ME. J. K. KANE'S NAKRATIVE. 529 



gness. It was no very difficult matter, you would 

 think, to run along the edge of the ice till we came to 

 the end of it, and then run across. But this ice had all 

 the irregularities of a coast : large inlets and bays run- 

 ning into it, and capes projecting just where you do not 

 expect to meet them ; and, over and over again, after 

 running for a whole day, just as we were sure we had 

 reached its southern boundary, we would find ourselves 

 in a cul-de-sac, with the ice on both sides of us. At 

 last we came to a dead halt. We were fairly in the 

 pack it was before us, behind us, and on both sides 

 of us. 



" Day after day passed, and we found we were drift- 

 ing to the south, fairly glued in. There are only two 

 incidents that I speak of in or about this pleasant little 

 travel. One was just as it began. It was a meeting 

 with an ancient whaler, the Eclipse, of Peterhead, with 

 a jolly old Captain Gray, who insisted on all hands 

 making a trial of a regular Scotchman's hospitality, and 

 tossed half a dozen hams after us into the boat, when 

 we refused to take the half of his cabin stores. The 

 other was the gale that ended it. It was less pleasant 

 at the time ; but, like some other things that I have 

 'met with in this world, its effects were better than its 

 promise. What a night it was ! The bark ran into an 

 iceberg, and came very near being lost. She fired 

 thirteen guns for assistance, but the crashing and grind- 

 ing was so tremendous that, though we were not three 

 quarters of a mile off, and the wind was blowing directly 

 towards us, we did not hear one of them. I never shall 

 forget the melancholy figure she presented on joining 

 us next morning. We felt quite a glow of sympathy 

 for the poor Release, till Captain Hartstein's hailing our 



steamer with the information that our cutwater looked 

 34 



