26 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. July 



very thick, it became necessary either to get up steam 

 or secure the ships to an iceberg to prevent them 

 drifting into danger. I adopted the latter course. 



When a vessel is under steam nothing is simpler 

 than for a seaman to descend by a rope ladder from 

 the bowsprit end on to the ice below, keeping well 

 away from its edge, but in landing from a boat care is 

 necessary when scaling the side of a berg. On our 

 drifting near an apparently convenient piece of ice 

 a boat's crew were sent to fix the ice-anchor and 

 hawser. One of the men, in spite of the decayed 

 condition of the ice, managed to crawl up it in safety ; 

 but at the first blow from his chisel a large mass broke 

 off, fortunately shooting clear of the boat and crew 

 below. The amount disengaged was sufficient to 

 disturb the equilibrium of the iceberg, which began to 

 rock backwards and forwards ; the man, naturally 

 frightened, was obliged to struggle as best he could 

 along its slippery surface, like a squirrel in a circular 

 cage, much to the amusement of his shipmates on the 

 forecastle. The performance, however, involved a 

 certain element of danger, which I should have pre- 

 ferred to avoid. 



In the Waigat, like all narrow channels bounded 

 by lofty hills, the winds are very local, and while 

 blowing with force at the entrance seldom prevail 

 throughout the whole length ; hence the icebergs 

 driven before the wind accumulate at the locality 

 where the breeze ends. With a strong south-east 

 wind at the southern entrance we found the icebergs 

 collected in great numbers in the middle of the strait, 

 but at the north-west entrance near Hare Island few 



