302 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
specimens of these ice avalanches; and scarcely an hour 
passed without the solemn silence of the bay being dis¬ 
turbed by the thunderous boom resulting from similar 
catastrophes occurring in adjacent valleys. 
As soon as we had thoroughly taken in the strange 
features of the scene around us, we all turned in for a 
night’s rest. I was dog tired, as much with anxiety as 
want of sleep; for in continuing to push on to the 
northward in spite of the ice, I naturally could not help 
feeling that if any accident occurred, the responsibility 
would rest with me; and although I do not believe that 
we were at any time in any real danger, yet from our 
inexperience in the peculiarities of arctic navigation, 
I think the coolest judgment would have been liable to 
occasional misgivings as to what might arise from pos¬ 
sible contingencies. Now, however, all was right; the 
result had justified our anticipations ; we had reached 
the so longed-for goal; and as I stowed myself snugly 
away in the hollow of my cot, I could not help heartily 
congratulating myself that—for that night at all events— 
there was no danger of the ship knocking a hole in her 
bottom against some hummock which the look-out had 
been too sleepy to observe; and that Wilson could not 
