sprang into the shrouds, and looked eagerly in the direction indicated, where, however, he could see only masses of ice heaved about by the wind and the waves.

"Can't make it out, sir," replied the man; "it is something dark on a hummocky floe about half a mile to wind'ard."

"Can't you see whether it is a man or a walrus?" cried the captain.

"Well, it is neither of them, sir," replied the man aloft. "By this light it looks more like a boat or a sledge."

"A sledge!" exclaimed Captain Webb, in an excited tone, as he leaped on the deck. "Here, Mr. Markham!"

"Yes, sir," responded the second officer, who had just come on deck.

"Jump on the ice, and see what this strange object is," said the captain. "Donaldson thinks it is a sledge or a boat, half a mile to windward. Take a couple of men with you, and search till you find it."

The order was immediately obeyed, and Markham and the two seamen were soon wending across the ice, bowing their cowled heads to the sweeping gale, and peering eagerly among the hummocks for the object which had attracted Donaldson's attention in the dim light of early morning.

About half a mile from the ship they found a sledge, covered with a bear's skin, on removing which the pale face of Charlie Wilson was recognized, half concealed by the rug which enveloped his apparently lifeless form. Close beside him lay

the dog, which whined and wagged its tail.

"This then is the end of his mad adventure!" Isaid Markham. "But what can have become of the Swede and the dogs? Trundle him, sledge and all, to the ship, while I search farther among these hummocks."

"Ay, ay, sir!" responded the seamen, drawing the traces over their shoulders, and in another minute they were pulling vigorously towards the ship, followed by the dog.

"It is young Wilson, sir," said one of them, as Captain Webb, who had anxiously watched for their return, looked over the rail, and gave orders for getting the sledge on board.

"Alive or dead?" cried the captain eagerly.

"Dead, I am afraid, sir," was the reply, as the men prepared to send up the sledge.

"Poor young fellow!" murmured Captain Webb, sorrowfully. But when the sledge was hoisted upon deck, and he threw off the bear's skin covering, and placed his hand upon the breast of the apparently lifeless lad, he fancied that the heart still fluttered feebly, and directed that Charlie

should be carried at once to the cabin, and placed in a warm blanket, while a hot bath was prepared.

"Where is the doctor?" he exclaimed, with renewed animation. "Call Mr. Grey, some of you; and tell the steward to make some cocoa, and bring brandy."

The unconscious lad was before the fire, wrapped in a warm blanket, and some cocoa, into which a little brandy had been infused, was carefully administered with a tea-spoon, while Mr. Grey chafed his hand, and Willie Webb his feet.

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"The heart beats, but very languidly," observed the doctor. The life in him is but like the feeble glimmer which a breath will extinguish."

Immersion in hot water quickened the action of the heart and lungs, and the half-dead youth sighed, but was as yet too feeble to give any other sign of life. From the bath he was removed to his berth, where Willie Webb attended him with friendly assiduity, administering nourishment at frequent intervals, but in very small quantities.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE WRECK OF THE WHALER.

N the meantime the gale continued, and the situation of the vessel remained unchanged, except that she drifted westward with the ice. But about noon, when the wind and current had driven the floes against the fixed ice of the Greenland coast, she became stationary, and presently was so violently pressed upon by the windward floes that she was heaved up about a dozen feet, and thrown upon her beam ends.

Confusion immediately arose on board, but the calm and yet commanding tone and manner of Captain Webb quickly restored order, and the boats were placed upon the ice, as a precaution against the possible results of the accident. Some casks and cases of provisions were also got out of the ship, and placed beside the boats; but while

the crew were working hard at this duty the floe split with a thunder-like cracking and rumbling, and, as the portion upon which the vessel had been heaved by the pressure of the ice tilted up, she slid into the water again with a fearful plunge.

At the moment when the ill-fated vessel plunged into the foaming waves, which were violently agitated by the movement of the ice, Markham and some of the seamen were on the floe, and the remainder of the crew on the deck, or below, the surgeon being in the cabin with his patient. All were thrown off their feet, and three unfortunate men were precipitated into the seething pool, and never seen again. The ice closed over them, and dashed so heavily against the vessel's side that the water poured into her in numerous streams. The men who were in the hold or between decks scrambled to their feet, bruised and shaken, one or two with broken ribs, and rushed to the deck, expecting the ship to go to pieces immediately.

Captain Webb, seeing the starboard shrouds broken and the bulwarks damaged, and hearing the creaking and groaning of the strained timbers and yielding masts, and the rushing and gurgling of water below, hurried to the cabin, and snatching the scarcely conscious Charlie from his berth, bore him to the deck, bidding Mr. Grey follow for his