446 WHALE-FISHERY. 



pected to have been of sufficient strength to have 

 stopped the motion of the ice, was unfortunately 

 shivered to pieces by the severity of the pressure*. 

 At this time, a thin part of the southern floe lay 

 against the starboard-side of the ship, readily squeez- 

 ed up, and appeared incapable of doing any damage, 

 while two pieces of ice, touching the northern floe, 

 and pressing against the larboard-side of the ship 

 appeared so small, that their action was not regard- 

 ed. From neither of these, therefore, did we appre- 

 hend any danger, particularly as the motion of the 

 ice soon abated ; and as the ship never showed any 

 symptom of a dangerous pressure, such as lifting 

 abaftf , heeling to one side, shaking of her frame, or 

 cracking of tlie tim.bers, we imagined that she had 

 escaped without damage. There was a danger, how- 

 ever, on the larboard-quarter, of v/hich wj were to- 

 tally unconscious. The piece of ice that touched 

 the ship in that part, though of itself scarcely six 

 yards square, and not more than one yard above 



• While we v/ere thus endangered, the John was m circum- 

 stances still more alarming. After she had passed the narroAv 

 channel through which we made the first attempt to escape, 

 she was suddenly involved by distant ice, and made a very 

 narrow escape from bein.'i" crushed to pieces. 



+ Ships pressed by the ice abaft, almost always rise to a 

 considerable height above the usual floating line ; luindreds of 

 ships have been lifted several feet without sustaining any da- 

 maire. 



