"We must take that for granted, my lad," said the captain. "There are many reasons why it is possible for the mass of ice at the bottom of the fiord to give way. The outside must always be weakening, and the pressure on the inner increasing by the constant flow of water into the fiord, which is rising day by day. That passage does not take off half as much as appears to come in somewhere from the rocks, and sooner or later this must break through the ice. If it comes to the worst, we must turn engineers and block the passage by blasting down stones in that narrowest part till we have dammed the way out. We should then turn this fiord into a lake, which would, sooner or later, burst down its southern bank." There was a little talk that evening, too, about the sun, whose career above the horizon was coming to an end, the height at noon being far less, and at midnight so close down to the horizon that it ceased to shine down into the glen, the rays being hid by the glacier. This fact brought forth serious thoughts, for it suggested the time when the brief summer would be drawing to a close, and the approach of that long period during which the arc described by the sun grew lower and lower until it ceased to appear at all, and then came the worst of the wintry time-- that when, saving the rays of the moon, stars, and aurora, there was no light. "I don't want to suggest difficulties," said the doctor suddenly; "but suppose, when the time for fine weather to be at an end comes, there is no chance of our escape--always supposing that we have seen nothing of the _Ice Blink_ people--what then?" "In plain English," said the captain, "we must make up our minds to pass the winter here." "The winter?" cried Steve. "Yes, my lad. Why not? We have snug, warm quarters, which we can make warmer, for I saw traces of coal up yonder in the valley close to the glacier. Food is plentiful, and what men have done before men can do again." "If there is no help for it, we must submit," said the doctor. "Better submit than venture to sea in these two boats," said the captain; "and in case of the first emergency, I propose that we begin exploring the land now. We have thoroughly examined all the coast that we could reach north and south." "And hunt as we go?" said the doctor. "And hunt as we go, so as to lay in a good store of fresh meat. This will freeze and keep any length of time. I don't think our prospects are so bad--that is, for seamen." "I thought we should have found some trace of our friends," said the doctor; but the captain shook his head.