398 
THE RESCUE FREE. 
making a short visit. He had hardly gone before 1 
heard a hail and its answer, both of them in a tone of 
more excitement than we had been used to for some 
time past ; and the next moment, the cry, ' Ice crack- 
ing ahead !' 
" Murdaugh and myself reached the deck just in 
time to see De Haven crossing our gangway. We fol- 
lowed. Imagine our feelings when, midway between 
the two vessels, we saw Griffin with the ice separat- 
ing before him, and at the same instant found a crack 
tracing its way between us, and the water spinning 
up to the surface. ' Stick by the floe. Grood-by ! 
What news for home V said he. One jump across 
the chasm, a hearty God - bless - you shake of the 
hand, a long jump back, and a little river divided our 
party. 
" Griffin made his way along one fissure and over 
another. We followed a lead that was open to our 
starboard beam, each man for himself In half a 
minute or less came the outcry, ' She's breaking out : 
all hands aboard !' and within ten minutes from Grif- 
fin's first hail, while we were yet scrambling into our 
little Ark of Refuge, the whole area about us was di- 
vided by irregular chasms in every direction. 
" All this was at half past five. At six I took a 
bird's-eye sketch from aloft. Many of the fissures were 
already some twenty paces across. Conflicting forces 
were at work every where ; one round-house moving 
here, another in an opposite direction, the two vessels 
parting company. Since the night of our Lancaster 
Sound commotion, months ago, the Rescue had not 
changed her bearing : she was already on our port- 
beam. Every thing was change. 
" Our brig, however, had not yet found an even keel. 
