PERILOUS SITUATION. 63 



those further in, being more extensive, were al- 

 ternately depressed or elevated at either ex- 

 tremity as the advancing wave forced its way 

 along. The see-saw motion which was thus pro- 

 duced was alarming, not merely in appearance, 

 but, in fact ; and must have proved fatal to any 

 vessel that had encountered it, as floes of ice, 

 several yards in thickness, were continually 

 crashing and breaking in pieces, and the sea 

 for miles was covered with fragments ground 

 so small that they actually formed a thick, pasty 

 substance — in nautical language termed " brash 

 ice" — which extended to the depth of H\e feet. 

 Amidst this giddy element, our whole atten- 

 tion was occupied in endeavouring to place the 

 bow of the vessel, the strongest part of her 

 frame, in the direction of the most formidable 

 pieces of ice — a manoeuvre which, though likely 

 to be attended with the loss of the bowsprit, 

 was yet preferable to encountering the still 

 greater risk of having the broadside of the ves- 

 sel in contact with it. For this would have sub- 

 jected her to the chance of dipping her gun- 

 wale under the floes as she rolled ; an acci- 

 dent which, had it occurred, would either have 

 laid open her side or have overset the vessel 

 at once. In either case the event would pro- 

 bably have proved fatal to all on board, as it 



