1875 RETREAT. 95 



As the exposed parts of the border of our floe were 

 broken up one after another the line of nip was 

 steadily but surely nearing us ; but as the same kind of 

 terrific combat was going on a quarter of a mile to the 

 southward, on the other side of the ships, it was un- 

 wise to move sooner than we were compelled to. 



This was the first time the ice-quartermasters — ex- 

 perienced men in the ice-navigation of Baffin's Bay — 

 realized the vast thickness and power of the Polar ice 

 as compared with that with which they had hitherto 

 been acquainted. The closing together of two Polar 

 floes upwards of fifty feet in thickness may be appro- 

 priately compared to the closing of the two sides of a 

 dry dock on the doomed vessel. 



As the position of the nip advanced so the two 

 ships gradually retreated before it, losing, much to the 

 regret of all, a portion of our hard-won advance 

 towards the north. By the evening of the 18th we 

 had been forced back into a small pool of water close 

 to the two grounded icebergs, against which our floe 

 was resting with the outside pack nipping against the 

 whole length of its outer edge in anything but a re- 

 assuring manner. 



The water-pool in which the two ships floated was 

 steadily contracted in size, until at last it became so 

 small that had a nip occurred both must have been 

 destroyed at the same moment. Although the greatest 

 danger was imminent, entrapped as we were, our 

 anxiety was lessened by the knowledge that as human 

 beings we were powerless, and must leave the result to 

 Providence. About midnight when, in endeavouring 

 to keep the ships as far apart as possible, the ' Alert's ' 



