Chap. XIII. BACK'S ATTEMPT TO REACH REPULSE BAY. 499 



from her being lifted bodily, in one of these com- 

 motions, eighteen inches, that she had still the base 

 of the floe to rest upon ; and though frequently 

 " squeezed," and repeatedly u nipped," she was at 

 intervals jerked up fi from the pressure underneath, 

 with a groan each time from the woodwork." The 

 enduring Terror continued day after day to receive 

 this kind of treatment without any increasing leak- 

 age, which seemed to prove she was still out of 

 the water; this was made manifest on the 1st of 

 March, when " she became so hampered with ice 

 underneath, that the remainder of the floe, on either 

 side, moved about eight or ten feet ahead, leaving 

 the ship fixed in the midst, and wedged up in every 

 direction," — a novelty which, it is said, strangely 

 puzzled the Greenland men. 



In this way, with continual convulsive cracks and 

 ominous tremblings, thus wedged in, the Terror was 

 borne away in the midst of the ocean, heaven knows 

 where, for none on board could know, from the 

 prevailing fogs and the trustless compasses, till the 

 1 lth of March, when a little respite was afforded 

 by the fineness of the day, which induced some 

 of the men to amuse themselves by cutting figures 

 of men and women from blocks of snow, with little 

 boys in hats and trowsers; houses, forts, and ves- 

 sels ; and depositing them on a smooth piece of 

 solid ice clinging to the ship, for exhibition : thus 

 the light-hearted crew, in the first moment that 



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