THE MIDDLE ICE. 59 



Since the days when Baffin first penetrated these 

 waters, in the Discovery, a vessel of fifty-eight tons bur- 

 den, (it was in the year 1616,) a fleet of whale-ships 

 has annually run this gauntlet. The fleet was once 

 large, numbering upwards of a hundred sail ; but of 

 latter years it has been reduced to less than one tenth 

 of its former magnitude. Great though the danger, it 

 has always been a favorite route of the whale fishers. 

 Many a stout ship has gone down with her sides mer- 

 cilessly crushed in by the " thick-ribbed ice ; " but 

 those vessels which escape disaster almost uniformly 

 return home with holds well filled with the blubber 

 and oil of unlucky whales whose evil destiny led them 

 to frequent the waters about Lancaster Sound, Pond's 

 Bay, and the coasts below. 



The " middle ice " is always more or less in motion, 

 and is never tightly closed up, even in midwinter. 

 Of this we have abundant proof in the fate of the 

 Steamer Fox, which was caught towards the close of 

 the autumn, and released in the spring, after a peril- 

 ous winter drift, down near the Arctic Circle. 



As the summer advances, it becomes more and more 

 broken up ; and, little by httle, the solid land-belt, which 

 is known as the "fast" or "land-ice," is encroached 

 upon. Of this, however, there usually remains a nar- 

 row strip up to the close of the season. To it the 

 whalers cling most tenaciously, and the exploring ves- 

 sels have usually followed their example, taking al- 

 ways the last crack that has opened, or, as they call 

 it, the " in-shore lead." They have naturally a great 

 horror of being caught in the " pack." The " fast " 

 gives them security if the wind brings the ice down 

 upon them from the westward, for they can always 

 saw a dock for their ships in the solid ice, or find a 



