VIII. ICE. 123 



wonderful masses surpassed everything I had imagined ; 

 and we found endless amusement in watching their fantastic 

 procession. 



At one time it was a knight on horseback, clad in sap- 

 phire mail, a white plume above his casque. Or a cathe- 

 dral window with shafts of chrysophras, new powdered by a 

 snow-storm. Or a smooth sheer cliff of lapis lazuli ; or a 

 Banyan tree, with roots descending from its branches, and 

 a foliage as delicate as the efflorescence of molten metal ; or 

 a fairy dragon, that breasted the water in scales of emerald ; 

 or anything else that your fancy chose to conjure up. After 

 a little time, the mist again descended on the scene, and 

 dulled each glittering form to a shapeless mass of white ; 

 while in spite of all our endeavours to keep upon our 

 northerly course, we were constantly compelled to turn and 

 wind about in every direction — sometimes standing on for 

 several hours at a stretch to the southward and eastward.- 

 These perpetual embarrassments became at length very 

 wearying, and in order to relieve the tedium of our progress 

 I requested the Doctor to remove one of my teeth. This 

 he did with the greatest ability — a wrench to starboard, — 

 another to port, — and up it flew through the cabin sky-light. 



During the whole of that afternoon and the following 

 night we made but little Northing at all, and the next day 

 the ice seemed more pertinaciously in our way than ever ; 

 neither could we relieve the monotony of the hours by con- 

 versing with each other on the black boards, as the mist 

 was too thick for us too distinguish from on board one ship 

 anything that was passing on the deck of the other. Not- 

 withstanding the great care and skill with which the steamer 

 threaded her way among the loose floes, it was impossible 

 sometimes to prevent fragments of ice striking us with con- 

 siderable violence on the bows ; and as we lay in bed at 

 night, I confess that until we got accustomed to the noise, 

 it was by no means a pleasant thing to hear the pieces 

 angrily scraping along the ship's sides — within two inches of 

 our ears. On the evening of the fourth day it came on to 



