HUMMOCK FORMED MARCH 23 , 1851 . 
CHAPTER XLII. 
As we neared the naiTow Straits of Davis, onr ex- 
pectations of disruption and liberation underwent many 
changes. All our reasonings seemed to be negatived 
by the results. We were the illustration of powerless 
ignorance ; what we hoped for one day, we congratu- 
lated ourselves that we had escaped the next. We 
were rotating on the disk of a great wheel, with a rag- 
ged and constantly changing periphery. Our position 
on this was eccentric, and our rate of motion variable, 
as the obstructions which our ice-field encountered 
made it revolve on one or another axis. We felt that 
our prison could not retain its integrity much longer 
against the diversified agencies that were assailing it : 
beyond this we scarcely framed a conjecture. 
It was evident that other changes more constant, 
and probably more effective than those of di.sruption, 
were taking place in the great plain around us. The 
snowy crust began to yield under our feet, and the 
