38 
GREENLAND VOYAGE! 
though at the expence of many coarse thumps on 
the deck, which it required all their thick and va¬ 
ried clothing to defend them against. On one 
occasion of this kind, which occurred a few years 
ago, in a ship lying moored to a piece of ice in a 
calm ; the force of example, and the desire of imi¬ 
tation went so far, that, on the leader’s jumping 
on the rail of the ship, and crying out “ follow 
me,” a number of his comrades, some of whom 
could not swim, precipitated themselves with 
him into the sea! This frolic, though a danger¬ 
ous one, ended without any mischief, as they all 
succeeded, with the help of their shipmates, in 
scrambling to tire ice. After these feats of agi¬ 
lity, a rude, hut active and energetic dance suc¬ 
ceeded, sustained or directed by the noisy vibra¬ 
tions of every kettle and pan to be found in the 
ship, hut without any instrument more harmoni¬ 
ous. The whole terminated with a loyal song, 
which w r as chorussed by the w hole crew; and then 
they dispersed with three huzzas, on a summons 
from the boatswain to “ splice the main-brace.” 
We had the wind from the SW. in the morn¬ 
ing; but during the forenoon it veered to the 
NW. and subsequently to the NE. The ex¬ 
tremes of temperature were 8 and 3 degrees on 
the deck; but at the mast-head, the thermome¬ 
ter at 2 p. m. was at zero. At mid-day, we were 
