FAST IN THE ICE. 167 



selves much nearer to land than we have been here- 

 tofore. 



November 1th, Friday. — During the night the open- 

 ino" closed under seeming great pressure, for at day- 

 break, say eight A. m., the ice was piled up in great 

 heaps on the edge of our floe, which was of sufficient 

 strength evidently to bear the brunt. The pressure 

 came from S. S. E., the line of the crack being N. N, E. 

 and S. S. W. true, and since our floe was the stronger, 

 the pressing floe rode up on top of it, breaking off, and 

 leaving its own edges in a muddled pile. The thick- 

 ness of these edges was by actual measurement 7 feet 

 10 inches, 6 inches being snow on the surface. Some 

 of the pieces were pea green, or sea green rather, and 

 some light blue, and in several places showed a muddy 

 and dirty side as if they had been in the mud or had 

 stranded on a beach. 



Not knowing very well what was going to happen, I 

 watched this ridge with considerable interest. We had 

 had since midnight a decreasing S. W. wind, but at ten 

 A. M. it became perfectly calm. About eleven A. m., to 

 our surprise, the pressing floe receded, leaving a space 

 about ten yards in width from floe to floe, and through 

 this the ice beo;au to set to W. and N. as throug^h a 

 gorge, with a velocit}^ of about half a mile an hour. The 

 pressure became very great. The smaller pieces passed 

 on readily enough, but the large hummocks or broken 

 floe pieces would occasionally jam against our floe, and 

 being pressed from behind by the confused mass would 

 exert an influence on our floe that made it groan and 

 crack and move under our feet. This mass was flowing 

 not over fifty yards from the ship, then heading east 

 northeast, and as it crushed and o-roaned alonsc, and our 

 floe throbbed and shook with the strain brought upon 



