CHAP. V.] COMMOTION SUBSIDES. 281 



served meat, &c. to be issued to the crew, whose 

 long exposure to the cold rendered some extra 

 stimulant necessary. Until 4 h a. m. the rushes 

 still kept coming from different directions, but 

 fortunately with diminished force. From that 

 hour to 8 h a. m. every thing was still and the ice 

 quite stationary, somewhat to the westward of 

 the singular point, terminating as it were in a 

 knob, which was the farthest eastern extreme 

 yesterday. We certainly were not more than 

 three miles from the barren and irregular land 

 abeam, which received the name of Point Terror. 

 To this was attached a rugged shelf of what for 

 the time might be called shore ice, having at its 

 seaward face a mural ridge of unequal, though 

 in many parts, imposing height, certainly not 

 less than from fifty to sixty feet. Such had been 

 the diminution of our nucleus, that the ship 

 was now within four hundred yards of the water 

 line of demarcation between the floe and the 

 land ice. 



I was naturally anxious to ascertain as far as 

 possible the amount of damage received; and, on 

 inspecting the outside of the ship with the first 

 Lieutenant and carpenter, we saw that the fore-foot 

 was completely exposed, the ship having been 

 literally lifted up on the surface of the same ice, 

 which had formerly, as I have said, imbedded her 

 up to the flukes of the anchors. How far she was 



