VOYAGE OF THE "TERROR." 



197 



he was to examine the coast line as far as the Point Turnagain of Franklin. It is 

 unnecessary to go into further details, as the expedition, geographically considered, was 

 a failure. But the voyage is, nevertheless, one of the most interesting on record, and 

 gives us a vivid picture, or series of pictures, of the dangers incurred in the Arctic 

 seas. The now historical Terror was the vessel employed, and the expedition left England 

 on June 14th, 1836, crossing Davis' Straits six weeks later, where an enormous ice- 

 berg, "the perpendicular face of which was not less than 300 feet high," was 



THE "TERKOK'" NIPPED IN THE ICE. 



sighted. The vessel soon became entangled in the ice-floes, and this was only the 

 forerunner of their subsequent experiences. For nine months they were wedged up with 

 massive ice, and four months of this time were, as Back expresses it, on " an icy 

 cradle," lifted out of the water. On September 5th there was a calm, and the whole 

 of the officers and men were despatched to the only open water at all near, where 

 with axes, ice-chisels, hand-spikes, and long poles, they began the laborious process of 

 cutting away the " sludge" that bound the broken ice together, and removing them 

 into the clear space. In this service they were frequently obliged to fasten lines to 

 the heavier masses and haul them out, but though slipping and tumbling about, "the 

 light-hearted fellows pulled in unison to a cheerful song, and laughed and joked with 

 the unreflecting merriment of schoolboys. Every now and then some luckless wight 



