OUR PROSPECTS. 105 
brawny seaman, named Costa, was in the act of lift- 
ing the anchor and driving it by main force into the 
solid ice, when, with a roar like near thunder, a crack 
ran across the berg, and almost instantly a segment 
about twice the size of our ship was severed from the 
rest. One man remained oscillating on the principal 
mass, a second escaped by jumping to the back ropes 
and chain shrouds of the bowsprit ; but poor Costa ! 
anchor and all, disappeared in the chasm ! By a mer- 
ciful Godsend, the sunken fragment had broken off 
so cleanly that, when it rose, it scraped against the 
fractured surface, and brought up its living freight 
along with it. Scared half to death, he was caught 
by the captain as he passed the jib-boom, and brought 
safe on board. This incident, coming thus early in 
our cruise, was a useful warning. 
In spite of all our efforts, we had effected little since 
anchoring to this ice ; but our position, as determined 
by observation and chronometer, was latitude 75° 02' 
27", longitude 59° 50' 42", showing an advance of 40 
miles to the northward since leaving the pack on the 
29th. 
^'August 1. The last month of summer was upon us. 
July, the mid-summer of highest mean temperature 
and greatest ice dissolution, had done little for us. 
Our prospects were far from cheery. The season of 
complete consolidation, when winter closes the navi- 
gation of these seas, could not be postponed beyond 
fifty days longer, and we had yet to double the ice 
of Melville. Our mean daily temperature for the past 
week had been 37° 1', and ice had formed during the 
hours of low sun three quarters of an inch thick. 
What an idea it gives one of the Arctic winter, to 
think that this short summer is nature's only compen- 
