CANNONADING THE ICE. 351 



wave topped over, leaving a deep wall extending from thence beyond the 

 quarter." 



Continuing to drift along the shore toward the south-east, 4he "Terror," 

 still imbedded in the floe, was carried, by the 7th April, to Sir James 

 Gordon's Bay, near Seahorse Point, the most easterly headland of South- 

 ampton Island. But though the season was now well advanced, and the 

 sun shone with daily increasing power, the ship remained in constant peril 

 from the tumultuous ice with which she was still surrounded. On the 26th 

 April, Alexander Young, a marine, died of scurvy. By the 5th May, the 

 " Terror " had drifted to near Nottingham Island, at the western mouth of 

 Hudson Strait. The crew were now much employed in refitting the vessel, 

 which was still moored to her broad raft of ice. But the floe to which the 

 vessel was attached was now gradually diminishing in dimensions ; and on 

 the 1st June Back observed a considerable number of pieces detach them- 

 selves from the main body, and drift away. On the 6th a western wind 

 blew with considerable violence, and began at length to have some effect on 

 the immense surface of ice surrounding the vessel. On June 8th a lane of 

 water opened out astern to the distance of three or four hundred yards ; and 

 on the following day the ice forming the pack on which the vessel was 

 carried was observed to have slightly diminished in thickness ; and from the 

 effects of the sun, and of the heat radiated from the sides of the ship, 

 the ice around her had sunk two feet, thus partly exposing the keel under 

 the fore-part of the vessel, while a deep trench extended quite round her, 

 surmounted by the ruins of the ponderous ice-waves, in the hard gripe of 

 which the whole of the after-part lay immovably wedged. The crew were 

 now set to work with picks, spades, and axes, to reduce the size of these 

 ramparts of ice, and to mark out the most feasible line of escape when the 

 disruption of the pack should commence. On the 15th Back gave orders 

 to commence undermining the ice below the bow of the vessel. In this 

 most laborious process, saws were altogether useless, on account of the 

 thickness of the floe, which was found to be between forty and fifty feet. 

 The thaw continuing, however, the cracks around the ship became more 

 numerous ; and on the 23d June an immense mass of the pack near the 

 ship broke off". Upon this mass, at the moment it broke off, a number of 

 the crew were working. These were for the moment placed in the most 

 perilous position from the rocking of the piece after being detached. A small 

 boat was at once sent to them, and all of them were got safely on board, 

 though their pick-axes, shovels, handspikes, etc., were all lost. On June 

 29th a sudden disruption took place a hundred and fifty yards ahead of the 

 ship, and split the floe right across. On the following day the experiment of 

 cannonading the ice was made, but without the expected results, for instead 

 of splintering and throwing down the mounds, the six-pounder shot used 



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