468 
BERG FRACTURE, 
easterly winds are driving the pack to the northward, 
for both the skreed drift and the bergs seem to have 
a northwesterly trend. It is probable that the leads 
may not be more than the third of a mile from ns. 
We have been trying to warp toward them ; but, after 
much hard labor, have moved not quite a hundred 
yards. 
''August 16, Saturday. Our position is the same as 
yesterday, except that we are a day older in it. The 
bergs keep the same curved screen of bristling wall 
to seaward ; and to the east, the glacier, with its black 
knobs of protruding mountain, shows dimly through 
the mist. The wind is from the northward and east- 
ward; but we are so girded in that our floes can not 
relax. Outside, to the south, whenever a momentary 
opening permits a glimpse beyond, we have leads and 
a water-sky. 
"It is evident now that our berth here is a horse- 
shoe indentation, the loose ice of which is hemmed in 
by a rapidly changing army of bergs. Last night, or, 
to speak more accurately, this morning, though the 
wind was off-shore from the east, we experienced some 
tolerable nipping : the ' young puppies ' were whining 
half the night. Under the circumstances, especially 
as the fast floe seems to yield very little, our captain 
has determined to try the warps again. The brig's 
head is pointed into the drift, and we are trying to 
spring her past the loose ice. 
" 9 P.M. While three men were out on a low berg 
this morning warping, one of them, Dunning, struck 
his ice-chisel against the mass. It parted instantly, 
with a short, sharp crack ; one fragment sinking for a 
time nearly below the skreed, with two of the men 
on it. They had some difliculty in keeping their foot- 
