Chap. XIII. BACK'S ATTEMPT TO REACH REPULSE BAY. 501 



nicate with the Hudson's Bay Company's factory, 

 in the event of the loss of the ship ; an event that 

 might happen at any moment. 



" We were in momentary expectation of seeing the two 

 remaining floe pieces, on which we were partly poised, sepa- 

 rate, so as to allow the ship to settle into the water ; espe- 

 cially when the outer portion of the cracked floe, on the 

 starboard side, suddenly parted from its better half, and 

 glided mysteriously away among the still rugged but looser 

 fragments near. But when our favourite look-out, which we 

 had jestingly denominated Mount Pleasant, the faithful com- 

 panion of our wanderings from Cape Bylot to this spot, 

 staunch and unshaken amidst the crash and ruin which had 

 surrounded it — when this, too, departed, and became lost 

 and undistinguishable amongst other peaks and hummocks, 

 what could we look for but an utter desolation of all the parts 

 of our system ?" — p. 304. 



Still they remained firm as a rock : the sides of 

 the icy cradle had departed, but the foundation 

 remained, and carried its burthen along with it 

 at pleasure. On the 10th of April, being near Sir 

 James Gordon's Bay, which is close to Seahorse 

 Point, they were met by rising waves of ice rolling 

 their burdens towards the ship. " One had reared 

 itself thirty feet on our inner floe-piece, which, stroug 

 as it was, gave way under the accumulated weight; 

 and a mass of several tons being thus upturned and 

 added to the original bulk, the whole bore down 

 slowly upon our quarter." 



"The ship herself was high out of the water, on the ice, 

 but this overtopped her like a tower. Meantime we were 



