406 
REMEMBRANCERS. 
have been beautifully shown by our brig. Pressing 
as we do, under full canvas, against heavy yet qui- 
escent masses, we gradually force ahead, breasting 
aside the floes, and leaving behind us a pool of open 
water. Our rate is ten feet per hour! Remember 
that the old man of Sinbad still clings to us, and that 
we carry the burden in this slow progress. I hope 
that the Sinbad comparison will end here ; for I can 
readily, without much imagination, carry it further. 
“ 12 Midnight. Still advancing, dragging behind us 
this pertinacious mass. We have butted several times 
rudely against projecting floes, but it is as unmoved 
as solid rock. Very foggy : Rescue not visible. Ther- 
mometer at 29°. 
“We recognize, among the floe fragments around 
us, old play -fellows. Here we played foot-ball ; there 
we skated ; by this hummock crag stood my thermom- 
eters; and here I shot a bear. We are passing slowly 
from them, or they from us. Now and then a rubbish 
pile will show itself, cresting the pure ice. Even an 
old Champagne basket, full of nothing but sadly-pleas- 
ant associations, is recognized upon a distant floe. 
This breaking up of a curtilage is not without its re- 
srrets. I wish that our ‘old man’ would loosen his 
griping knees : three hours would put us into compar- 
atively open water. 
‘^Jwie 7, Saturday. The captain says that the shocks 
of the night of the fifth were the hardest our brig has 
experienced yet. 
“ This morning W'e made our incubus fast to one 
end of a passing floe, and ourselves fast to the other ; 
double hawsers were used, blocks and tackle rigged, 
and all hands placed at our patent winch, the slack 
being controlled by a windlass. We parted our stern 
