26 ICE DRIFTS FROM THE SHIP. [October, 



the breeze can impel the great surface of ice, miles in 

 extent, to press, nip, buckle, or yield, the wind will do 

 its work, and that fearfully. That no temperatures or 

 late dates can be reckoned on to free one from this lia- 

 bility, we have but too much reason to be convinced. 

 We were almost harboured and locked by berg-pieces* 

 aground, with the following sufficiently low tempera- 

 tures : September 9th, 2'5; 18th, 0'0; 20th, 5'0; 

 28th, 1-0; October 7th, -9-0; llth, +20'0. The 

 outer young bay ice had been accumulating, forming, 

 as we deemed, a complete sea-guard, and this ranged 

 between ten and fifteen feet in thickness at sixty yards 

 from our bow. The bay ice under our stern, averaging 

 nine inches, was apparently blocked securely within by 

 the great masses grounded outside in six fathoms : who, 

 under such circumstances, would have a suspicion of 

 danger ? 



The wind, at south-east, rapidly increased in strength 

 directly off the land astern, which, ascending by terraces, 

 attained an elevation of about three hundred feet in a 

 mile, or possibly, from the nearest beach, about one hun- 

 dred feet in one hundred yards. There was no direct 

 acting power on the weather ice but the wind and rever- 

 beratory wave. Little did we dream of treachery from 

 within ! But surely, though gently, did this latter subtle 

 and oscillatory power take advantage of every crack 

 which the gaping of the great opening from north to 

 south, or parallel to our beach, now enabled it to enter, 

 causing sufficient swell to set the whole floe in undula- 

 tory motion. Mass by mass freed itself, and, grinding 



* Not literally LKT^, but kv nu,Tound iu six fathoms. 



