ESCAPES FBOM ICEBERGS. 77 



to the northeast from us, and not one drop of wate/ to be 

 seen ; they were working themselves right through the mid- 

 dle of the ice. The dreadful apprehensions that assailed us 

 yesterday, by the near approach of the iceberg, were this 

 day awfully realized. About three P. M. the iceberg came 

 in contact with our floe, and in less than one minute it broke 

 the ice we were frozen in quite close to the shore ; the floe 

 (similiar to field ice, but smaller, as its extent can be seen), 

 was shivered to pieces for several miles, causing an explos- 

 sion like an earthquake, or one hundred pieces of cannon 

 fired at the same moment. The iceberg, with awful but 

 majestic grandeur (in height and dimensions resembling 

 a vast mountain), came almost to our stern, and every one 

 expected it w^ould have run over the ship. The intermediate 

 space between the berg and the vessel was filled with heavy 

 masses of ice, which, though they had been previously bro- 

 ken by the immense weight of the iceberg, were again 

 formed into a solid body by its pressure. The iceberg was 

 drifting at the rate of about four knots an hour, — and by its 

 force on the mass of ice, was pushing the ship before it, and, 

 as it seemed, to inevitable destruction. A gracious Provi- 

 dence ruled this otherwise : the iceberg, that so lately threat- 

 ened destruction, was driven completely out of sight to the 

 northeast." 



It has been supposed that the unfortunate steamship the 

 President, which left England for New York in 1841, was 

 crushed to pieces between icebergs. In the year that 

 this magnificent vessel was lost, the Atlantic Ocean was 

 more thickly beset with icebergs, and at an earlier season, 

 than commonly occurs. This is ascertained from a report 

 of the Great Western steamer, which was published in New 

 York. This vessel left England about the middle of April 

 in the same year, and encountered an ice-field, which ex- 

 tended far more than a hundred miles, and along the south- 

 ern edge of which she proceeded. This edge was lined by 



