At half past eight on the morning of the 9th, a considerable space of
open water being left to the northward of us by the ice that had broken
off the preceding night, I left the Fury in a boat for the purpose of
sounding along the shore in that direction, in readiness for moving
whenever the Hecla should be enabled to rejoin us. I found the soundings
regular in almost every part, and had just landed to obtain a view from
an eminence, when I was recalled by a signal from the Fury, appointed to
inform me of the approach of any ice. On my return, I found the external
body once more in rapid motion to the southward with the flood-tide, and
assuming its usual threatening appearance. For an hour or two the Fury
was continually grazed, and sometimes heeled over by a degree of
pressure which, under any other circumstances, would not have been
considered a moderate one, but which the last two or three days'
navigation had taught us to disregard, when compared with what we had
reason almost every moment to expect. A little before noon a heavy floe,
some miles in length, being probably a part of that lately detached from
the shore, came driving down fast towards us, giving us serious reason
to apprehend some more fatal catastrophe than any we had yet
encountered. In a few minutes it came in contact, at the rate of a mile
and a half an hour, with a point of the land-ice left the preceding
night by its own separation, breaking it up with a tremendous crash, and
forcing numberless immense masses, perhaps many tons in weight, to the
height of fifty or sixty feet, from whence they again rolled down on the
inner or land side, and were quickly succeeded by a fresh supply. While
we were obliged to be quiet spectators of this grand but terrific
sight, being within five or six hundred yards of the point, the danger
to ourselves was twofold; first, lest the floe should now swing in, and
serve us much in the same manner; and, secondly, lest its pressure
should detach the land-ice to which we were secured, and thus set us
adrift and at the mercy of the tides. Happily, however, neither of these