178 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



tearing away our helm, I saw near us, between 

 two bergs, a seal which came to the surface 

 several times to breathe, at the imminent risk 

 of being smashed to pieces. 



The whole ice-field seemed to tremble. 

 That which but an hour since had appeared an 

 extensive white prairie covered with snow and 

 starred with small lakes, had abruptly become 

 a chaos of ice blocks, white, green, blue or 

 yellow, which creaked and crashed and leapt 

 one on to the other. The floes broke into 

 large slabs which, forced by the great pressure, 

 rose perpendicularly into the air and slid one 

 over the other. All this mass was swept 

 towards us at great speed ; it was like the 

 rush of a great river. Fortunately, the floe 

 against which we lay protected us, and the 

 swiftly moving bergs passed away astern as 

 though carried onwards by some rapid torrent. 

 The bergs, towering high into the sky and sliding 

 along the ship's sides, threatened each moment 

 to tear away our helm and screw. Thanks to 

 Providence, however, we escaped damage, just 

 as we had done in the Kara Sea, and the fate 

 of those numberless vessels which have been 

 crushed under similar circumstances. 



The scene was truly terrible. The rapid 

 movement of these gigantic ice blocks, smashing 



