buoyant than I had believed possible. The sleds, fastened on each side,
tended to give it extra stability, and it did not sink deeper than the
middle of the windows. The latter, though formed of very thick glass,
might have been broken by the tossing ice if they had not been divided
into small panes separated by bars of steel, which projected a few inches
outside.

"I made that arrangement for meteors," said Edmund, "but I never thought
that they would have to be defended against ice."

The increasing force of the current sent us spinning down the valley with
accelerated speed. We swept round the nearest ice peak on the left, and
as we passed under its projecting buttresses a fearful roar above
informed us that an avalanche of unexampled magnitude had been unchained.
We could not withdraw our eyes from the window on that side of the car,
and almost instantly immense masses of ice appeared crashing into the
water, throwing it over us in floods and half drowning the unfortunate
wretches on the sleds. Still, they clung on, fastened together, and we
could do nothing to aid them. The uproar grew worse, and the ice came
plunging down faster and faster, accompanied with a deluge of water from
the heights above. The car pitched and rolled until we were all flung off
our feet. Poor Juba was a picture of abject terror. He hung moaning to a
bench, his huge eyes aglow with fright.

Suddenly the car seemed to be lifted clear from the water, and then it
fell back again and was submerged, so that we were buried in night.
Slowly we rose to the surface, and Edmund, springing to a window,
shouted:

"They're gone! Heaven have pity on them--and on me!"