CHAPTER XXV. 
WORKING ON-A BOAT NIP—ICE-BARRIER—THE BARRIER PACK— 
PROGRESS HOPELESS—NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND—NORTHUMBER¬ 
LAND GLACIER—ICE-CASCADES—NEVE. 
The obstacle we had now to encounter was the pack 
that stretched between us and the south. 
When the storm abated, we commenced boring into 
it,—slow work at the best of times; but my com¬ 
panions encountered it with a persevering activity 
quite as admirable as their fortitude in danger. It 
had its own hazards too; and more than once it 
looked as if we were permanently beset. I myself 
knew that we might rely on the southerly wind to 
liberate us from such an imprisonment; but I saw 
that the men thought otherwise, as the ice-fields closed 
around us and the horizon showed an unchanging circle 
of ice. 
We were still laboring on, hardly past the middle 
of the bay, when the floes began to relax. On Sunday, 
the 23d of July, the whole aspect around us changed. 
The sun came out cheeringly, the leads opened more 
and more, and, as we pulled through them to the 
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