140 Dr Latta*s Observations on the Greenland Sea, 



down upon him, into which he may thrust his ship. If no 

 situation is found, the crew ply their ice-saws, and cut out a 

 dock, where they may safely remain till the ice recedes. Such 

 a situation in the land-ice, if it is sufficiently strong, is prefer- 

 able, being free from the revolving movements of the detached 

 masses. Often, however, their labour is unavailing, their re- 

 treat, obtained by so much exertion, being unable to sustain the 

 tremendous pressure, is rent in pieces, and the ship it contains 

 destroyed. Melville Bay, the vortex in which our ships are 

 usually engulfed, is very formidable, on account of the occur- 

 rence there of such phenomena. It is quite unsheltered from 

 the prevailing winds of the season, which fill it with the ice of 

 the neighbouring sea ; it is at the same time protected by the 

 form of the land, from the influence of the currents, which, in 

 the open sea and along the western shores, are ever in opera- 

 tion, carrying off the ice to the southward. In this bay, hope- 

 less indeed is the case of the ship, pent up among accumulating 

 ice, and caught by the tempest. Seamanship is utterly un- 

 availing, the destruction of the stoutest ship is the work of a 

 moment, and the crew is abandoned to all the miseries of a 

 fearful climate and a snow-covered region. 



It was in this bay that the Isabella and Alexander, discovery 

 ships, were frequently in great jeopardy. Particularly, on one 

 occasion, during a south-westerly gale, the ice was forced in 

 upon the ships with such violence, that every support threatened 

 to give way. The beams in the hold began to bend, the iron 

 tanks settled together, and the Isabella was lifted up several 

 feet ; fortunately the ice receded, and she was liberated ; but so 

 violent was the gale, that her anchors and cables broke one after 

 another, and she ran foul of the Alexander with a tremendous 

 crash, breaking anchors and tearing away their chain-plates. In 

 this dilemma, they perceived a field of ice bearing down on 

 them, and a reef of icebergs fast aground on the lee. They 

 endeavoured to saw docks in the field, but fortunately it was 

 too thick for their longest saws, for the ships had scarce escaped 

 when the part of the field chosen for the dock came in contact 

 with a berg with such violence, that, notwithstanding its great 

 thickness, it rose more than fifty feet up the icy precipice, then 

 suddenly broke, the elevated part tumbhng back with a tre- 



