37^ SOLIDITY OF FLOE. [CHAP.VI. 



entrance. We now began to cut through the 

 mounds at the edge of the floe pieces, and to 

 open a communication with the visible parts of 

 those cracks extending diagonally from one ex- 

 treme to the other, and in one instance crossing 

 the ship's bows ; for as it was mere speculation 

 how deep or tortuous these flaws might be 

 beneath the surface, it was at all events an equal 

 chance whether our operations might not ac- 

 celerate their rupture. 



Some snow had fallen which was succeeded by 

 a south-west wind, and at noon thick weather 

 came on that hid the land. The temperature 

 was only 35° +. The wind became variable, 

 coming sometimes in fresh gusts accompanied by 

 snow and rain : partly from this cause and partly 

 from the tide, there was a more than common 

 stir among the ice, which now separated itself 

 into detached streams and single pieces, exposing 

 a checquered surface of water to the west- 

 ward, most cheering to the eye. During the 

 night the ice was, what the Greenland sailors 

 term, running about ; and, though firmly con- 

 nected pieces of various dimensions, from one to 

 three or four hundred feet in diameter, struck 

 our floe with considerable violence in passing by, 

 yet such was its solidity and weight that the 

 effect was merely to grind away insignificant 

 points along the edges. 



