CHOICE OF ALTERNATIVES. 121 



taken, our approach to the breakers only left us 

 the alternative of either permitting the brig to 

 be drifted broadside against the ice, and so to 

 take her chance, or of endeavouring to force fair- 

 ly into it by putting before the wind, as the 

 Dorothea had done. Had we been permitted to 

 witness the fate of that ship, we should not have 

 hesitated to follow her example, but, as it 

 was, a momentary doubt rested upon our minds 

 as to the prudence of so desperate a measure. 

 At length, the hopeless state of a vessel placed 

 broadside against so formidable a body became 

 apparent to all, and w r e resolved to attempt the 

 latter expedient. 



While we were yet a few fathoms from the 

 ice, we searched with much anxiety for a place 

 that was more open than the general line of the 

 pack, but in vain ; all parts appeared to be equally 

 impenetrable, and to present one unbroken line 

 of furious breakers, in which immense pieces of 

 ice were heaving and subsiding with the waves, 

 and dashing together with a violence which 

 nothing apparently but a solid body could 

 withstand, occasioning such a noise that it was 

 with the greatest difficulty we could make our 

 orders heard by the crew. This scrutiny, al- 

 though but of momentary duration, allowed us 

 more narrowly to examine the scene around us 



