DIFFICULTIES OF POLAlt NAVIGATIONS. 47 
ice, among which we had to force a passage, were 
at least twenty times the weight of the ship, and 
as hard as some kinds of marble; a violent shock 
against some of them might have been fatal. 
But the difficulties and intricacies of such situa¬ 
tions, affording exercise for the highest possible 
exertion of nautical skill, are capable of yielding, 
to the person who has the management of a ship, 
under such circumstances, a degree of enjoyment, 
which it would be difficult for navigators, accus¬ 
tomed to mere common-place operations, dtdy to 
appreciate. The ordinary management of a ship, 
under a strong gale, and with great velocity, ex¬ 
hibits evolutions of considerable elegance; but 
these cannot be comparable with the navigation 
in the intricacies of floating-ice, where the evolu¬ 
tions are frequent, and perpetually varying,— 
where manoeuvres are to be accomplished, that ex¬ 
tend to the very limits of possibility,—and where i 
a degree of hazard attaches to some of the opera¬ 
tions, which would render a mistake of the helm, 
or a miscalculation of the powers of a ship, irreme¬ 
diable and destructive. 
The weather moderating on the 10th, we pro¬ 
ceeded to the eastward, and northward, plying 
among open patches, and innumerable detached 
pieces of drift-ice, in search of whales; but with¬ 
out succeeding in our object. Our latitude was 
