OFFICIAL REPORT. 
503 
the floes again separated, and assumed a motion by which the Rescue passed 
from our stern to the port bow, and increased her distance from us 700 yards, 
where she came to a stand. Our stores that were on the ice were on the same 
side of the cracks as the Rescue, and of course were carried with her. 
The following day the ice remained quiet ; but soon after midnight on the 
13th, a gale having sprung up from the westward, it once more got into violent 
motion. The young ice in the crack near our stern was soon broken up, the 
edges of the thick ice came in contact, and fearful pressures took place, forcing 
up a line of hummocks which approached within ten feet of our stern. The 
vessel trembled and complained a great deal. 
At last the floe broke up around us into many pieces, and became detached 
from the sides of the vessel. The scene of frightful commotion lasted until 
4 A.M. Every moment I expected the vessel would be crushed or overwhelm- 
ed by the massive ice forced up far above our bulwarks. The Rescue being 
further removed on the other side of the crack from the line of crushing, and 
being firmly imbedded in heavy ice, I was in hopes would remain undisturbed. 
This was not the case ; for, on sending to her as soon as it was light enough 
to see, the floe was found to be broken away entirely up to her bows, and there 
formed into such high hummocks that her bowsprit was broken off, together 
with her head, and all the light wood- work about it. Had the action of the ice 
continued much longer she must have been destroyed. 
We had the misfortune to find sad havoc had been made among the stores 
and provisions left on the ice ; and few barrels were recovered, but a large 
portion were crushed and had disappeared. 
On the morning of the 14th there was again some motion in the floes. That 
on the port side moved off from the vessel two or three feet, and there became 
stationary. This left the vessel entirely detached from the ice round the wa- 
ter-line, and it was expected she would once more resume an upright position. 
In this, however, we were disappointed, for she remained with her stern ele- 
vated, and a considerable list to starboard ; being held in this uncomfortable 
position by the heavy masses which had been forced under her bottom. She 
retained this position until she finally broke out in the spring. 
We were now fully launched into Baflin's Bay, and our line of drift began to 
be more southerly, assuming a direction nearly parallel with the western shore 
of the bay at a distance of from forty to seventy miles from it. 
After an absence of eighty-seven days, the sun, on the 29th of January, rose 
his whole diameter above the southern horizon, and remained visible more than 
an hour. All hands gave vent to delight, on seeing an old friend again, in three 
hearty cheers. 
The length of the days now went on increasing rapidly, but no warmth was 
yet experienced from the sun's rays ; on the contrary, the cold became more 
intense. Mercury became congealed in February, also in March, which did not 
occur at any other period during the winter. 
A very low temperature was invariably accompanied with clear and calm 
weather, so that our coldest days were perhaps the most pleasant. In the ab- 
sence of wind, we could take exercise in the open air without feeling any in- 
convenience from the cold. But with a strong wind blowing, it was dangerous 
to be exposed to its chilling blasts for any length of time, even when the ther- 
mometer indicated a comparatively moderate degree of temperature. 
