FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 361 



Islands. Onward they pressed through the accumulat- 

 ing ice to Baffin's Island, where, on the llth, they were 

 joined by the Prince Albert, then out upon another cruise 

 They continued in company until the 3d of August, when 

 the Albert departed for the westward, determined to 

 try the more southern passage. Here again the Ameri- 

 cans encountered vast fields of hummock-ice, and were 

 subjected to the most imminent perils. The floating ice, 

 as if moved by adverse currents, tumbled in huge masses, 

 and reared upon the sides of the sturdy little vessels 

 like monsters of the deep intent upon destruction. 

 These masses broke in the bulwarks, and sometimes fell 

 over upon the decks with terrible force, like rocks 

 rolled over a plain by mountain torrents. The noise 

 was fearful --so deafening that the mariners could 

 scarcely hear each other's voices. The sounds of these 

 rolling masses, together with the rending of the icebergs 

 floating near, and the vast floes, produced a din like the 

 discharge of a thousand pieces of ordnance upon a field 

 of battle. 



Finding the north and west closed against further 

 progress, by impenetrable ice, De Haven was balked ; 

 and, turning his vessels homeward, they came out into 

 an open sea somewhat crippled, but not a plank seri- 

 ously started. During a storm off the banks of New- 

 foundland, a thousand miles from New York, the vessels 

 parted company. The Advance arrived safely at the 

 Navy Yard, at Brooklyn, on the 30th of September, 1851 ; 

 and the Rescue joined her there a few days afterward. 

 Toward the close of October the government resigned 

 the vessels into the hands of Mr. Grinnell, to be used in 

 other service, but with the stipulation that they were to 

 be subject to the order of the Secretary of the Navy in 

 the spring, 'f required for another exprslitioi. in bearch 

 of Sir Join. :<;/aklm. 



