238 DESOLATION. [CHAP.V. 



tranquillity; but when every other part was 

 undisturbed, the extensive piece on the larboard 

 side moved slowly to the south, and again nipped 

 us. At ll h this slackened, and thenceforth we 

 were quiet until 5 h a. m. of February 22d, 

 during which interval I conceive the tide and 

 current were setting to the south and east. 

 From 5 h until 8 h a. m, the commotion again 

 went on, and caused several new, and enlarged 

 many old cracks, the detached pieces taking dif- 

 ferent directions, though still close together, and, 

 consequently, grinding or overlapping whatever 

 obstructed them. The pressure came suddenly 

 and without warning on the ship, and strained 

 her fore and aft, more especially, however, about 

 the orlop deck, where, on examination, the car- 

 penter discovered that some of the iron fasten- 

 ings in the store-rooms had received injury. 

 There had been, indeed, an immense pressure 

 on the starboard bow, as may be conjectured 

 from the fact that a huge mass had been 

 thrown up fully nineteen feet above the level. 

 The remnant of the wall across the bow had 

 been thrown down, and the ice there so bro- 

 ken as to present a most ruinous and deso- 

 late appearance. The whole scene indeed, far 

 as the eye could stretch, was confusion worse 

 confounded. Broken points at every angle, from 

 the perpendicular to the nearly horizontal, hum- 



