Chap. VI. CAPTAIN PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 149 



them not less than two hundred feet above the sea, 

 were not calculated to enliven the scene. 



On the 2nd the ships were closely beset, though 

 drifting rapidly about by the tides during the night. 

 The ice consisted of loose masses of broken floes, 

 among which the ships continued to be driven, 

 sometimes in one direction and then in an opposite 

 one ; and among these masses were counted thirty 

 icebergs in sight at a time, many of them whirled 

 about by the tides with great rapidity. Several of 

 these immense bodies were from fifty to ninety feet 

 above the surface of the sea, each probably almost 

 as many fathoms below it. The Commander, how- 

 ever, states that the bergs which thus drive about, 

 are less dangerous to approach than those aground, 

 against which a ship is liable to be carried with the 

 whole force of the tide. 



On the 8th they were still drifting about among 

 the ice, close to Resolution Island, without know- 

 ing, during the night, in what direction they were 

 carried ; but when it cleared up, they were surprised 

 to find the Hecla eleven or twelve miles to the 

 westward, though still beset in the ice. On the 9th 

 the ice closed round them, and they remained im- 

 movably beset for a week, though carried by it 

 daily from one to four miles. This is precisely 

 what was alluded to at the conclusion of the last 

 expedition ; and it appears that the two ships were 

 in less danger (in fact, there was none) than those 

 on the shore of Melville Island. They were stilly 



