Alone! alone on the Frozen Deep! The Arctic sun is rising dimly in the dreary sky.

The beams of the cold northern moon, mingling strangely with the dawning light, clothe the snowy plains in hues of livid gray.

An ice-field on the far horizon is moving slowly southward in the spectral light.

Nearer, a stream of open water rolls its slow black waves past the edges of the ice.

Nearer still, following the drift, an iceberg rears its crags and pinnacles to the sky; here, glittering in the moonbeams; there, looming dim and ghost-like in the ashy light.
Midway on the long sweep of the lower slope of the iceberg, what objects rise, and break the desolate monotony of the scene?
In this awful solitude, can signs appear which tell of human Life?
Yes! The black outline of a boat just shows itself, hauled up on the berg.