s, the pack hangs, because
it is there met, in its downward course, by the whole weight of the
Atlantic Sea, and strong southerly gales blowing up that funnel-shaped
strait. About Leopold Island the pack hangs, for it is acted upon by
the cross-tides of Wellington Channel and Regent's Inlet running
athwart those of Barrow's Strait, and forming a sort of eddy, or still
water. This occurs again in the _elbow_ of Wellington Channel, and
between Griffith's Island and Cape Bunny, where a narrowing strait, and
the cross-tide of the channel towards the American coast, tie up the
broad floes formed in the great water-space west of that point; and
lastly, a similar choke takes place, apparently off the S.W. extreme of
Melville Island.

Failing in barriers, these Job's comforters dismiss the subject by
swallowing up the "Erebus" and "Terror," hull, masts, sails, and crew,
in some especially infernal tempest or convulsion executed for the
occasion: they--the Job's comforters--have no similar case to adduce in
proof of such a catastrophe. Every body who goes to the frozen regions
tells of the hairbreadth escapes and imminent dangers attendant on
Arctic navigation. I am free to acknowledge, I have "piled the agony"
to make my work sell. Behold the "Pioneer" in a nip in Melville Bay;
the "Resolute" thumping the pack off Griffith's Island; the
"Assistance" holding on to a floe-edge with a moving one threatening to
sink her; and the "Intrepid" on the slope of an iceberg, high and dry:
yet all are safe and sound in Woolwich dockyard: the brigs, "Rescue"
and "Advance," beset for 267 days, drifting during a Polar winter 1150
miles, enduring all possible hardship and risk, yet both vessels and
men are safe and sound. Captain Penny's two vessels, the "Lady
Franklin" and "Sophia," if their figure-heads could speak, would "a
tale unfold." Not the most extraordinary part of their adventures was,
being caught in a gale in a bay on the coast of Greenland, and being
forced by a moving iceberg through a field of ice full three feet
thick, the vessels rearing and plunging through it; yet they are all
safe and sound. The "North Star," the "Enterprise," and "Investigator,"
and farther back, the "Terror," farther still, the "Dorothea" and
"Trent," have, with many more we could enumerate, seen no ordinary
Arctic dangers; but, thanks to a merciful Providence, unattended with
loss of life. Why, therefore, in the name of charity, consign those who
are de