"DEATH SHRIVE THY SOUL!" It was an immense relief to stand in the boat with the boat-hook, whose use demanded all the skill and nerve which Caius had at command.

For the most part they could only propel the boat by pushing or pulling the bits of ice that surrounded it with their poles.

It was a very different sort of travel from that which they had experienced together when they had carried their boat over islands of ice and launched it in the great gaps between them.

The ice which they had to do with now would not have borne their weight; nor was there much clear space for rowing between the fragments.

O'Shea pushed the boat boldly on, and they made their journey with comparative ease until, when they came near the channel made by the steamship, they found the ice lying more closely, and the difficulty of their progress increased.
Work as they would, they were getting on but slowly.