CHAP. V.] HUBBUB CEASES. Q55 



most complained, and to be ready in the event 

 of injury if possible to repair it ; I was standing 

 on the tafrail, watching the approach of a solid 

 mass, part of our late floe, which was forcing 

 another huge mass, like an advancing wave, over 

 a hard piece, already noticed as having oppressed 

 our starboard quarter last year. At length, the 

 ship became so completely hampered by ice 

 underneath, that the remainder of the floe, on 

 either side, moved about eight or ten feet ahead, 

 leaving the ship fixed in the midst, and wedged 

 up in every direction. This was another novelty 

 to our Greenlandmen, who, in the strange and 

 unaccountable phenomena which now presented 

 themselves, grew daily more puzzled. 



At 2 h a. m., March 2d, the hubbub ceased, 

 and we slept until morning without further inter- 

 ruption. As daylight broke, the havoc was more 

 clearly seen, and a wild scene of confusion it 

 was. About a mile ahead the frost smoke 

 betrayed an opening that led along the land- 

 packed ice to abeam of the ship ; and this, with 

 a few other lanes, was the only dhTerence in that 

 respect which was observable. The land was 

 much raised by refraction, and we seemed to 

 have neared it a little. I say seemed, for, in 

 consequence of a gentle undulatory motion of 

 the ice close to the ship, which, though imper- 

 ceptible to the eye, was proved by the mercury 



