212 IN THE ICE OF THE CHANNEL. 
warks — five feet above our deck. They are very often 
ten and twelve feet high. All hands are out, labor- 
ing with picks and crowbars to overturn the fragments 
that threaten to overwhelm us. Add to this darkness, 
snow, cold, and the absolute destitution of surround- 
ing shores. 
“ This uprearing of the ice is not a slow work : it is 
progressive, but not slow. It was only at 4 P.M. that 
the nips began, and now the entire plain is triangula- 
ted with ice-barricades. Under the double influence 
of sails and warping-hawsers, we have not been able 
to budge a hair’s-breadth. Yet, impelled by this irre- 
sistible, bearing-down floe-monster, we crush, grind, 
eat our way, surrounded by the ruins of our progress. 
In fourteen minutes we changed our position 80 feet, 
or 5.71 per minute. 
“ Sometimes the ice cracks with violence, almost ex- 
plosive, throughout the entire length of the floe. Very 
grand this ! Sometimes the hummock masses, piled 
up like crushed sugar around the ship, suddenly sink 
into the sea, and then fresh mounds take their place. 
“ Our little neighbor, the Rescue, is all this time 
within twenty yards of us, resting upon wedges of ice, 
and not subjected to movement or pressure — a fact of 
interest, as it shows how very small a difference of po- 
sition may determine the differing fate of two vessels. 
“September 24. The ice is kinder; no fresh move- 
ments ; a little whining in the morning, but since then 
undisturbed. The ice, however, is influenced by the 
wind ; for open water-pools have formed — three around 
the ship within eye distance. In one of these, the 
seals made their appearance toward noon ; no less than 
five disporting together among the sludge of the open 
water. I started off on a perilous walk over the ruin- 
