UNDER THE CLIFFS. 
73 
forehead ploughing up the lesser ice as if in scorn. 
The bergs encroached upon us as we advanced: our 
channel narrowed to a width of perhaps forty feet: Ave 
braced the yards to clear the impending ice-walls. 
“.... We passed clear; but it was a close shave,— 
so close that our port quarter-boat Avould ha\*e been 
crushed if AA r e had not taken it in from the davits,— 
and found ourselves under the lee of a berg, in a 
comparatively open lead. Never did heart-tried men 
acknowledge A\ r ith more gratitude their merciful de¬ 
liverance from a Avretched death.... 
“ The day had already its full share of trials; but 
there Avere more to come. A flaw drove us from our 
shelter, and the gale soon carried us beyond the end 
of the lead. We Avere again in the ice, sometimes 
escaping its onset by Avarping, sometimes forced to rely 
on the strength and buojmncy of the brig to stand its 
pressure, sometimes scudding Avildly through the half¬ 
open drift. Our jib-boom Avas snapped off in the cap; 
we carried aAvay our barricade 
stanchions, and Avere forced to 
leave our little Eric, Avith three 
brave felloAvs and their warps, 
out upon the Hoes behind us. 
“A little pool of open Avater 
received us at last. It Avas just 
beyond a lofty cape that rose up 
like a Avail, and under an iceberg 
that anchored itself bet ween us 
and the gale. And here, close 
UNDER THE CLIFFS 
