PICTURESQUE SCENE. 69 



shade. The hours were passed in a feverish 

 state of excitement, and many an upward glance 

 was cast at the little vane at the mast-head ; but 

 all was calm, and the wonder was, not how we 

 were to get on, but how we had contrived to 

 get here. Towards evening a light air, together 

 with a " slack " among the ice, allowed a trifling 

 distance to be made ; but at sunset we were 

 stopped near to an extensive floe, where, from 

 the effects of pressure, some ponderous masses 

 had been heaped up, like Titanian ruins, to the 

 height of thirty feet. The land, blue from dis- 

 tance, and beautifully soft as contrasted with the 

 white cold glare of the interminable ice around, 

 reflecting by the setting sun the tints of the inter- 

 vening masses thrown into the most picturesque 

 groups and forms — spires, turrets, and pyramids, 

 many in deep shade — presented altogether a 

 scene sufficient for a time to cheat the imagina- 

 tion, and withdraw the mind from the cheerless 

 reality of our situation. It was past 4 h a. m. of 

 August 26th before the ship could, even by the 

 use of warps, be forced ahead ; and then weari- 

 some indeed was the task. A mile at the utmost 

 rewarded our exertions ; and the wind having 

 veered round more to the north-east, the entire 

 body of ice swept down upon us, and the im- 

 minent peril of being nipped was only avoided 

 by the cativity of the officers and crew in heav- 



f 8 



