tes thus: "Daylight reveals to us evidences of
vast ice-movements having taken place during the dark months, when we
fancied all was still and quiet; and we now see how greatly we have been
favoured, what innumerable chances of destruction we have unconsciously
escaped. A few days ago, the ice suddenly cracked within ten yards of
the ship, and gave her such a smart shock that every one rushed on deck
with astonishing alacrity. One of these sudden disruptions occurred
between me and the ship, when I was returning from the iceberg. The sun
was just setting as I found myself cut off... At length I reached a
place where the jagged edges of the floes met; so crossed, and got
safely on board."

Again, in March, he says, "Last night the ice closed, shutting up our
lane; but its opposite sides continued for several hours to move vast
each other, rubbing off all projections, crushing and forcing out of the
water masses four feet thick. Although one hundred and twenty yards
distant, this pressure shook the ship and cracked the intervening ice."

Soon after that, a heavy gale burst upon them from the south-east,
encircling them with snow-drift so dense that they could neither hear
nor see what was going on twenty yards off. At night the ship became
suddenly detached from her wintry bed, and heeled over to the storm,
inducing them to believe that the whole pack had been broken in, and was
pressing against them. This was not the case. A large mass of ice had
protected them; but at a distance of about fifty yards, ice of four and
a half feet thick had been crushed to atoms. Soon after, the protecting
mass yielded, and the _Fox_ received a nip which lifted her stern about
a foot, while occasional groaning from her sturdy little hull replied to
the wild surgings of the ice without.

But all this was as nothing compared with the scene of desperate turmoil
and confusion which took place when the ice finally broke up, and a gale
raised a fearful swell; so that the _Fox_ found herself surrounded by
huge masses, which tossed and ground against each other furiously, and
any two of which pieces could have crushed in her sides as if she had
been made of walnut shell. Gradually the pack opened out, and the
vessel, by aid of wind and steam, was mercifully delivered from her
dangerous position.

Before passing from the subject of risk to navigators to the
consideration of other forms and aspects of polar ice, let us take a
glance at