SHIP IN EXTREME PERIL. lOo 



was shot by Mr. Gore. A raven, too, wheeled 

 its flight twice round the ship. What must be 

 the wearisome uniformity of a life in which inci- 

 dents such as these become memorable ! 



When the haze over the land was in some 

 measure dispersed, we found that we had been set 

 something further towards Cape Bylot, beyond 

 which more land could be made out, and at noon 

 Baffin Island bore N. 50° E. The temperature 

 continued 31° + , and the southerly wind still 

 prevailed. Four points more to the west was 

 all that we required. No water in sight. In 

 the early part of the night a thick mist came on, 

 and the wind gradually veered to east, bringing 

 with it sleet and snow. The next morning 

 (Sept. 20th) it drew more to the northward, 

 and, what was worse, blew fresh, thereby setting 

 the seaward ice down towards the land with more 

 force than had yet been experienced. Shortly 

 after 9 h a. m. a floe piece split in two, and the 

 extreme violence of the pressure curled and 

 crumbled the windward ice up in an awful man- 

 ner, forcing it against the beam fully eighteen 

 feet high. The ship creaked as it were in agony, 

 and, strong as she was, must have been stove and 

 crushed, had not some of the smaller masses been 

 forced under her bottom, and so diminished the 

 strain, by actually lifting her bow nearly two feet 

 out of the water. In this perilous crisis steps 



