STORM. 489 



passes, dog's cotich, and nothing could be seen of the wheel but the nave. 

 But the worst was still to come, two poor fellows were missing. One had 

 perished unnoticed • he must have been killed amongst the wreck, washed 

 overboard, and sunk like a stone. The other had been seen by the mate, 

 for an instant only, floating on the binnacle, and just sinking. No human 

 assistance could have been rendered to them with such a sea running. Two 

 other poor fellows were rather seriously injured, and took up my attention 

 for some time. The captain, cool and collected, soon restored confidence to 

 his men, and in a short time had the wreck cleared away, a long tiller 

 shipped, and the vessel again hove to. Spare spars were lashed to the stan- 

 chions that remained, so that we had again something like bulwarks, but 

 for many a day afterwards the ship had a sadly damaged and wrecky appear- 

 ance. I have much reason to be thankful to Providence for my escape, 

 for had I remained but ten seconds longer on deck, I should either have 

 been crushed under the wreck or washed overboard. Many of the men, I 

 daresay, were grateful enough, but, sailor-like, in a few days all was for- 

 gotten, and ' sweethearts and wives ' drunk as heartily on the Saturday 

 nightg as ever. At any rate, we soon heard their clarionet and songs sound- 

 ing from the half-deck as cheerily as before." 



The progress of the " Advice " toward the usual fishing-grounds was 

 satisfactory. It can only be glanced at here. On the 14th April the whalers 

 saw the first iceberg, and in a few days afterwards they rounded the Cape. 

 They passed through the first ice-streams on the 20th, and on this day each 

 of the seven harpooners of the " Advice," having had his boat adjudged to 

 him by lot, with his boat's crew, set to work to splice his lines together and 

 to coil them away in the after-part of the boat. These preliminary operations 

 were all performed with the most anxious care ; for seeing that the value of 

 a whale may be from £300 to £800, it is of the greatest importance that the 

 lines and all the other appliances should be in perfect condition. On the 22d 

 they were really among the ice for the first time; and, says our landsman, "a 

 very bitter day it was. . . . The frost was intense ; the ship was almost 

 incased in ice, the bows one mass of it, and every rope electrotyped^ as it 

 were, with a silvery covering. I never, during the rest of the voyage, felt 

 the cold so intense as on this day." With the close of April, however, came 

 bright sunny weslther, with cloudless skies. As the " Advice " sailed along 

 the coast to the north of Qtieen Anne's Cape, Goodsir was charmed with the 

 coast scenery, at once new, and in the highest degree imposing ; and he 

 reproduces its chief features in two sentences — which are absolutely photo- 

 graphic in their truth, and which we take the liberty to quote, though we 

 have ah-eady had so much to say on the subject of Arctic scenery, simply 

 because they evince extraordinary vividness of impression on a fresh mind, 

 and great powers of reproduction in verbal description. " The whole length 

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