CHAP. V.] TREMENDOUS RUSH. 077 



curve of the land the pressure and strain were 

 violent on the larboard quarter and bow, forcing 

 the ship upon the ice, and raising her so much as 

 to bring the eleven feet water mark in sight fore 

 and aft. Several rushes succeeded and lifted her 

 up more by the stern, again raising the beams 

 and causing a severe strain on the diagonal shores. 

 The whole of the ice continued to set eastward, 

 producing in its progress a jerking motion as it 

 was checked by the shore ice and the land. At 

 noon the weather was misty, with the wind blow- 

 ing fresh in squalls from N. W. by N. : barometer 

 29. 17» always falling; latitude observed 64°. 9 N. 

 Up to this day, however anxious, we were 

 yet safe ; but we were now destined to witness 

 trials of a more awful kind. While we were 

 gliding quickly along the land — which I may 

 here remark, had become more broken and 

 rocky, though without attaining an altitude of 

 more than, perhaps, one or two hundred feet — 

 at l h 45 ra p. m. without the least warning, a 

 heavy rush came upon the ship, and, with a tre- 

 mendous pressure on the larboard quarter, bore 

 her over upon the heavy mass on her starboard 

 quarter. The strain was severe in every part, 

 though from the forecastle she appeared to be 

 moving in the easiest manner towards the land 

 ice. Suddenly, however, a loud crack was heard 

 below the mainmast, as if the keel were broken 



t 3 



