72 The Rolling Pack. 



only a matter of form that we had a candle lighted in 

 the cabin, and when I retired to bed at midnight there 

 was sufficient light in my little cabin to read by. 



Friday, May oOth. — The wind having gone 

 down, the engines are once more brought into 

 play, and we are again propelled by the " brass 

 topsail." We are still hugging the ice, and have 

 passed through various deep bights along the edge 

 of the main pack, and through several broad streams 

 of ice. The late northerly winds having caused a 

 heavy swell to arise, the heaving, rolling pack 

 through which we steamed had a most indescribable 

 appearance, bringing vividly to my imagination the 

 dangers encountered by the little " Fox " whilst 

 under the command of Sir Leopold McClintock, 

 when she successfully steamed out of the rolling 

 pack after having undergone the vicissitudes of an 

 Arctic winter. One must actually experience the 

 dangers of Arctic navigation before they can be 

 realized. Several of the floes that we passed to-day 

 were piled up with masses of hummocky ice, formed 

 in solid square and cubic blocks, resting in an 

 uneven and confused manner one on the other, and 

 presenting in places, varied brilliant tints of blue. 



These hummocks are formed by the action of one 

 floe against another, pressing and squeezing off by 

 their ponderous weight these fragments which rest 

 on the floe where they have fallen. 



It is most interesting to watch from the forecastle 

 the ship battling, as it were, with the ice, one 



