310 PERIL OF TWO SAILORS. [CHAP.V. 



bow, and matters were beginning to wear a 

 serious aspect, when, in an instant, the noise 

 was hushed. The whole body, the weight of 

 which, greatly augmented by the breeze, we 

 had to bear our part in sustaining, was brought 

 up by the curve of coast where wt were em- 

 bayed. Indeed it could not be otherwise ; for 

 any wind coming from between N.W. by W. 

 and N.N.E., must of necessity drive the entire 

 body of northern ice to this its only place of 

 egress into the Atlantic. While the turmoil 

 was going on, two of the men carelessly loitering 

 about soon found themselves separated from us, 

 and it required some activity in scrambling over 

 the moving mounds before they succeeded in 

 reaching the ship. The wind blew fresh and 

 keen from N. by W., the temperature being 

 at 0°, though 23° + in the sun. 



The carpenters now commenced caulking 

 wherever they could outside the ship. At 7 h P. m. 

 a slight noise was heard among the ice about a 

 mile to the westward of the ship, which, for the 

 succeeding two hours, drove fast towards the 

 straits ; but as the tide grew weaker the onward 

 motion of the ice was of course checked, while the 

 breeze urged the whole western body with irresis- 

 tible force against it ; the effect of which was, that 

 at 9 h p.m., while we were making the curve of a 

 bay, our rloe-pieces were suddenly assailed by a 



