UNCERTAINTY. 
289 
Ice several times—obliged to sail S. and W.—things 
look very shady.” 
Sometimes we were on the point of despairing 
altogether, then a plausible opening would show itself 
as if leading towards the land, and we would be tempted 
to run down it, until we found the field become so 
closely packed, that it was with great difficulty we 
could get the vessel round,—and only then at the 
expense of collisions, which made the little craft shiver 
from stem to stern. Then a fog would come on—so 
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