200 THE SEA. 



ship, and give bis life for his messmates." Buck, in common with so many Arctic com- 

 manders before and since, saw the necessity of occupying- and amusing his men; and on 

 the 22nd October a general masquerade was held on board, which gave rise to much 

 hilarity and fun. Later, theatrical entertainments were organised. 



Some observations by Back on the gradual growth of ice, by layers forced together 

 above or underneath, will explain the apparent discrepancies in Arctic works, where one 

 reads of ice of so many different thicknesses formed in the same winter. It is probable 

 that the very thick ice found in many parts of floes is formed by an accumulation of 

 such layers, cemented together in bights or bays, sheltered by projecting capes or 

 headlands, and less liable to disturbance from currents and tides; for they had ocular 

 demonstration, that with a very low temperature and calm weather, in the severest 

 portion of the winter, no addition of bulk takes place from the surface downwards 

 when protected, as their floe was, by a hard coating of snow and drift. The doubling 

 and packing of ice during gales of wind and when exposed to severe pressure, as well 

 as the growth and the extensive fields, are phenomena which the attentive observations of 

 modern voyagers have rendered familiar; and by an extension of the above remark, 

 another explanation besides the action of the waves (for the mere heat of the sun has 

 little influence) is afforded as to how the destruction of the immense fields of ice is 

 effected, not, indeed, by pointing out the agents of the destruction, but by showing 

 how little may in many instances be added in successive winters to the bulk to be 

 destroyed. The fact that no new deposition takes place underneath seems also at once 

 to account for the decayed and wasting appearance, which every one accustomed to 

 polar navigation must have noticed in what is called the old ice, of which sailors 

 will sometimes say (< Aye, sir, that piece is older than I am, but it cannot last above 

 another summer. " The writer well remembers the idea of age, in another form, being 

 associated with snow : " That there snow," said one of the sailors to him, " is three 

 hundred year old, if it's a day. Why, don't you see the wrinkles all over the face of it?" 

 Every one has noticed the wrinkles and ridges in snow, but the idea of associating great 

 age with them was original. 



The winter passed slowly, with many false and some true alarms of the ice being 

 in motion. On February 20th they were in imminent peril. For three hours after 

 midnight the ice opened and shut, threatening to crack the vessel like a nutshell. At 

 4 a.m. the whole of the ice was in motion, great fissures opening on every side. Back 

 writes : " After 8 a.m. we had some quiet ; and at divisions I thought it necessary to 

 address the crew, reminding them, as Christians and British seamen, they were called 

 upon to conduct themselves with coolness and fortitude, and that independently of the 

 obligations imposed by the Articles of War, every one ought to be influenced by the 

 still higher motive of a conscientious desire to perform his duty. I gave them to 

 understand that I expected from one and all, in the event of any disaster, an implicit 

 obedience to and energetic execution of every order that they might receive from the 

 officers, as well as kind and compassionate help to the sick. On their observance of 

 these injunctions, I warned them, our ultimate safety might depend. Some fresh articles 

 of warm clothing were then dealt out to them ; and as the moment of destruction was 



