range was formed of blocks of frozen water which
warmth would dissolve; that it was a country as solid as rock and as
unsubstantial as a cloud, to be shunned by the mariner as though it was
Death's own pavilion, the estate and mansion of the grisly spectre, and
creating round about it as supreme a desolation and loneliness of ocean
as that which reigned in its own white stillness.

Though I held the boat's head for it I was at a loss--in so much
confusion of mind that I knew not what to do. I did not doubt by the
character of the swell that its limits in the north-east extended only
to the sensible horizon; in other words, that its extremity there would
not be above five miles distant, though to what latitude its southern
arm did curve was not to be conjectured.

Should I steer north and seek to go clear of it? Somehow, the presence
of this similitude of land made the sea appear as enormous as space
itself. Whilst it was all clear horizon the immensity of the deep was in
a measure limited to the vision by its cincture. But this ice-line gave
the eye something to measure with, and when I looked at those leagues of
frozen shore my spirits sank into deepest dejection at the thought of
the vastness of the waters in whose heart I floated in my little boat.

However, I resolved at last to land if landing was possible. I could
stretch my limbs, recruit myself by exercise, and might even make shift
to obtain a night's rest. I stood in desperate need of sleep, but there
was no repose to be had in the boat. I durst not lie down in her; if
nature overcame me and I fell asleep in a sitting posture, I might wake
to find the boat capsized and myself drowning. This consideration
resolved me, and by this time being within half a mile of the coast, I
ran my eye carefully along it to observe a safe nook for my boat to
enter and myself to land in.

Though for a great distance, as I have said, the front of the cliff, and
where it was highest too, was a sheer fall, coming like the side of a
house to the water, that part of the island towards which my boat's head
was pointed sloped down and continued in a low shore, with hummocks of
ice upon it at irregular intervals, to where it died out in the
north-east. I now saw that this part had a broken appearance as if it
had been violently rent from a mainland of ice; also, to my approach,
many ledges projecting into the sea stole into view. There were ravines
and gorges, and almost on a line w