ted and the intrepid captain was towed "in his small pinnesse,
at the stern of the _Michael_, thorow the raging seas; for the bark was
not able to receive, or relieve half his company." The "tongs, gridyron,
and fire-shovell," performed their work only for as many minutes as were
absolutely necessary, for the pinnesse came no sooner aboard the ship,
and the men entred, but she presently shivered and fell in pieces, and
sunke at the ship's stern with all the poor men's furniture."

Now, too, as we sail up the strait, explored a few years after these
events by Master John Davis, how proudly we remember him as a right
worthy forerunner of those countrymen of his and ours who since have
sailed over his track. Nor ought we to pass on without calling to mind
the melancholy fate, in 1606, of Master John Knight, driven, in the
_Hopewell_, among huge masses of ice with a tremendous surf, his rudder
knocked away, his ship half full of water, at the entrance to these
straits. Hoping to find a harbour, he set forth to explore a large
island, and landed, leaving two men to watch the boat, while he, with
three men and the mate, set forth and disappeared over a hill. For
thirteen hours the watchers kept their post; one had his trumpet with
him, for he was a trumpeter, the other had a gun. They trumpeted often
and loudly; they fired, but no answer came. They watched ashore all
night for the return of their captain and his party, "but they came not
at all."

The season is advanced. As we sail on, the sea steams like a line-kiln,
"frost-smoke" covers it. The water, cooled less rapidly, is warmer now
than the surrounding air, and yields this vapour in consequence. By the
time our vessel has reached Baffin's Bay, still coasting along Greenland,
in addition to old floes and bergs, the water is beset with "pancake
ice." That is the young ice when it first begins to cake upon the
surface. Innocent enough it seems, but it is sadly clogging to the
ships. It sticks about their sides like treacle on a fly's wing;
collecting unequally, it destroys all equilibrium, and impedes the
efforts of the steersman. Rocks split on the Greenland coast with loud
explosions, and more icebergs fall. Icebergs we soon shall take our
leave of; they are only found where there is a coast on which glaciers
can form; they are good for nothing but to yield fresh water to the
vessels; it will be all field, pack, and saltwater ice presently.

Now we are in