76 AN ICE-NIP. Chap. VI. 



these sub-glacial dwellings, alarming their timid inmates and 

 causing them to plunge terror-stricken into the sea ! The 

 breathing-hole is invariably covered with snow, and therefore 

 invisible. 



16th— Position, 6g° 38' N., 59 14' W. Several long 

 lanes of water have again opened, all of them parallel to the 

 direction of the straits ; one lane passes within 120 yards of 

 the ship ; its extremes are not visible even from aloft ; the 

 ice upon its east side has a more rapid southerly motion 

 than that upon its west side. 



iSt/i. — Last night the ice closed, shutting up our lane, but 

 its opposite sides continued for several hours to move past 

 each other, rubbing off all projections, crushing, and forcing 

 out of water masses four feet thick: although 120 yards 

 distant, this pressure shook the ship and cracked the 

 intervening ice. 



I went out with a lantern to see the nip, — it certainly 

 was awe-inspiring ; no one in his senses could avoid re- 

 flecting upon the inevitable fate of a ship if exposed to such 

 fearful pressure. It is now the time of spring tides. 



igt/i. — All yesterday the lane remained open, in the 

 evening it closed with but slight pressure ; yet as the 

 opposing fields of ice continued to move in opposite 

 directions, all jagged points were brushed off, and the 

 debris thus formed between their edges presented a heaving 

 surface of ice-masses, — an ice river. On the separation of 

 the floes, mass after mass forced itself up to the surface, 

 until at length all the submerged ice had risen, except such 

 as had been forced quite under their edges. One seldom 

 meets with a cleanly fractured floe-edge, they are usually 

 fringed with crushed-up ice or newly-formed sludge. 



23rd. — Seals and dovekies are now common ; the latter 

 have already made considerable advances towards their 

 summer plumage. 





