THE "TRENT" AND "DOROTHEA" IN THE ICE. 167 



ice, but which was the cause of a ship's launch being- carried ninety-six feet by the wave- 

 produced, filled with water, and landed on a beach, where it was badly stove, the men 

 barely escaping with their lives. They also had the rare opportunity of noting- the creation 

 of an iceberg-. An immense piece of the front of a glacier was observed sliding- down from 

 the height of at least 200 feet into the sea, dispersing the water in every direction. This 

 discharge was accompanied by a loud grinding noise, and the ice was followed by quantities 

 of water, which, being previously lodged in the fissures, now made its escape in numberless 

 small cataracts from the face of the glacier. Some idea may be formed of the disturbance 

 caused by its plunge and the rollers which agitated the bay when we learn that the 

 Dorothea, then careening on her side at a distance of four miles, righted herself. This 

 mass dived wholly under water, and then reappeared, rearing its head a hundred feet high, 

 .accompanied by the boiling of the sea and clouds of spray. Its circumference was found 

 to be nearly a quarter of a mile, while its weight was computed at over 400,000 tons. 



In summer the coasts of Spitzbergen were found perfectly alive with animated nature. 

 The shores reverberated with the cries of the little auks, cormorants, divers, and gulls. 

 Walruses were basking in the sun, mingling their roar with the bark of the seal. Beechey 

 describes an uninterrupted line of little auks flying in the air three miles in length, 

 and so close together that thirty fell at one shot. He estimated their number at 

 4,000,000, allowing sixteen to a cubic yard. This number appears very large ; yet 

 Audubon, in describing the passenger-pigeons on the banks of the Ohio, speaks of one single 

 flock of 1,115,000,000. Audubon's character for veracity is too unquestioned for us to 

 inquire how he made the calculation. 



The surrounding islands were thick with reindeer, Vogel Sang, in particular, yielding 

 the expedition forty carcases. The king eider-ducks were found in such numbers that it 

 was impossible almost to walk without treading on their nests, which they defended with 

 -determined resolution; but, in fact, all nature was alive at this time, and birds of many 

 kinds, foxes, and bears, were everywhere found on the shore and on the ice, while amphibious 

 animals, from whales downwards, abounded in the water. 



On the 7th of June the ships left Magdalena Bay, and were greatly hampered in the 

 ice. Indeed, they learned from several whale-ships that the ice to the westward was very 

 thick, and that fifteen vessels were beset in it. Proceeding northward themselves, they 

 became entangled in a floe of ice, where they had to remain thirteen days, after which the 

 field broke up, and they got into an open sea. Several attempts were made to prosecute 

 their voyage in a northerly direction, but without success ; and Captain Buchan, being 

 satisfied that he had given the ice a fair trial in the vicinity of Spitzbergen, resolved on 

 bearing for the coast of Greenland. Having arrived at the edge of the pack, a gale came 

 on so suddenly that they were at once reduced to storm staysails. The vessels were re- 

 duced to take refuge among the ice, a proceeding often rendered necessary in those latitudes, 

 though extremely dangerous. The Trent, following the Dorothea, dashed into the unbroken 

 line of furious breakers, in which immense masses of ice were crashing, heaving, and sub- 

 siding with the waves. The noise was so great that the officers could scarcely be heard 

 "by the crew. "If ever the fortitude of seamen was fairly tried it was assuredly not less 

 so on this occasion ; and I would not," says Beechey, " conceal the pride I felt in wit- 



