BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TERROR. 23 



ahead, raised her upon the ice. A chaotic ruin fol 

 lowed ; our poor and cherished court-yard, its wall and 

 arched doors, gallery, and well-trodden paths, were rent, 

 and in some parts ploughed up like dust. The ship was 

 careened fully four streaks, and sprang a leak as before. 

 Scarcely were ten minutes left us for the expression of 

 Dur astonishment that anything of human build could 

 outlive such assaults, when another equally violent rush 

 succeeded ; and, in its way toward the starboard quar- 

 ter, threw up a rolling wave thirty feet high, crowned 

 by a blue square mass of many tons, resembling the 

 entire side of a house, which, after hanging for some 

 time in doubtful poise on the ridge, at length fell with a 

 crash into the hollow, in which, as in a cavern, the 

 after-part of the ship seemed imbedded. It was indeed 

 an awful crisis, rendered more frightful from the misti- 

 ness of the night and dimness of the moon. The poor 

 ship cracked and trembled violently, and no one could 

 eay that the next minute would not be her last ; and, 

 indeed, his own too, for with her our means of safety 

 would probably perish." 



During all the period of disasters after the disruption 

 of the floe, the ship was carried hither and thither over 

 a range of from twenty-six to forty-eight miles north- 

 west of Seahorse Point, and seldom further than about 

 ten miles from the nearest land. But, after the 16th of 

 March, she set pretty steadily toward the south-east, 

 and kept a good deal nearer the shore. The officers, at 

 a formal consultation, agreed that she now seemed 

 liable to be lost at any moment, and that a light-boat, 

 with provisions, should, if possible, be landed to serve 

 as a last resource, to communicate with the Hudson's 

 Bay Company's factory, in the event of her going down. 

 She still held marvellously firm, and continued to be 

 cradled on a small piece of floe. On the 16th of April, 



