I 
192 DRIFT UP CHANNEL. 
fast bound, the ice bearing us readily, though a very- 
slight motion against the sides of the vessel seemed to 
show that it was not perfectly attached to the shores. 
But as I stood on deck in the afternoon of the 16th, 
watching the coast to the east of us, as the clouds 
cleared away for the first time, it struck me that its 
configuration was unknown to me. By-and-by, Cape 
Beechy, the isthmus of the Grraves, loomed up ; and 
we then found that we were a little to the north of 
Cape Bowden. 
The next two days this northward drift continued 
without remission. The wind blew strong from the 
southward and eastward, sometimes approaching to a 
gale ; but the ice-pack around us retained its tenacity, 
and increased rapidly in thickness. 
Yet every now and then we could see that at some 
short distance it was broken by small pools of water, 
which would be effaced again, soon after they were 
formed, by an 'external pressure. At these times our 
vessels underwent a nipping on a small scale. The 
smoother ice-field that held us would be driven in, pil- 
ing itself in miniature hummocks about us, sometimes 
higher than our decks, and much too near them to 
leave us a sense of security against their further ad- 
vance. The noises, too, of whining puppies and swarm- 
ing bees made part of these demonstrations, much, as 
when the heavier masses were at work, but shriller 
perhaps, and more clamorous. 
I was aroused at midnight of the 16th by one of 
these onsets of the enemy, crunching and creaking 
against the ship's sides till the masses ground them- 
selves to powder. Our vessel was trembling like an 
ague-fit under the pressure ; and when so pinched that 
she could not vibrate any longer between the driving 
