114 RAPID DESTRUCTION OF THE FLOE. 



tided, and considering that the period had now 

 arrived for taking a decisive step, had deter- 

 mined to cut a dock in a favourable part of the 

 floe which we had quitted ; that being the 

 largest, and, according to the ice mate, the only 

 one sufficiently strong for the purpose. I felt 

 assured that, if this could be accomplished, the 

 ship would be protected so long as the floe held 

 together, and in short it was my only resource. 

 The resolution thus adopted was to have been car- 

 ried into execution, but the following night, with- 

 out the aid of any strong breeze, produced the 

 most extraordinary changes yet witnessed. There 

 was a general commotion; and the entire body by 

 which we were hampered separating into single 

 f pieces, tossed into heaps or ground to powder 

 whatever interrupted its course, and finally, in 

 the early morning of the 26th, rushed violently 

 to the westward, directly up Frozen Strait. The 

 ship bore well up against the hurly burly, and 

 when daylight broke, and we could distinguish 

 objects, we looked in vain for the floe. In the 

 wild convulsion of the night it had been broken 

 and scattered with many other ponderous masses, 

 which now lay piled in ruins around us. It was 

 evident, too, that the ship had been set nearer to 

 Cape Bylot, for the coast beyond it, as well as 

 Baffin's Island, were plainly seen from the deck ; 



so that, for aught we knew, we might still be 



12 



