182 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



ship were free when the ice moved she would go along 

 with it ; if she were tied up she might have to stand the 

 brunt in a very unfavorable position. As it was, she lay 

 in a kind of canal a little wider than her own length, 

 and ready for action ahead or astern. I concluded to 

 let her remain so, and watch for results. At five 

 p. M. I noticed that she commenced floating stern first 

 through the canal. About a mile astern (E.) was a 

 large patch of open water, and from ahead (W.) the 

 broken floe pieces were gathering away and coming 

 down upon us. At a little bend in the canal her stern 

 took the floe and held fast, while her bow payed around 

 as prettily as if we were casting under jibs. No sooner 

 had she got stern to the wind than the advancing ice 

 was upon us, and we were pushed, forced, squeezed, 

 driven through this mile of a canal amid a grinding and 

 groaning of timbers and a crashing and tumbling of ice 

 that was fearful to look at. Still we sailed on, and in a 

 half hour or so were sent out into the opening beyond 

 where our speed decreased, and drifting over toward a 

 thin floe we ran our bows into the young ice and held 

 fast heading S. Though we moved at no time with 

 greater speed than say two knots an hour, our passage 

 through that sluiceway of running ice was enough to 

 make one's hair stand on end, and each of us heaved 

 a sigh of relief when it was over. If we had in the 

 morning planted an ice-anchor to a small floe, I am' 

 convinced this pressure would have torn us aw-ay from 

 it, and the stream of flowing ice might have jammed us 

 across this canal and given us some injury, even if it 

 had not climbed on board. Having a bright moon, 

 nearly full, we could see, and that was a great comfort. 

 I could not help thinking how much worse it would 

 have been on a dark night, when we could have heard 



