148 AN AWFUL CRISIS. 



carpenters and others stationed below were violently 

 thrown down on the deck, as people are in an 

 earthquake. It was a moment of intense sus- 

 pense. 



" On the 16th, another rush drove irresistibly on 

 the larboard quarter and stern, and forcing the ship 

 ahead, raised her on the ice. A chaotic ruin fol- 

 lowed..:... The ship was careened fully four streaks, 

 and sprang a leak as before. Scarcely were ten 

 minutes left us for the expression of our astonish- 

 ment that anything of human build could outlive 

 such assaults, when another equally violent rush 

 succeeded ; and in its way toward the starboard 

 quarter threw up a rolling wave thirty feet high, 

 crowned by a blue square mass of many tons, re- 

 sembling the entire side of a house, which, after 

 hanging for some time in doubtful poise on the 

 ridge, at length fell with a crash into the hollow, 

 in which, as in a cavern, the after-part of the ship 

 seemed embedded. It was, indeed, an awful crisis, 

 rendered more frightful from the mistiness of the 

 night and dimness of the moon. 



" The poor ship cracked and trembled violently, 

 and no one could say that the next minute would 

 not be her last and, indeed, his own too, for 

 with her our means of safety would probably 

 perish." 



It is unnecessary to give additional instances of 

 this kind, in order to show the terrible power of 

 field-ice. Indeed, it requires little in the way of 



