Chap. VI. CAPTAIN PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 191 



days and nights, attending to the safety of the ship in this 

 dangerous tideway." — p. 258. 



The Fury had almost as narrow an escape as the 

 Hecla. The next day the Fury for an hour or two 

 was continually grazed, and sometimes heeled over 

 by a degree of pressure which under other circum- 

 stances would not have been a moderate one. 



" A little before noon a heavy floe some miles in length, 

 being probably a part of that lately detached from the shore, 

 came driving down fast towards us, giving us serious reason 

 to apprehend some more fatal catastrophe than any we had 

 yet encountered. In a few minutes it came in contact, at 

 the rate of a mile and a half an hour, with a point of the 

 land-ice left the preceding night by its own separation, 

 breaking it up with a tremendous crash, and forcing num- 

 berless immense masses, perhaps many tons in weight, to 

 the height of fifty or sixty feet, from whence they again 

 rolled down on the inner or land side, and were quickly 

 succeeded by a fresh supply. While we were obliged to be 

 quiet spectators of this grand but terrific sight, being within 

 five or six hundred yards of the point, the danger to our- 

 selves was twofold ; first, lest the floe should now swing in, 

 and serve us much in the same manner ; and secondly, lest its 

 pressure should detach the land ice to which we were se- 

 cured, and thus set us adrift and at the mercy of the tides. 

 Happily, however, neither of these occurred, the floe re- 

 maining stationary for the rest of. the tide and setting off 

 with the ebb which made soon after." — p. 260. 



In addition to the danger which threatened to 

 crush and overwhelm the ships among these tre- 

 mendous masses of ice thus thrown into violent 

 motion, was the chance of being beset in the midst 



