LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT, ROSS 
587 
seen directly in the route, which it was their intention to take. 
As the seamen termed it, a glorious run was before them, and 
they bound as fast, as if wedged in with a mass of molten 
iron. 
On the 21st, a heavy gale came on from the south by west, 
and its effects on the ice in the bay, were watched with the 
most intense anxiety, as being the wind most favorable for 
driving the ice out of the bay Two men were sent upon one 
of the hills, to watch the motion of the ice ; it was seen run¬ 
ning with great rapidity to the north-east, and all clear along 
the coast. At the mouth of the bay, however, it was quite 
stationary, forming a barrier, which it was impossible to break 
through, and which seemed to be placed there by an adverse 
fate, to thwart them in their projects. 
Early in the morning of the 22nd, the wind veered round to 
the N.N. W., blowing fresh. The ice began to drive out of the 
bay, and to the northward. This faint glimpse of hope, however, 
lasted but for a very short time, and it seemed to the anxious 
mariners, as if it had been only done in mockery of their expect¬ 
ations. For several hours, one floe after the other disjoined 
itself from the mass, and with a loud crackling noise, accord¬ 
ingly, as the huge bergs were impelled against each other, was 
carried along with the stream, forming altogether a grand, and 
in a certain degree, an exhilirating scene. It is difficult for the 
human imagination to form an idea of the grandeur of the 
sudden disruption of an immense body of ice; the gigantic 
masses coming into collision with each other, with such a de¬ 
structive force, that no fabric of human art could bear up against 
it. On several occasions, was the ponderous body of the Victory 
lifted out of the water, by these floating masses, threatening 
every moment to throw her upon her beam ends, as if she were 
no more than a floating cork ; in one instance, the compressing 
power of these masses was so great, that the Victory was so 
far lifted up, that her keel rested upon the ice, giving her a 
list to the starboard, that it was expected every moment she 
would be capsized. 
The 22nd was the day, on which the hopes of the crew were 
