328 THE BREAK-UP OF THE ICE 



All this time we had been getting up steam as fast 

 as possible, so as to be ready for any emergency. On 

 the opposite side of the river we could see a haven of 

 perfect safety, a long creek already full of water, and 

 having the additional advantage of not being on the 

 scour side of the river. When we had got sufficient 

 steam to turn the engine we found, to our dismay, that 

 the ice which had already passed us had squeezed us 

 towards the shore, and that there must have been a 

 subsequent fall in the water, for we were at least two 

 feet aground at the stern, and immovable as a rock. 

 The current was still running up the river, and against 

 it there was no chance of swinging the ship round. A 

 mile astern of us was the edge of the Yenesei ice. There 

 was nothing to be done but to wait. In a short time the 

 river began to rise again rapidly, and with it our hopes 

 that we might float and steam into safety, when suddenly 

 we discovered, to our terror, that the ice on the Yenesei 

 was breaking up, and that a dread phalanx of ice-floes 

 and pack-ice was coming down upon us at quick march. 

 On it came, smashed the rudder, ground against the 

 stern of the ship, sometimes squeezing her against the 

 shore so that she pitched and rolled as if she were in 

 a heavy sea, and sometimes surrounding her with small 

 floes which seemed to try and lift her bodily out of the 

 water. Once or twice an ice-floe began to climb up the 

 ship's side like a snake. Some of the sailors got over- 

 board and scrambled over the pack-ice to the shore. 

 Others threw their goods and chattels to their comrades 

 ashore. At length an immense ice-flow of irresistible 

 weight struck the ship. There was no alternative but 

 to slip the anchor and allow her to drive with the ice. 

 Away we went up the Kureika, the ice rolling and 

 tumbling and squeezing alongside of us, huge lumps 



