282 
ICE COMMOTION. 
of upheaved rubbish. Still further in the distance 
came an unvarying uniformity of shade, cutting with 
saw-toothed edge against a desolate sky. 
Yet there needed no after-survey of the ice-field to 
prove to us what majestic forces had been at work 
upon it. At one time on the 13th, the hummock- 
ridge astern advanced with a steady march upon the 
vessel. Twice it rested, and advanced again — a dense 
wall of ice, thirty feet broad at the base and twelve 
feet high, tumbling huge fragments from its crest, yet 
increasing in mass at each new effort. "We had ceased 
to hope ; when a merciful interposition arrested it, so 
close against our counter that there was scarcely room 
for a man to pass between. Half a minute of progress 
more, and it would have buried us all. As we drifted 
along five months afterward, this stupendous memento 
of controlling power was still hanging over our stern. 
The sketch at the head of the next chapter* represents 
its appearance at the close of the month. 
ERODED ICE-FLOE. 
