Perhaps Roswell Gardiner was the only individual in those two vessels that night who was fully alive to all the extraordinary magnificence of its unusual pictures.  Stephen may, in some degree, have been an exception to the rule; though he saw the hand of God in nearly all things.  “It’s wonderful to look at, Captain Gar’ner, isn’t it?” said this worthy seaman, about the time the light of the moon began to tell on the view; “wonderful, truly, did we not know who made it all!” These few and simple words had a cheering influence on Roswell, and served to increase his confidence in eventual success.  God did produce all things, either directly or indirectly; this even his sceptical notions could allow; and that which came from divine wisdom must be intended for good.  He would take courage, and for once in his life trust to Providence.  The most resolute man by nature feels his courage augmented by such a resolution.

The gales of the antarctic sea are said to be short, though violent.  They seldom last six-and-thirty hours, and for about a third of that time they blow with their greatest violence.  As a matter of course, the danger amid the ice is much increased by a tempest; though a good working breeze, or small gale of wind, perhaps, adds to a vessel’s security, by rendering it easier to handle her, and to avoid floes and bergs.  If the ice is sufficient to make a lee, smooth water is sometimes a consequence; though it oftener happens that the turbulence produced in clear water is partially communicated over a vast surface, causing the fields and mountains to grind against each other under the resistless power of the waves.  On the present occasion, however, the schooners were still in open water, where the wind had a long and unobstructed rake, and a sea had got up that caused both of the little craft to bury nearly to their gunwales.  What rendered their situation still more unpleasant was the fact that all the water which came aboard of them now soon froze.  To this, however, the men were accustomed, it frequently happening that the moisture deposited on their rigging and spars by the fogs froze during the nights of the autumn.  Indeed, it has been thought by some speculators on the subject, that the bergs themselves are formed in part by a similar process, though snows undoubtedly are the principal element in their composition.  This it is which gives the berg its stratified appearance, no geological formation being more apparent or regular in this particular than most of these floating mountains.

About ten, the moon was well above the horizon; the fog had been precipitated in dew upon the ice, where it congealed, and helped to arrest the progress of dissolution; while the ocean became luminous for the hour, and objects comparatively distinct.  Then it was that the seamen first got a clear insight into the awkwardness of their situation.  The bold are apt to be reckless in the dark; but when danger is visible, their movements become more wary and better