Apr. 1858. CLEAR OF THE PACK. 87 



eight o'clock we had advanced considerably to the eastward, 

 and the swell had become dangerously high, the waves rising 

 ten feet above the trough of the sea. The shocks of the ice 

 against the ship were alarmingly heavy ; it became necessary 

 to steer exactly head-on to swell. We slowly passed a small 

 iceberg 60 or 70 feet high ; impelled by the swell it crashed 

 onward through the pack, leaving a water-space in its wake, 

 small in extent, yet sufficient to allow the seas to break 

 against its cliffs, and throw the spray in heavy showers quite 

 over its summit. 



The anxious day wore on without much change. Gradu- 

 ally the swell increased, and rolled along more swiftly, 

 becoming in fact a heavy and regular sea, rather than a 

 swell. The ice often lay so closely packed that we could 

 hardly force ahead, although the fair wind had again 

 freshened up. Much heavy hummocky ice and large berg- 

 pieces lay dispersed through the pack ; a single thump from 

 any of them would have been instant destruction. By five 

 o'clock the ice became more loose, and clear spaces of 

 water could be seen ahead. We went faster, received fewer 

 though still more severe shocks, until at length we had room 

 to steer clear of the heaviest pieces ; and at eight o'clock 

 we emerged from the villainous " pack," and were running 

 fast through straggling pieces into a clear sea. The engines 

 were stopped, and Mr. Brand permitted to rest after eighteen 

 hours' duty, for we now have no one else capable of driving 

 the engines. 



Throughout the day I trembled for the safety of the 

 rudder, and screw ; deprived of the one or the other, even 

 for half-an-hour, I think our fate would have been sealed ; 

 to have steered in any other direction than against the swell 

 would have exposed, and probably sacrificed both. 



Our bow is very strongly fortified, well plated externally 

 with iron, and so very sharp that the ice-masses, repeatedly 



