"Because being so big it will be under the influence of the same current as this and going in the same direction, so there won't be much chance of our coming together."
"Unless the big one should overtake us," suggested Fred.
"Even then it would find it hard to run over us, so there isn't much to be feared from that; what I do dread is that we shall strike some shallow place in the sea that will make this thing turn a somersault."
"It would be a terrible thing," said Fred, unable to drive it from his thoughts.
"Is it possible for the berg to strike something like that and stick fast, without shifting its centre of gravity?"
The question was addressed to Jack Cosgrove, but he did not attempt to answer until the last clause was explained to him.
"Oh! yes; that has been seen many times. A berg will ground itself just like a boat, and stay for days and weeks until a storm breaks it up, or it shakes itself loose. I don't believe if we do strike bottom again that there's much danger of capsizing."
"Why didn't you tell us that before?" asked Rob, reprovingly; "we might have been saved all this worry."
"It's only guesswork, any way, so you may as well keep on worrying, for, somehow or other, you seem to enjoy it."
"I think there is a thinning of the fog," remarked Fred, some time later.