1853.] CUTTER IN DANGER. 53 



my people across the Strait, which I could ill have done 

 with the small boat alone." He moves on for the cutter, 

 and observes : " I found the wooden waterproof tray 

 (Forster's) answer well ; it carried the sledge and gear 

 across some wide lanes of water without giving us the 

 trouble of unloading and putting them in the boat." 

 Having reached the cutter, and sent her men back to 

 assist, he and Mr. Loney were quietly having a yarn, 

 or, in his own words, " we were seated quietly in the 

 cutter, which was hauled on the floe, one hundred yards 

 from the land, when suddenly we perceived the ice to 

 be in motion, and in a few moments the floe, with the 

 boat on it, was forced twenty feet up the steep beach, 

 and rested on a mass of grounded hummocks. She was 

 turned completely over, with enormous pieces of ice 

 hanging over and about her, threatening instant destruc- 

 tion ! There was no help at hand, and all we could do 

 was to pick up some of the gear and instruments which 

 had been turned out of her, and look on (looking out 

 for ourselves at the same time). It was more than half 

 an hour before we could recall the people by firing guns, 

 etc., during which time the boat was being moved about 

 among the hummocks in a manner that surprised us how 

 she was not crushed to pieces ; it seemed impossible that 

 she could escape. The ice however stopped running, 

 and she eased clown and saved herself by a miracle, rest- 

 ing on her mastheads, bottom up, against the ice ! I 

 am persuaded that, had a ship been in the same position, 

 it would have been total destruction to her. The light- 

 ness and pliability of the boat's frame was alone her 

 safeguard , but it was an extraordinary sight to look at 



