light of a torpid and sunken sun, Mael saw, rising above the waves,
the silent streets of a white city, which, vaster than Thebes with its
hundred gates, extended as far as the eye could see the ruins of its
forum built of snow, its palaces of frost, its crystal arches, and its
iridescent obelisks.

The ocean was covered with floating ice-bergs around which swam men of
the sea of a wild yet gentle appearance. And Leviathan passed by hurling
a column of water up to the clouds.

Moreover, on a block of ice which floated at the same rate as the stone
trough there was seated a white bear holding her little one in her arms,
and Mael heard her murmuring in a low voice this verse of Virgil, Incipe
parve puer.

And full of sadness and trouble, the old man wept.

The fresh water had frozen and burst the barrel that contained it. And
Mael was sucking pieces of ice to quench his thirst, and his food was
bread dipped in dirty water. His beard and his hair were broken like
glass. His habit was covered with a layer of ice and cut into him at
every movement of his limbs. Huge waves rose up and opened their foaming
jaws at the old man. Twenty times the boat was filled by masses of
sea. And the ocean swallowed up the book of the Holy Gospels which the
apostle guarded with extreme care in a purple cover marked with a golden
cross.

Now on the thirtieth day the sea calmed. And lo! with a frightful
clamour of sky and waters a mountain of dazzling whiteness advanced
towards the stone vessel. Mael steered to avoid it, but the tiller broke