating on the sea with other pieces, which, when collected in large quantities, are termed a floe of ice.  Whether my situation was changed for the better I knew not, but the change inspired me with fresh hopes.  I now calculated that five months had elapsed, and that it was the depth of winter, therefore I had no chance of being released until the ensuing spring.

* * * * *

“Allah Wakbar, God is every where!” interrupted the pacha.  “But I wish to know, Huckaback, how you were so exactly aware of the time which had passed away.”

“Min Bashi, and head of thousands!” replied Huckaback, “I will explain to your highness.  I once jammed my nail at the bottom, and I expected to lose it.  It did not however come off, but grew up as before, and I had the curiosity to know how often people changed their nails in the course of a year.  It was exactly two months, and from this I grounded my calculations.  I observed specks on my nails, and as they grew up, so did I calculate time.”

“Mashallah, how wonderful is God!  Wallah Thaib!  Well said, by Allah!  I never should have thought of that,” observed the pacha.  “Proceed with your story.”

* * * * *