in's Bay where a great deal of ice is always found. Here
the pack surrounded them, and compelled them to pass close to a berg
which was the largest they had fallen in with up to that time. It was
jagged in form, and high rather than broad. Great peaks rose up from it
like the mountain tops of some wild highland region. It was several
hundred yards off the weather-beam when the brig passed, but it towered
so high over the masts that it seemed to be much nearer than it was.
There was no apparent motion in this berg, and the waves beat and rolled
upon its base just as they do on the shore of an island. In fact it was
as like an island as possible, or, rather, like a mountain planted in
the sea, only it was white instead of green. There were cracks and
rents and caverns in it, just as there are on a rugged mountain side,
all of which were of a beautiful blue colour. There were also slopes
and crags and precipices, down which the water of the melted ice
constantly flowed in wild torrents. Many of these were equal to small
rivulets, and some of the waterfalls were beautiful. The berg could not
have measured less than a mile round the base, and it was probably two
hundred feet high. It is well known that floating ice sinks deep, and
that there is about eight or ten times as much of it below as there is
above water. The reader may therefore form some idea of what an
enormous mass of ice this berg was.

The crew of the _Hope_ observed, in passing, that lumps were continually
falling from the cliffs into the sea. The berg was evidently in a very
rotten and dangerous state, and the captain ran the brig as close to the
pack on the other side as possible, in order to keep out of its way.
Just as this was done, some great rents occurred, and suddenly a mass of
ice larger than the brig fell from the top of a cliff into the sea. No
danger flowed from this, but the mass thus thrown off was so large as to
destroy the balance of the berg, and, to the horror of the sailors, the
huge mountain began to roll over. Fortunately it fell in a direction
away from the brig. Had it rolled toward her, no human power could have
saved our voyagers. The mighty mass went over with a wild hollow roar,
and new peaks and cliffs rose out of the sea, as the old ones
disappeared, with great cataracts of uplifted brine pouring furiously
down their sides.

Apart from its danger, this was an awful sight. Those who witnessed it
could only gaze in