70 THE LIFE OF E. J. PECK 



dialectical nature, still I never once regretted the 

 time spent in that study of the Moravian trans 

 lation. 



" To return to that voyage. It was on entering 

 Hudson's Straits that I saw icebergs for the first 

 time, mountains of glacier ice that floated down, 

 majestic to the eye, but dangerous for the ship, 

 upon the Arctic current into the Gulf Stream that 

 flows out by Belle Isle. Passing through the ice 

 berg region we came upon some fields of drift ice. 

 Drift ice is ice which has become loosened, by the 

 coming of the brief Arctic summer, from the frozen 

 coast line, and has floated out from the more 

 northern bays and inlets. Driven by the winds 

 and currents, until miles upon miles of sea are 

 covered with almost impassable areas of the frozen 

 blocks, the drift ice becomes pack-ice, and forms 

 a fearful danger to the vessel caught in its icy 

 talons. For every ship is not a ' Fram,' fitted 

 to crush her way through this hideous Arctic 

 barrier. 



" But God was with us on that voyage, and 

 though we had difficulties, we came safely through 

 these seas of ice. 



" Our course was now shaped southerly, and we 

 sailed right down Hudson's Bay. Navigation be 

 came very critical here, and oftentimes dangerous, 

 on account of the number of shallows and shoals. 

 The lead had to be kept going for soundings day 





