212 IN THE ICE OF THE CHANNEL. 
warks — five feet above our deck. They are very often 
ten and twelve feet high. All hands are out, labor- 
ing vi^ith picks and crowbars to overturn the fragments 
that threaten to overwhelm us. Add to this darkness, 
snow, cold, and the absolute destitution of surround- 
ing shores. 
"This uprearing of the ice is not a slow work : it is 
progressive, but not slow. It was only at 4 P.M. that 
the nips began, and now the entire plain is triangula- 
ted with ice-barricades. Under the double influence 
of sails and warping-hawsers, we have not been able 
to budge a hair's-breadth. Yet, impelled by this irre- 
sistible, bearing-down floe-monster, we crush, grind, 
eat our way, surrounded by the ruins of our progress. 
In fourteen minutes we changed our position 80 feet, 
or 5.71 per minute. 
" Sometimes the ice cracks with violence, almost ex- 
plosive, throughout the entire length of the floe. Very 
grand this ! Sometimes the hummock masses, piled 
up like crushed sugar around the ship, suddenly sink 
into the sea, and then fresh mounds take their place. 
"Our little neighbor, the Rescue, is all this time 
within twenty yards of us, resting upon wedges of ice, 
and not subjected to movement or pressure — a fact of 
interest, as it shows how very small a diiference of po- 
sition may determine the diflering fate of two vessels. 
September 24. The ice is kinder ; no fresh move- 
ments ; a little whining in the morning, but since then 
undisturbed. The ice, however, is influenced by the 
wind ; for open water-pools have formed — three around 
the ship within eye distance. In one of these, the 
seals made their appearance toward noon ; no less than 
five disporting together among the sludge of the open 
water. I started ofl" on a perilous walk over the ruin- 
