170 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANXETTE. 



it. A rumble, a shriek, a groan, and a crash of a falHng 

 house all combined might serve to convey an idea of 

 the noise with which this motion of ice-floes is accom- 

 panied. Great masses, from fifteen to twenty-five feet 

 in height when up-ended, are sliding along at various 

 angles of elevation and jam, and between and among 

 them are large and confused masses of debris, like a 

 marble yard adrift. Occasionally, a stoppage occurs ; 

 some piece has caught against or under our floe ; then 

 occurs a groaning and cracking ; our floe bends and 

 humps up in places like domes. Crash ! the dome splits, 

 another yard of floe edge breaks off, the pressure is 

 relieved, and on goes again the flowing mass of rum- 

 bles, shrieks, groans, etc., for another spell. 



Our performance lasted only for half an hour this 

 time. At its conclusion I was startled to find that a 

 break had occurred in the floe across the bows of the 

 ship running towards the southwest, and that a pro- 

 jecting floeberg was plowing its way like a wedge to 

 break up the floe ahead of us and make a junction with 

 the old stream. In this case we should be in the centre 

 of an island, small at that, whose edges would be worn 

 away on all sides until we were left alone to be hurried 

 along in the race. At 4.20 P. M. the excitement began 

 again, and this time we had it heavily for four hours. I 

 fully made up my mind that we must go adrift. Hur- 

 riedly we broke up our temporary observatory near the 

 ship and took the instruments on board, suspending our 

 meteorological record while graver matters required our 

 attention. Everything movable was brought in, and 

 finally the dogs were with great difficulty collected and 

 brought on board ship, a proceeding which they did not 

 like, and which they resented by jumping over the rail 

 on the ice again, until we boarded it up so high they 



