CHAP. V.] GRANDEUR OF SCENE. 233 



an instant. The forenoon was spent in getting 

 up bales of blankets, bear-skins, provision, pyro- 

 ligneous acid for fuel, and in short whatever 

 might be necessary if the ship should be suddenly 

 broken up, and spars were rigged over the 

 quarters to hoist them out. Meanwhile the ice 

 moved but little, though the hour of full moon 

 was passed ; but at noon it began to drift slowly 

 to the northward. We were now from five to eight 

 miles off the nearest land. The soundings were 

 in eighty-eight fathoms, and showed black mud, 

 which had not been seen before. The latitude 

 was 64° 16' N., and we had gone a little to the 

 eastward. Thermometer 21°-, and cold, owing 

 to spiculse falling. Barometer stationary at 29*55. 

 Wind west. 



Though I had seen vast bodies of ice from 

 Spitzbergen to 150° west longitude, under 

 various aspects, some beautiful, and all more or 

 less awe-inspiring, I had never witnessed, nor 

 even imagined, any thing so fearfully magnifi- 

 cent, as the moving towers and ramparts that now 

 frowned on every side Had the still extensive 

 pieces of which the floe was formed been split 

 and divided like those further off, the effect 

 would have been far less injurious to the ship ; 

 but, though cracked and rent, the parts, from 

 some inexplicable cause, closed again for a 

 time, and drove with accelerated and almost 

 irresistible force against the defenceless vessel. 



