278 COMMOTION OF THE ICE. 
snow, and her stem perched high above the rubbish. 
Walking deck is an up and down hill work. She re- 
tains, too, her list to starboard. Her bare sides have 
been banked over again with snow to increase the 
warmth, and a formidable flight of nine ice-block steps 
admits us to the door- way of her winter cover. The 
stores, hastily thrown out from the vessel when we 
expected her to go to pieces, are still upon the little 
remnant of old floe on our port or northern side. The 
Rescue is some hundred yards ofi"to the south of east." 
The next day things underwent a change. The 
morning was a misty one, giving us just light enough 
to make out objects that Were near the ship ; the wind 
westerly, as it had been for some time, freshening per- 
haps to a breeze. The day went 'on quietly till noon, 
when a sudden shock brought us all up to the deck. 
Running out upon the ice, we found that a crack had 
opened between us and the Rescue, and was extending 
in a zigzag course from the northward and eastward 
to the southward and westward. At one o'clock it had 
become a chasm eight feet in width ; and as it contin- 
ued to widen, we observed a distinct undulation of the 
water about its edges. At three, it had expanded 
into a broad sheet of water, filmed over by young ice, 
through which the portions of the floe that bore our 
two vessels began to move obliquely toward each other. 
Night closed round us, with the chasm reduced to forty 
yards and still narrowing ; the Rescue on her port- 
bow, two hundred yards from her late position ; the 
wind increasing, and the thermometer at —19°. 
My journal for the next day was written at broken 
intervals ; but I give it without change of form : 
''January 13, 4 A.M. All hands have been on deck 
since one o'clock, strapped and harnessed for a fare- 
