180 RAPID CHANGE. [CHAP.IV. 



to about W. N. W., and the distance from the 

 nearest point was estimated at fifteen or seven- 

 teen miles. Until night the ice remained almost 

 stationary, but a grinding noise was then distinctly 

 audible to the eastward, which with temporary 

 interruptions continued for many hours. The 

 aurora was frequently observed in the south-east 

 quarter, flitting to and from the zenith, but 

 had nothing remarkable either in colour or 

 appearance. 



As the morning of January 4th dawned, a 

 great crashing intimated that some serious 

 change was in progress, and on making the tour 

 of our sadly curtailed floe, we found that the 

 western opening had closed a little, while that 

 on the larboard bow was considerably enlarged. 

 We had thus been again favoured ; for the com- 

 pactness of the ice, immediately around us, was 

 preserved by a wide lane of open water between 

 us and the land. So rapid had been the tran- 

 sition that, except one part of the edge, not a 

 particle was left to tell where the large tract of 

 bay ice, brought with us from Frozen Strait, had 

 been; the space which it had occupied being con- 

 verted into what was not inaptly compared to 

 an extensive lake. The light breeze from the 

 eastward could scarcely have effected this, which 

 probably therefore was partly the result of cur- 

 rent or tide. The same cause, whatever it was, 



