The Winter Night. 233 



that for the moment we were drifting north. This was 



O 



some small comfort anyhow. 



"All at once in the afternoon, as we were sitting idly 

 chatting, a deafening noise began, and the whole ship 

 shook. This was the first ice-pressure. Every one 

 rushed on deck to look. The Frain behaved beauti- 

 fully, as I had expected she would. On pushed the ice 

 with steady pressure, but down under us it had to go, 

 and we were slowly lifted up. These ' squeezings ' 

 continued off and on all the afternoon, and were some- 

 times so strong that the Fram was lifted several feet ; 

 but then the ice could no longer bear her, and she broke 

 it below her. Towards evening the whole slackened 

 again, till we lay in a good-sized piece of open water, 

 and had hurriedly to moor her to our old floe, or we 

 should have drifted off. There seems to be a good deal 

 of movement in the ice here. Peter has just been 

 telling us that he hears the dull booming of strong 

 pressures not far off. 



"Tuesday, October loth. The ice continues dis- 

 turbed. 



"Wednesday, October iith. The bad news was 

 brought this afternoon that 'Job' is dead, torn in pieces 

 by the other dogs. He was found a good way from the 

 ship, ' Old Suggen ' lying watching the corpse, so that 

 no other dog could get to it. They are wretches, these 

 dogs; no clay passes without a fight. In the day-time 

 one of us is generally at hand to stop it, but at night 



