Apb. 1858. AN ICE-TOURNAMENT. 105 



to US, and is welcome in our solitude. If the 

 ' Fox' was as solid as her neighbours, I am quite 

 sure she would enter into this ice-tournament 

 with all their apparent heartiness, instead of 

 audibly making known her sufferings to us. 

 Every considerable surface of ice has been 

 broken into many smaller ones; with feelings 

 of exultation I watched the process from aloft. 

 A floe-piece near us, of 100 yards in diameter, 

 was speedily cracked so as to resemble a sort of 

 labyrinth, or, still more, a field-spider's web. 

 In the course of half an hour the family re- 

 semblance was totally lost ; they had so bat- 

 tered each other, and struggled out of their 

 original regularity. The rolling sea can no 

 longer be checked ; " the pack has taken upon 

 itself the functions of an ocean," as Dr. Kane 

 graphically expresses it. 



26fA. — At sea ! How am I to describe the 

 events of the last two days? It has pleased 

 God to accord to us a deliverance in which His 

 merciful protection contrasts — how strongly ! — • 

 with our own utter helplessness ; as if the suc- 

 cessive mercies vouchsafed to us during our 

 long long winter and mysterious ice-drift had 

 been concentrated and repeated in a single act. 

 Thus forcibly does His great goodness come 

 home to the mind ! 



