164 CAPTAIN CARTWRIGHT'S 



grounded again, and the casks of salt pressed so 

 hard against her sides as to force them open. She 

 sprung her main thwart, and drew both that and 

 the partner thwart off from the gunwhale on the 

 starboard side; when the mast, wliich was very 

 heavy, heeling to the other, I expected she would 

 have fallen abroad. We inmiediately fixed the 

 main haulyards to a rock; and by so doing, sup- 

 ported the mast and gave her great ease. As soon 

 as she was afloat, we landed four hogsheads of 

 bread, one empty hogshead, and a grindstone; 

 and put fourteen hogsheads of salt upon a pan of 

 ice. We then bored holes through her sides with 

 an auger, drew them in, and lashed them round 

 the main mast with ratline, and by passing it 

 through the thwarts, we secured them at the same 

 time. At high water the ice pressed exceedingly 

 hard upon us. It froze, snowed, and drifted very 

 much all day. We picked up some drift-wood, 

 with which we made a fire by the side of a rock; 

 but, even with this accommodation, we were 

 starved, and much dispirited in our situation : for 

 we expected to lose the boat; our skiff would not 

 carry more than five ; and we were full sixty miles 

 from the nearest inhabited place within our 

 knowledge. 



Wednes. June 14, 1775. At seven this morning, 

 the larboard bowfast parted, and the cleat of the 

 large road was carried away. The large ice with- 

 out us, being now broken in pieces, pressed harder 

 than ever. At eleven, she took the ground in a 

 yery ugly manner, hanging between a rock on one 



