106 THE ' FOX ' IN PEKIL. Chap. VI. 



I am in no humour for writing, being still 

 tired, seedy, and perhaps a little sea-sick ; at 

 least I have a headache, caused by the rolling of 

 the ship and rattling noise of everything. 



On Saturday night, the 24th, I went on deck 

 to spend the greater part of it in watching, and 

 to determine what to do. The swell greatly 

 increased ; it had evidently been approaching 

 for hours before it reached us, since it rose in 

 proportion as the ice was broken up into smaller 

 pieces. In a short time but few of them were 

 equal in size to the ship's deck ; most of them 

 not half so large. I knew that near the pack- 

 edge the sea would be very heavy and dan- 

 gerous ; but the wind was now fair, and, having 

 auxiliary steam-power, I resolved to push out of 

 the ice if possible. 



Shortly after midnight the ship was under 

 sail, slowly boring her way to the eastward ; at 

 two o'clock on Sunday morning commenced 

 steaming, the wind having failed. By eight 

 o'clock we had advanced considerably to the 

 eastward, and the swell had become dangerously 

 high, the waves rising ten feet above the trough 

 of the sea. The shocks of the ice against the 

 ship were alarmingly heavy ; it became neces- 

 sary to steer exactly head-on to swell. We 

 slowly passed a small iceberg 60 or 70 feet 



