part covered with frost and snow, with, here and there, 

 patches of dark black peat. Not a single shrub enlivened this 

 barren desolate spot. Here every thing wore a solitary, sad, 

 and dismal aspect. The hoarse murmuring of the waves, which 

 ever and anon renewed their assaults on the huge masses of 

 dark-grey rock that opposed them, gave it, I thought, a still 

 more despondent look. 



Ten o'clock. After bearing away from the land, we again 

 got in among straggling ice. 



After dinner, mis day, Mr. Johnson came down to the 

 cabin in great agitation to inform us that we were bearing 

 fast down on an immense mountain of ice.* A solemn pause 

 ensued on hearing this very alarming piece of intelligence. 

 In a short time, however, we were all upon deck ; and here 

 the appearance of our situation was awful in the extreme ; 

 the snouting of the men, the rumbling of the cordage, the 

 tremendous mountain of ice, on which we every moment ex- 

 pected to be dashed to pieces, contributed to render this 

 scene the most terrific mat could well be imagined. The 

 captain did all he could to get the ship about, but without 

 effect, owing to her having missed stays. We were not more 

 than ten yards from it, when fortunately a light breeze spring- 

 ing up, the sails filled, and in a short time we were completely 

 clear of this frightful mass. Plate III. affords a very correct 

 representation of it. 



The whole of this day was truly unpleasant ; the weather 

 continued thick and hazy ; indeed, the fog was at times so 

 dense that we could hardly see ten yards from the ship, in 

 consequence of which we were frequently just in contact with 

 fields of ice without being at all aware of it. Friday night 



The British Packet, Lady Hobart, ran against one of these floating 

 islands, higher than the mast-head, and of great extent, in June, 1803, and 

 foundered ; the crew and passengers saved themselves with great difficulty in 

 two boats. The American ship Ncptuno perished likewise in the same 

 manner, with a great part of the people in her. Captain Cotes, of the 

 Hudson's-Bay Company's service, lost two ships in a similar way ; one of 

 them by running against a piece of ice in the night, off Cape Farewell, in 

 consequence of which the ship foundered ; the other in Hudson's Straits, 

 where two large fields of ice were driven together with great force; the ship 

 being between them, was so much damaged that she sunk as soon as the ice 

 departed. Mr. Ellis tells us, that one of the Hudson's-Bay Company's 

 ships was caught in a similar way, while on her way from York-Fort to 

 Churchill ; upon the two pieces meeting, she was raised quite out of the 

 water, and left dry upon one of them ; but she receiving no damage by that 

 strange accident, when the ice opened, the people launched her, and pro- 

 ceeded on their voyage. See Ellis' t Voyage to HudtoKt Bay, p. 67. 



