CHAP. V.] ENORMOUS PRESSURE. 221 



to find not only a complete verification of the 

 former report, but additional fractures also, of a 

 very threatening aspect. The pressure had been 

 enormous, having thrown up terrific piles of 

 broken, and in many instances ponderous, slabs 

 of ice. Sad inroads had been made upon the 

 floe which, however, much as it was reduced, 

 was yet infinitely the largest compact body within 

 the circle of the horizon. In many parts, where 

 a temporary rent and separation had given free- 

 dom to masses confined underneath, huge calves, 

 yellow and brown with age, darted up to the 

 surface, looking like unsightly blotches on the 

 pale features of the general scene. One small 

 crack even trespassed on the ship : but what 

 most astonished me was the state of the ice com- 

 posing the entire body to the verge of the 

 horizon. Formerly it had been remarked to con- 

 sist of innumerable floes of different sizes, all 

 more or less irregular, but chiefly crowned by 

 peaked and massy hummocks, which, without 

 any straining of the imagination, might, in some 

 atmospheres, have been mistaken for islands. Of 

 these, not one now remained. The whole had 

 been crushed, ground, and powdered into an 

 appearance, which I can liken only to the 

 spiculated and splintery surface of broken 

 granite, as seen through a powerful magnifier. 

 How it was that this effect had been produced, 



