BERG FRACTURE. 
469 
hold, as it rose, and fell, and rocked about with them ; 
but they managed to do it. Dunning was left on the 
other side ; it see-sawed with him a good deal, but he 
jumped for it safely, 
“ The ice seems to relax morning and evening, prob- 
ably under tidal influence. We have made three 
ship’s lengths to-day, and are now clear of the floe 
that has been shielding us. The bergs are still keep- 
ing up their interminable procession, some of them 
making sublime evolutions as they pass. One to-day 
broke right before us in a vertical disruption, and rolled 
away in two nearly equal masses. Another seemed 
to stop to show us how he could oscillate, and then 
gracefully turned himself upside down and floated 
away. 
“ 10 P.M. The thermometer has got up to 36°, and 
the air is transparent again. The sun is shining out, 
and the glacier glitters at its fractured face like satin 
spar and diamonds. 
August 17, Sunday. The same revolving wall of 
bergs meets us to the west, but the glacier on the other 
side is partially hidden by a new procession inshore. 
While profaning the day by an attempt to sketch these 
sublime monuments of creative power in my drawing- 
book, I was interrupted by a heavy undulation, roll- 
ing under the brig, and passing on to the solid inshore 
floe. It was followed by a number of others, coming 
in quick succession, and breaking up the floe drift in 
every direction. The action continued for some min- 
utes. It must have been caused by some very large 
and probably irregular berg overturning at a distance; 
but it was without noise, and indeed without premo- 
nition of any sort. The direction of the wave where 
it struck us was from the northwest. Up to this mo- 
