142 CASE OF " NIPPING." 



drift so dense that they could neither hear nor see 

 what was going on twenty yards off. At night the 

 ship became suddenly detached from her wintry bed, 

 and heeled over to the storm, inducing them to be- 

 lieve that the whole pack had been broken up and 

 was pressing against them. This was not the case. 

 A large mass of ice had protected them ; but at a 

 distance of about fifty yards, ice of four and a half 

 feet thick had been crushed to atoms. Soon after, 

 the protecting mass yielded, and the Fox received a 

 " nip " which lifted her stern about a foot, while 

 occasional groaning from her sturdy little hull re- 

 plied to the wild surgings of the ice without. 



But all this was as nothing compared with the 

 scene of desperate turmoil and confusion which took 

 place when the ice finally broke up, and a gale 

 raised a fearful swell ; so that the Fox found her- 

 self surrounded by huge masses, which tossed and 

 ground against each other furiously, and any two 

 of which pieces could have crushed in her sides as if 

 she had been made of walnut shell. Gradually the 

 pack opened out, and the vessel,> by aid of wind and 

 steam, was mercifully delivered from her dangerous 

 position. 



Before passing from the subject of risk to navi- 

 gators to the consideration of other forms and aspects 

 of polar ice, let us take a glance at an effectual case 

 of nipping. There have been many partial and 

 severe nips, the descriptions of which are all more 

 or less graphic ; but few ships have come so sud- 



