304 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



the same as on a lee shore, advanced directly to- 

 wards us with a velocity of about three knots. All 

 hands were instantly roused, the boats were manned 

 and lowered into the water to tow the ship ; but be- 

 fore she could be moved from the place, the ice was 

 alongside. Happily the ship rolled from it at the 

 moment the first blow was struck, which weakened 

 the shock, and, perhaps, prevented the ship from 

 being stove. The succeeding blows, though all re- 

 ceived under the ship's bottom, near the keel, proved 

 less and less formidable, until the ship was fairly 

 beaten out of the way ; so that the ice passed to 

 leeward, and was in a few minutes out of sight. 



When a swell operates against the side of a stream 

 or pack of ice, it washes away the snow from the sur- 

 face of the most exposed pieces, as well as part of the 

 ice, and forms every corner into a tongue. These 

 tongues, from the different deptlis they occupy in 

 the sea, are forced one upon another, and so locked 

 together, that the most violent waves, being inca- 

 pable of moving them at a little distance from the 

 edge, become totally suppressed. Hence a stream 

 of heavy ice, however narrow, provided it consist of 

 half a dozen or more pieces in breadth, and be well 

 compacted, is capable of resisting the highest swells in 

 an astonishing degree, and for a considerable period. 

 Under shelter of such a stream, though the waves of 

 the Atlantic beat against it, the navigator finds a 

 comfortable retreat, in a sea almost as smooth as a 



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