CHAP. V.] ANOTHER HUSH. #79 



roar towards the larboard quarter, upturning in 

 its progress and rolling onward with it an im- 

 mense wall of ice. This advanced so fast, that 

 though all hands were immediately called, they 

 had barely time, with the greatest exertion, to 

 extricate three of the boats, one of them, in fact, 

 being hoisted up when only a few feet from the 

 crest of the solid wave, which held a steady 

 course directly for the quarter, almost overtopping 

 it, and continuing to elevate itself until about 

 twenty-five feet high. A piece had just reached 

 the rudder slung athwart the stern, and at the 

 moment, when, to all appearances, both that and 

 a portion at least of the frame work were ex- 

 pected to be staved in and buried beneath the 

 ruins, the motion ceased ; at the same time the 

 crest of the nearest part of the wave toppled over, 

 leaving a deep wall extending from thence be- 

 yond the quarter. The effect of the whole was 

 a leak in the extreme run, oozing, as far as could 

 be ascertained, from somewhere about the stern- 

 post. It ran in along the lining like a rill for 

 about half an hour, when it stopped, probably 

 closed by a counter pressure. The other leaks 

 could be kept under by the incessant use of one 

 pump. 



Our intervals of repose were now very short ; 

 for at 12 h 50 m a.m., March 1 6th, another rush 

 drove irresistibly on the larboard quarter andstern r 



t 4 



