BI/XTKINQ UP OF THE HANSA. 105 



difficult to get from tlie cabin to the lodging. The young 

 ice surrounding the Hansa was so heavily laden with 

 the snowfall, that it gave way, loosening itself from the 

 ship, and causing the sea-water to penetrate between the 

 ice and the snow. At the same time it blew violently 

 from the north ; the thermometer stood at 9^° Fahr., and 

 suddenly the wind with a rushing noise hurled the ship 

 over to starboard, so that, owing to the impossibility of 

 seeing farther than a few paces, we feared lest she might 

 be driven from the field. The ropes were therefore with 

 much trouble made fast to the ice-anchor, a work which 

 took all the men more than an hour to accomplish. By 

 the 13th, the storm had spent itself ; it was once more 

 clear, quiet weather, and we found ourselves sixteen 

 nautical miles north-east from the Liverpool coast. It 

 looked like a steep, jagged mountain chain, sparingly 

 covered with snow. Greater quantities only appeared in 

 the valleys and ravines. We could distinctly see the 

 northern point. Cape Gladstone, and the outlying islands 

 of Murray and Reynolds, as also a great part of the far 

 distant sontherly-stretching coast, which, according to 

 the astronomical observations of the 14th to the 15th, 

 lies in reality ten nautical miles more to the south than 

 is given on Scoresby's chart. The drift current on those 

 days, from the 5th to the 14th of October, was very 

 powerful. In this time we left seventy-two nautical 

 miles behind us to south-south-west. The nights were 

 remarkably cold, sometimes 4° F. below zero. The only 

 sign of animal life was the frequent appearance of ravens 

 {Gorvus corax) in the neighbourhood of the ship, which 

 doubtless were wintering on the coast. Once we saw a 

 gull and a falcon; and now and then we were made 



