A SCENE OF RUIN. 349 



ence to, and an energetic execution of, every order they might receive from 

 the officers, as well as kind and compassionate help to the sick. On their 

 observance of these injunctions, I warned them, our ultimate safety might 

 depend. Some fresh articles of warm clothing were then dealt out to them ; 

 and as the moment of destruction was uncertain, I desired that the small 

 bags in which those things were contained should be placed on deck with 

 the provisions (already collected there in anticipation of the break-up of the 

 ship), so as to be ready at any instant. Meanwhile the ice moved but little. 

 . . . Though I had seen vast bodies of ice from Spitzbergen to 150° W. 

 longitude, under various aspects, some beautiful, and all more or less awe- 

 inspiring, I had never witnessed, nor even imagined, anything so fearfully 

 magnificent, as the moving towers and ramparts that now frowned on 

 every side." At six o'clock in the evening the ice again attacked the ship. 

 The ominous cracking of the timbers again assailed the men's ears, and 

 again the vessel was lifted up eighteen inches ; similar " nips " with similar 

 effects took place on the following morning. At ten o'clock the ice-field 

 became fixed in utter silence. Back went out to examine the floe, and his 

 wonder was anew excited by the gigantic piles and ramparts of ice frown- 

 ing along the sides of the vessel. " Of the awful grandeur of these," he 

 writes, " no language could give an adequate description, and even the more 

 effective pencil would be able only to catch our momentary aspect of the 

 scene, the terrible solemnity of which lay chiefly in the rolling onward of 

 these mighty engines of destruction. . . . "While engaged with the first 

 lieutenant in contemplating these effects, within ten paces of the vessel, the 

 sound of rushing water beneath warned us to expect some change. All at 

 once, however, it ceased. Another rush was heard, which stopped as sud- 

 denly ; but a third, advancing with a louder roar, threw the whole body of 

 ice into motion, and bringing the ponderous acres with all their loads against 

 the ship, threw her up, and considerably over to starboard, with great vio- 

 lence, though, strange to say, with little apparent injury. It was then we 

 saw her rise to the pressure, and endeavour to thrust the ice beneath her 

 bends, a result much to be desired, as it would form a sort of bolster to sup- 

 port her."' At 3.30 p.m., the ice suddenly pressed up against the ship, and 

 at six it came with such force that the timbers creaked fearfully, and then, 

 as usual, after some resistance, the ship rose and heeled over to starboard. 

 On the morning of the 22d, the pressure came again suddenly on the ship, 

 and strained so much as to start a number of the iron fastenings in the store- 

 rooms. On the starboard, where the pressure was terrific, a huge mass of 

 ice had been thrown up nineteen feet above the level. The whole scene was 

 one of ruin, confusion, and devastation. " Broken points at every angle, 

 from the perpendicular to the nearly horizontal, hummocks, mounds, jagged 

 and waited masses, splinters, walls and ramparts, with here and there the 



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