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some consternation, but hopes were entertained that the vessel might be able to pursue her course without material hindrance. They pressed in, hoping to find a way; but, the wind being against them, they ultimately drifted, helplessly embedded in a continent of ice.

The distressing feature in this catastrophe was the dread of falling short of provisions. Already were they put upon meagre allowances, when as they hoped to be entering the narrows of St. John, they were carried past the harbour, the wind prevailing from the North. The captain spoke cheerily, telling them that they might be able to put into Bay Bulls; but they were, however, too firmly in the Frost King's grip. They drifted on, and when off Cape St. Mary the wind lulled. Meantime, neither the crew nor the passengers had been idle. Several of them had left the ship in search of seals, hoping thus to supply the failing stores, while others were diligently looking for an outlet. But neither the one quest nor the other was successful. Owing perhaps to a strong undercurrent, the ice immediately round the ship became detached and broken, leaving an outer reef of prodigious size. And now did Adelaide see with her outward vision the panorama that beforetime had been a dream. The far-off sympathy with her sturdy brother was exchanged for participation in his stern experiences, and it buoyed her up to think that it was so. Her liveliness was quite exhilarating; for, surrounded by danger, threatened with starvation, and having every day to exercise selfdenial in an air that sharpens the appetite and makes a large amount of nourishment necessary, there was no slight strain upon her fortitude. There were moments of panic also that could not be spared even to the women. Adelaide had had bright anticipations of what the first sight of an iceberg would be to her, and one

morning her father, Mr. Holyoke and Mr. Forrester made a simultaneous rush to the cabin stairs to tell her one was approaching. Soon she was on the outlook. On it came, with its diamond halls and palaces of enchantment. Not a breath of air was stirring, yet it progressed steadily at the rate of three miles an hour.

The scene was one of terrible beauty. The stillness, the repose, the soft, white clouds flecking the blue above, seeming but a counterpart of many a snowy patch below, the diamond glitter of the icy pack, the stalagmites upon its floor dropped from the crystal projections, the faraway white sweep of the horizon, the trail of blue which looked like a swept path for the berg, whence the sun's rays were refracted in all the colours of the rainbow.

'Who knows there may be seals upon it,' said the naval officer to Mr. Forrester by this time so far indulgent to his unordained ministrations that, though he would not give them the sanction of his august presence, he would in God's great temple speak to him as a man, and, in this time of mutual need and craving, as a brother.

'There may be seals, but these bergs are nasty things. It is not always easy to get at them.'

Adelaide turned round on him with such an unconscious expression of scorn upon her face that Mr. Forrester could not help laughing.

'The captain and first mate are taking the bearings,' exclaimed Mr. Holyoke. The naval officer and Mr. Brignall, who had their own misgivings, though the latter was inexperienced, drew near to hear what they were saying. The next moment Mr. Forrester felt a sudden pressure on his arm, and turning round saw that it came from Miss Brignall, who was looking at her father with a face out of which all colour had suddenly vanished.

'Something is the matter,' she

exclaimed; 'I have never felt afraid before.'

'You had better come down to the cabin where you cannot see it,' said Mr. Holyoke, compassionately, but deliberately.

"Then you see danger. No, thank you, I will not go down. To shut my eyes to it would be cowardly indeed.'

'It is danger from the collision you apprehend?' queried Mr. For rester, still careful to detain the hand that in fear had been surrendered to him.

I am not a competent judge, and yet I can almost venture to say that there is no real reason for alarm. The ice around us makes a very considerable resistance.'

But the words meant to reassure conveyed terror to others who were within hearing, creating an excitement that it was difficult to allay. Two ladies screamed, one fainted. It only needed that to recall our heroine to the full possession of herself. She broke away from the two young Ministers-who, not without fear themselves, had vied with each other in soothing her—and, going to the most demonstrative, said :

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'Hush! hush! If you go on like this you will distress the sailors. the worst that we fear happens, it is as hard for them as for us. Do let us be calm then, and look quietly to God.'

On, on came the beautiful berg; and the more beautiful it looked, the greater terror did it strike into the hearts of those on board.

Adelaide was repulsed in her effort to rally others an effort which, for the time at least, made her forgetful of herself.

A young lady who had regretted that Missionaries of the right kind were not sent out to convert the heathen of Newfoundland laid beseeching hands on Mr. Holyoke.

'Do help me,' she said. 'It is not the dying I am afraid of so much; it is what comes after. O! I never thought to die would be like this!'

The pathetic appeal was to him as authoritative a summons as that which was taking him up from his 'kindred and his father's house to a country that he knew not.

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From the danger they were in a few minutes might see them delivered, but the fear was to her what the earthquake was to the Philippian jailer. So laying aside every selfish thought and every outward distraction, he sat beside her to tell her of a far different scene: a scene in the hot sands of the desert; serpentbitten Israelites suffering deadly anguish, but finding life and health by a look at the object lifted up for their healing. Even so the Son of Man had been lifted up; and still a look could save.

Adelaide had retired to a corner. With some timidity Mr. Forrester intruded upon her.

'You do not feel afraid now,' he said, in a tone well calculated to win her confidence.

Her face softened. It was but for a moment. Again summoning her resolution, she said:

Leave me, Mr. Forrester. Go to those who need you more.'

'You have taught me a lesson,' he said, as he obeyed her and retired.

'Where is my daughter?' enquired Mr. Brignall. Is she below?'

Mr. Forrester told him he would find her at the end of the vessel.

'I need not ask you, Sir, if you apprehend danger?'

I am not quite easy, for the captain does not appear to have made up his mind. The berg may join us harmlessly, or it may cut its way through the pack and our vessel be shivered in pieces. The way in which we are situated with regard to the ice makes it impossible for us to leave the ship.'

Adelaide was conscious of her father's presence when he stood beside her, but her eyes were fixed on the terrible moving mass before them, and she was trying in the brief period

of suspense to be prepared for the

worst.

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My darling,' said Mr. Brignall at last, I but too late repent of my folly in bringing you with me on this disastrous voyage.'

'O, papa! I feared you would say that, though I hoped you would not. I kept out of your way for that very reason. It is too much to bear. If we must die, let us die together.'

He kissed her tenderly, holding her to him in a straining embrace.

I hope that all will yet be well, my brave child. I should say there is not a heart here from which prayer has not gone up to God.'

They looked unto Him, and were lightened,' she said; but while she met the danger with such a calm front, she was not indifferent to her fate. She thought of home. She imagined Fred missing her voice and her father's from his welcome home! She thought of all her golden dreams for the future quenched in the chill waters. O under that blue sky, so softly flecked with white, it was hard to give up all the joy of living; to go down, down, down where no green turf or flowers could grow over them, or modest headstone tell that once they had been and were still.

But we shall not be divided either above or below,' she thought, as she felt against her face the beatings of her father's heart, growing stronger as the crisis neared, for the berg and the pack had come to the join.' There was an agitation discernible, something like the tumult of electric wires in a storm; a shock was either felt or imagined, and the berg was arrested in its majestic course with no disaster save the detachment of masses of ice from the floe and the overtoppling of the berg's burnished dome.

To describe the revulsion of feeling, one had need have been there. Sweetly through the frosty air went up the Doxology to Him Who is above

the water-floods; and there was not one of the voices upraised in it that did not vibrate to feelings of gratitude and love.

During the night there was a heavy fall of sleet, but all was clear again in the morning. The ladies were advised to keep below, as the thermometer stood some degrees below zero. Adelaide was the only one who disregarded the admonition. Putting a large pair of woollen socks over her boots, she ventured up, and the ship appeared to have undergone a transformation. The decks were flagged with ice, the bulwarks were an inch thick with it, the ropes coated till they looked double their real size, and the rigging was like sparkling crystalline.

Beautiful!' exclaimed Adelaide, as her teeth chattered.

Her father authoritatively took her back to the cabin, where they were in a moment joined by Mr. Forrester, who brought her a cup of strong coffee. The coffee was the best cordial she could have had.

'Were the Princess Amelia never to be set free,' she said, 'she would illustrate Montgomery's lines:

"There lies a vessel in this realm of frost, Not wrecked, nor stranded, yet for ever lost;

Its keel embedded in the solid mass,

Its glistening sails appear expanded glass, The transverse ropes with pearls enormous strung,

The yards with icicles grotesquely hung.'"

'It is well that you are so alive to the poetry of the situation,' said Mr. Forrester, as he whittled away at a gaff that he fondly hoped was to be the destruction of some happy family of seals.

I like poetry,' said Adelaide, naively; but some of the prose of this is written in black-letter type. We shall perhaps be hearing loud reports on board after awhile, and how will you explain that, Mr. Forrester ? '

'Firing for absentees?'

'No; I don't mean that. The expansion of the water frozen in the fissures of the old trees in the forests, cracks them and rends them to pieces, and so our ship may be in danger.'

'Not from that cause, dear,' said her father. Her timbers are sound.'

Most of the passengers were discontented, some miserably afraid, and even Mr. Brignall chafed at the loss of time, and its possible consequences. He was not free from apprehension either, and the scant provisions had a depressing effect on him, though he would have scorned to complain. His chief fear was the effect that the bitter cold and so many privations might have on his daughter's health; but she bore up gallantly, and her evident ability still to enjoy herself was very sustaining to him.

She returned to the deck, and watched her father set out with the naval officer for an exploration of the region round them; while Messrs. Holyoke and Forrester went out with others in quest of seals. Adelaide would fain have left the ship also, but none of the ladies were permitted. The keen air and the white

glitter when the sun was in power compelled her to return to the cabin. She took up her work, and was presently joined by the young lady who had betrayed so much distress during the alarm of yesterday. Her face still showed traces of the struggle through which she had passed, but there was a sweet, restful, trusting expression on it which was altogether

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I mean without the alarm it brought. All the happy days of my life put together do not give me so much to thank God for as yesterday has done. I cannot tell you how I saw myself in the searching light that seemed to fall upon me from God's judgment throne. I had imagined that all was right, but I saw myself in all manner of false disguises, that in a moment fell off.'

'I believe in such vivid moments,' said Adelaide, thoughtfully; and I thank God with you. There were very solemn thoughts passing through my mind, as I sat on deck waiting the end. The worst of it is, one is apt to forget; but you will not forget, will you ?'

'I hope not. I never could.

It seems to me as if

It is so sweet to be able to apprehend the Saviour as I do now. Before, I must have looked on the Lamb of God through a veil of self-righteousness as dense as the unbelief of the Jews. To think what blind eyes I have read my Bible with, not to have understood this great change, and how quickly God can work it in the soul!'

'I am so glad,' said Adelaide. " Now we can often converse together, and of the best things, and you will join us in our Sabbath worship.'

Yes, indeed; but the very mention of it covers me with shame.' And she continued her artless confession, proving that learning the glorious' first principles' of 'repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,' an ere while careless soul had been started on the race, the goal of which is perfection. In the afternoon Mr. Brignall was brought home by some of the party, suffering severely in the eyes through the glare of light upon the ice. With that Adelaide felt as if her real troubles had only begun. They applied such remedies as were available. But the cup of that day's

trial was not full. The sealers returned disconsolately without any booty, and the Missionaries were missing. No one could tell where they had wandered. Guns were fired from the ship to apprise them

of its position if they were in doubt; then some of the crew went in quest, carrying lanterns : and Adelaide awaited their return with feverish impatience.

NOTES ON CURRENT SCIENCE:
BY THE REV. W. H. DALLINGER, F.R.M.S.

It was pointed out in our last Notes
that Mr. Lockyer had, by a long
series of investigations, come to the
conclusion that he had found evidence,
amounting almost to absolute demon-
stration, that the so-called elementary
bodies are compound; and that, in all
probability, from the nature of the
evidence, all the varieties of ele-
mentary bodies are only modifications
of one ultimate atomic condition. In
fact, there is the highest probability
that the final state of matter when
traced to its core, is unity of charac-
teristic; and that the various kinds
of matter now regarded as elementary
substances possess one and the same
ultimate or atomic attribute, but that
various conditions of movement of the
ultimate atom determine the differ-

ence

between elementary' bodies. The consequence of this is, that if the 'molecular' energy of a so-called element can be changed, that element would be dissociated-broken up.

There can be but little question of the high probability that this is a great truth; but very much misapprehension seems to have arisen as the result of the publication of the evidence. There are, evidently, a. great many who claim acquaintance with physics, who assume that if these inferences be verified the dreams of the alchemist must, after all, be realized (!), and that chemists will be able to transmute one form of matter into another. Nothing could be more fallacious. Mr. Lockyer is, plainly enough, led to doubt the integrity of

the elements,' and the majority of physicists may go with him in this : he indeed shows that substances as unlike each other as calcium, lithium, iron and hydrogen may not be fundamentally distinct, but merely different aspects of some basic matter-stuff, of which hydrogen is the simplest we can at present find. This may or may not be absolutely true; but, if it be true, it is out of harmony with the philosophy of the facts to imagine that the quest of the alchemist has been reached.

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If matter be, at its root, only hydrogen, or some similar form, the existence of strongly-marked phases of matter such as iron, platinum and phosphorous can only be explained by taking them to be the result of the operation of rhythmic laws acting in past ages, and concerning the operation of which we know really nothing.

This we do know, and from it may learn much, that life, in all its forms, is fundamentally the same-the 'plasm' in which it inheres is not materially different in the lowest fungus and the highest human brain. Yet we are certain from experience that the various forms of life are not transmutable-as such. The common origin of the horse and the ass may be demonstrated; but we cannot change horses into asses, or the reverse. In the same way, it may be true that two phases of the same matter may be as unlike each other as gold and mercury; but there is, in spite of this, no

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