102 The Dangers of Melville Bay. 



whaler, just visible above the icy horizon, but the 

 floes have apparently closed up the passage by which 

 she had gone through, so that the knowledge of her 

 position is of very little value to us. 



Most ominous and significant preparations were 

 made during the day. Provisions were hoisted up 

 from below, and ranged along the upper deck, in 

 readiness to be placed in the boats, or thrown out 

 on the ice, should it be necessary to abandon the 

 vessel, each man of the ship's company being 

 ordered to have a shift of clothing packed up 

 handy in a small bag. When a vessel is " nipped " 

 by the ice, there having been no time to cut a dock 

 out of the land floe, this relentless foe must pass 

 either over or under the ship, and that so quickly 

 that the men have barely time in the former case 

 to jump out on the ice. Several instances have 

 occurred in which the iee has nipped and gone 

 through a ship ; and on one occasion, that of the 

 whaler " North Britain," in the year 1830, it is 

 related that the surgeon, who was sitting in the 

 cabin at the time, beheld the ice breaking through 

 both sides of the ship, and he was barely able to 

 make his retreat in safety. In that year no less 

 than twenty vessels were lost in Melville Bay, 

 some of them being literally crushed to pieces. 

 The year 1819 was also most disastrous to our 

 whaling fleet, fourteen vessels having been lost ; 

 in fact, until the introduction of steam, scarcely a 



