said a

as to

In the course of my walk that afternoon, I called at the bearance you were to receive 507, extra, besides anybilliard rooms in F-Street, in order to pay Oaklands | thing you could make out of him by private bets," put subscription. On inquiring for Mr. Johnson, the proprie in Cumberland. "Of course I was not going to wait all tor, I was told that he was engaged at present, but that that time for my money for nothing," was the reply; if 1 did not mind waiting for a few minutes, he would "you have only as yet paid me 50. You tell me you be able to attend to me. To this I agreed, and was shown can't persuade Oaklands to play again, so there's nothing into a small room down stairs, which, from its sanded more to be got from that quarter, consequently nothing floor, and a strong odour of stale tobacco which pervaded more to wait for; I must trouble you, therefore, to pay me it, was apparently used as a smoking-room. It opened the 2007. at once-for, to be plain with you, it won't do for into what seemed to be a rather spacious apartment, me to remain here any longer,-the air does not agree from which it was divided by a glass half-door, across with me." "And where on earth am I to get 2007. at a the lower panes of which hung a green blind: this minute's notice?" said Cumberland: "you are as well door, on my entrance, was standing slightly ajar. aware the thing is impossible as I am." "I am aware of The day being cold, there was a bright fire burning on this, sir," replied the Captain, with an oath, "that I'll the hearth; near this I seated myself, and, seduced by its have my money; aye, and this very day too, or I'll drowsy influence, fell into a kind of trance, in which, expose you,--curse me if I don't. I know your uncle's between sleeping and waking, my mind wandered away address: yes you may well turn pale, and gnaw your to a far different scene, among well-known forms and lip-other people can plot and scheme as well as yourfamiliar faces, that had been strangers to me now for self: if I'm not paid before I leave this place, and that many a long day. From this day-dream I was aroused will be by to-night's mail, your uncle shall be told that by sounds proceeding from the adjoining apartment; his nephew is an insolvent gambler; and the old tutor, which, as I became more thoroughly awake, resolved the Rev. Dr. Mildman, shall have a hint that his head themselves into the voices of two persons apparently pupil is little better than a blackleg." "Now listen to engaged in angry colloquy. "I tell you," me, Spicer," said Cumberland quietly, "I know you gruff voice, which somehow seemed familiar to me, might do what you have threatened, and that to me it "I tell you it is the only chance for you; you must would be neither more nor less than ruin, but-and this contrive to bring him here again, and that without loss is the real question, pray what possible advantage (save of time." "Must I again repeat that the thing is im- calling people's attention to the share, a pretty large possible?" was the reply, in tones I knew but too well; one, you have had in making me what I am) would it be "utterly impossible; when once his mind is made up, to you?" "To me, sir? Eh! why, what do you mean, and he takes the trouble to exert himself, he is immov- sir? your uncle is a man of honour, and of course as able; nothing can shake his determination." And is such would pay his nephew's debts for him,-more parthis your boasted skill and management ?" rejoined the ticularly when he knows that if he refuses to do so, that first speaker; "how comes it, pray, that this over-grown nephew will be sent to jail; yes, to jail, sir." There; child, who seemed the other day to be held as nicely in blustering is of no use with me, so you may save yourleading-strings as need be,-this raw boy, whose hot self that trouble, Captain," replied Cumberland; headedness, simplicity, and indolence rendered him as sending me to jail, that is absurd; you can't arrest a easy a pigeon to pluck as one could desire;-how comes minor for debt, and I shall not be of age these two years. it, I say, that he has taken alarm in this sudden manner, My uncle is, as you say, what is called a man of honour, so as to refuse to come here any more? you've bungled this but he is not one of those over-scrupulous fools who will most shamefully, sir, and must take the consequences." pay any demand, however dishonest and unreasonable, "That's just the point I cannot make out," replied the rather than tarnish the family honour, forsooth! No! second speaker, who, as the reader has probably disco- he will pay what the law compels him, and not a farthing vered, was no other than Cumberland; "it's easy enough more. I leave you to decide whether the law is likely for you to lay it all to my mismanagement, Captain to be of much use to you in the present case. Spicer, but I tell you it is no such thing; did not I ac- listen to me; though you cannot obtain the money by the commodate my play to his, always appearing to win by means you proposed, you can, as I said before, do me some accident, so that the fool actually believed he was serious injury; therefore, if for no other reason but to the best player, while he was losing from 201. to 30l. a stop your mouth, I would pay you the whole if I could, day? Didn't I excite him, and lead him on by a mixture but I have not the power of doing so at present. What of flattery and defiance, so that he often fancied he was I propose then, is this-Oaklands will pay me in a day persuading me to play against my will, and was so or two 100.; this I will hand over to you at once, and ready to bet that I might have won three times what I will give you a written promise to pay you the rest in have of him, if you had not advised me to go on quietly, the course of the next six months; for, before that time and by degrees? Did not you refuse when I wished you I must raise money somehow, even if I have to sell to take him in hand yourself, because you said I under- every farthing I expect to come into, to the Jews, in stood him best, and managed him admirably? No, I order to do it." Won't do," was the reply; "the ready believe that detestable young Fairlegh is at the bottom isn't enough; I must leave this country in a day or two, of it: lobserved him watching me with that calm, stead- and I must have money to take with me; come, 150. fast glance of his, that I hated him from the first moment down, and I'll let you off the other 50." "It's impossiI saw him, and I felt certain some mischief would arise ble, I can get no other money yet, excepting the sum from it." "Yes!" replied Spicer, "that was your fault Oaklands is to pay me." "Yes! and how the Devil am too, why did you let the other bring him? every fool I to be sure he will pay you directly; I'm pretty certain knows that lookers-on see most of the game." "I was the fool's hard up himself; he hasn't paid cash for a afraid to say much against it, lest Oaklands should month past." "If that's all you are afraid of, I can suspect anything," rejoined Cumberland, "but I wish to soon convince you to the contrary; here's a letter to his Heaven I had now; I might have been sure no good father's banker, which I am going to put into the post would come of it-that boy is my evil genius." "I directly, with a cheque for 3007. in it: there, hold it up have no time for talking about geniuses, and such con- to the light, and you will see the figures yourself." founded stuff," observed Spicer, angrily, "so now to"By Jove! so it is," exclaimed Spicer. "I say, Cumbusiness, Mr. Cumberland: you are aware you owe me berland," he continued, and then the voices sunk almost 2007. I presume?" Cumberland grumbled out an unwill- into a whisper, so that I could not catch more than a ing assent, to which he appended a muttered remark not word here and there, but by the tone I judged that the exactly calculated to enhance the Captain's future Captain was making some proposition, which Cumbercomfort. "Like a good-natured fool," continued Spicer, land refused to agree to. At length I heard the former "I agreed to wait for my money till you had done what say " 501. down, and a receipt in full"-Cumberland's reyou could with this Mr. Oaklands." "For which for- ply was inaudible, but when the Captain spoke again, I

Now

caught the following words-"not the slightest risk, only you do as I say, and"-At this moment the outer door of the room in which I was sitting opened, while the one communicating with the other apartment was violently slammed to, from the farther side, and I heard

no more.

The numerous and extensive injuries which this ship had received were not from the shot of an enemy, for she was engaged on one of those serbeneficial to man than war: she had been sent to vices which are far more honourable, glorious, and The new comer was a little slipshod girl in dirty curl- explore the shores of the Arctic sea, and to connect papers, who informed me that her master was sorry he the discoveries of those distinguished arctic excould not see me that day as he was particularly en-plorers, Parry, Franklin, Back, and others; but gaged, but if I would do him the favour of calling towhile yet out in the open sea, she was arrested in her morrow, at the same hour, he should be at leisure, &c.course by a premature winter, wedged up by massive To this I answered something, I scarcely knew what, and ice for nine whole months, subjected to the repeated seizing my hat, rushed out at the front-door, to the great battering assaults of solid waves of ice; and when, astonishment of the curl-papered damsel, who cast an at length, her icy chains dissolved, she was found to anxious glance at the pegs in the hall, ere she could be in the battered condition already described, and convince herself that I had not departed with more hats forced to return without having accomplished the and coats than legitimately belonged to me. objects of her expedition. And yet the captain and his brave associates achieved what none perhaps but British seamen could have done: they succeeded, under the Divine protection and blessing, in saving the ship and their own lives, which, with less faith, less courage and determined resolution, could never have been done.

DANGERS OF THE POLAR SEAS.

ON a dark stormy night in the month of August, 1837, a ship was sailing heavily through the In the year 1836, the Royal Geographical Society troubled waters of the Atlantic. The clanging of recommended this voyage of discovery to the Cothe pumps was heard on board, and both men lonial Secretary, and the Admiralty supplied a ship, and officers seemed exhausted with fatigue. They the Terror, under the command of CAPTAIN BACK, were, indeed, pumping for their lives, and with with instructions to proceed to Wager River or all their exertions it seemed impossible to keep Repulse Bay, where, leaving the ship under the the ship afloat: the water was pouring in in care of an officer, he was to proceed with a large cascades; the gale was gradually increasing in fury, party across the intervening land to the eastern strengthened by squalls, which raised a long break-shore of Prince Regent's Inlet, sending one party to ing sea, in which the ship plunged heavily. She the north as far as the Fury and Hecla strait, and was hourly getting more water-logged; the strain- the other to pursue the continental coast line to ing and creaking of her whole frame-her prolonged the mouth or estuary of Back's River, and its condull roll to windward-everything seemed to showtinuation as far as the point Turnagain of Frankthat the ship must be lost. Shortly after midnight, lin. In the instructions it was stated to be their the first lieutenant entered the captain's cabin with Lordships' full belief that all the service detailed the fearful intelligence that the ship was sinking, might be fully and faithfully performed in the course the crew being no longer able to keep under the of one season, and "that this Arctic expedition leaks. The boats were ordered out, but the men may be distinguished from all others by the prompresolved to make another trial, and, exhausted as titude of its execution, and by escaping from the they were, the pumps were worked with fresh vi- gloomy and unprofitable waste of eight months' gour. The ship still struggled on, crazy and water-detention: it is therefore our distinct orders that logged, but the gale abated, and the wind was favourable. Crowding every stitch of canvass, the joyful cry of "Land was, at length, heard from the mast-head. It was late at night before they reached it; rockets and guns were fired for the purpose of obtaining a pilot, but no one came; therefore, trusting to the soundings, they glided silently on, and at midnight anchored safely in Lough Swilly. Fifteen long months had elapsed since the pleasing sound of a falling anchor had greeted the ears of that crew, and, in reflecting on all that had passed in the interval, they could not but feel devoutly grateful for the mercy which had been vouchsafed them; and how much was that feeling increased when the wind suddenly changed, and blew a gale off shore, which, but a few hours earlier, must have driven them back to sea, and terminated their labours in a watery grave.

As the ship was gradually sinking, it was run ashore on a small sandy beach. It was found, at low water, that upwards of twenty feet of the keel, together with ten feet of the stern-post, were driven over more than three and a half feet on one side, leaving a frightful opening astern for the free ingress of the water. When the generally_shattered state of the ship was seen, every one on board expressed astonishment that she had ever floated across the Atlantic.

every effort shall be made to return to England in the fall of this year." It will be seen in the course of the following details how true is the old proverb-"Man proposes, God disposes."

On the 14th June, 1836, the Terror left Chatham, and on the 28th July crossed Davies' Strait. Having passed Resolution Island, with its dense fogs and its whirlpools, tossing about masses of ice, sweeping the ship among them, and rendering her unmanageable, they came to the Savage Islands, and here their difficulties may be said fairly to have commenced. The navigation of Hudson's Strait was difficult on account of contrary winds and ice: the drift ice was very heavy, and difficult to steer clear of; and often, in spite of all their care, the ship would drive on the immense masses with a concussion that made all the bells ring, and almost threw those below from their chairs.

On the 14th August they arrived close upon Salisbury Island, the place where Back's instructions pointed out the two routes for his choice; and he decided upon that which led in a north-west direction through the Frozen Strait. On the 18th the ice became so close that there was no room to work the ship. Some experienced seamen, who had been in the Greenland trade, declared they had never beheld such heavy ice. It seemed to consist of numerous floes wedged together, the whole surface

During the whole of September the ship was whirled about, backwards and forwards, as the wind, or the current, or the tide directed, all command over her being lost. Under these circumstances, it was the opinion of all the officers that any attempt to reach Repulse Bay would be hopeless, and they suggested certain precautions, in the event of the ship breaking up under the enormous pressure to which she was subjected. Some idea of this pressure may be formed from the fact, that in the walls of ice on either side of her, her mould was stamped as perfectly as in a die.

so ragged and piled up, that the height of the ridges frequently exceeded fifteen feet; and no human being could have travelled far over it. To those unaccustomed to polar navigation, the prospect was most discouraging, all progress in this direction being apparently stopped; but the more experienced looked forward to a change of wind, tide, or current, or some of those unaccountable circumstances which in a few hours, even of entire calm, create so sudden and marvellous a change in an icy sea. Accordingly, about midnight, some large pieces of ice were observed to be drifting away, and in the course of a few hours a path was opened As there was now no chance of escape for eight through what seemed to be an impenetrable bar- or nine months to come, it was determined to cut rier. They made, however, but slow progress, a dock in a large floe of ice, so that the ship might constantly struggling with the ice, tacking conti- be protected by it, as long as the floe held together. nually to weather, or to avoid, the floes, and long-Just as this plan was about to be carried into exeing for a favourable breeze. The land shone blue cution, a commotion took place which separated from the distance, and beautifully soft, as contrasted the whole body of ice into single masses, tossed with the white cold glare of the intermediate ice into heaps, or ground to powder, whatever interaround, reflecting, by the setting sun, the tints rupted its course, and finally drove the whole up of the intervening masses thrown into the most the Frozen Strait. Other masses, however, sucpicturesque groups and forms; spires, turrets, and ceeded, which hemmed the ship in, and thus both she pyramids, many in deep shape, presented, alto- and they drifted about, often with secure bays and gether, a scene sufficient for a time to cheat the harbours apparently within reach, and still obliged imagination, and withdraw the mind from the to be prepared for being wrecked. Of course, cheerless reality of the actual situation. every attempt to cut a channel through the ice into some bay or harbour would have been vain, on account of the ice not presenting a flat surface, but heaped masses, which filled up every opening as fast as it was made. To add to the discomfort of their situation, the warming apparatus, which ought to have raised the interior of the ship to a comfortable temperature, miserably failed, so that they were reduced to two or three common fires.

The ship lay becalmed during several days, but, at length, a wind arose which broke up the ce mented masses of ice, and disentangled the ship. It now became evident that the great body of ice of the previous winter had not been broken up, and that season with the accumulations of the following having been detached from its bonds by the storms of spring, it had been driven, probably, by the combined action of wind and current, from the bays and harbours of the north, to the place where the ship was so impeded by it. On the evening of the 13th September the Cape Comfort of Baffin was seen. The next day the wind came, but it was from the adverse quarter, and had a direful effect on the shore ice, in which the ship was imbedded, the force being so great that what was not crushed was raised up to various heights; one ponderous mass, with several peaks, being lifted upwards of twenty feet. The ship, severely nipped, went on drifting with the | ice to the shore, the soft blue tint of which had now exchanged, on a near approach, to black frowning masses of inaccessible rock. "At this time," says Captain Back, "we appeared to be not more than four miles from the land, which was broken into exposed bays, utterly without shelter from the north, and blocked up with close packed ice. Not a pool of water was visible in any direction: to the mercy of Providence alone could we look for rescue from our perilous situation. None but those who have experienced it can judge of the weariness of heart, the blank of feeling, the feverish sickliness of taste, which gets the better of the whole man under circumstances such as these. Not an incident occurred to relieve, for a moment, the dull monotony of our unprofitable detention."

Thus delayed almost within sight of port, the season for active operations slipping away, the ship was held still within sight of the same land," as if it were in the grasp of a giant; and thus it was destined to be held from this time for eight or ten months to come. Well might Back speak of the name of this Cape as being "most inappropriate;' for, instead of "Comfort," it inspired daily, nay hourly, dread that the ship would be forced ashore.

The ice continued to be in motion up to the 20th November, but the floe, into which the ship was frozen, remained tolerably secure. Snow walls and galleries were built in different directions from the ship, which, being destined for the comfort of all, were cheerfully undertaken.

On the 22d December a furious storm arose, such that no man could face it. Several, who endeavoured to perform some duty outside the ship, were instantly frost bitten and obliged to return. The officer of the watch in merely going from the housing to the taffrail to register the thermometers, had the whole of his face frozen. Not that the temperature was so low as it had been a few days before, for it was then 53° below zero, and on this occasion only 30° below zero, but the wind extracted the heat with a rapidity beyond endurance, so that a short exposure to it would have been fatal to the hardiest. The storm raged like a hurricane, and covered the ship with snow-drift. The topmasts shook like wands, and the lee rigging was forced out like a bow. As the wind blew directly off shore there was great cause for apprehension as to the holding together of the floe. On the 24th the storm abated, and they then discovered that they had actually been driven out towards Frozen Strait, twelve or fourteen miles to the east of Cape Comfort.

As the sailors had abundance of spare time on their hands, an evening school was instituted under the superintendence of Lieut. Smyth, and occasionally visited by Capt. Back. The example of Parry was also not forgotten in contriving amusements for the men; plays were occasionally acted by the officers; foot-ball was played upon the level surface of the floe when the weather permitted; and a swing was hung from the bowsprit. The festivities

of Christmas-day were not forgotten; and Newyear's-day was duly ushered in by sound of bell. Still, however, the situation of the ship caused much anxiety, and anxiety fosters disease. The scurvy made its appearance, and this was thought to be aggravated by the fetid and impure atmosphere that lurked in the lower parts of the deck; and the difference of temperature, which frequently amounted to 110°, between the outside and the inside of the ship.

The floe, which had hitherto served to give some security to the ship, as well as a place of exercise for the men, at length began to crack and to open rents, thereby giving freedom to large masses of ice, yellow and brown with age, which darted to the surface, looking like unsightly blotches on the pale features of the general scene. On the 17th February, an alarm was given that the floe was breaking up alongside, and, in fact, a rent opened from the stern of the ship to the edge of the floe, and another from the bow to the east brink. Gaping rents were made in the snow walls about the ship; a crashing, grinding, and rushing noise was heard beneath, as well as at the borders of the floe, and fresh cracks opened in it. The ship creaked in her beams and timbers, and at day-light, to the dismay of all, an advancing rampart of ice, about thirty feet in height, of a semicircular form, was seen rolling to seaward, in one vast body. All around, enormous calves of ice escaped from confinement, and, being tossed up in irregular positions, looked like so many engines of destruction. But, just when the danger seemed greatest, the tumult suddenly ceased; and it was fortunate that it did so, for the ice was so splintered and jagged, that to put a boat upon it was out of the question; nor could it be made, even for an hour, a depository of provisions, full as it was of cracks and small holes opening every instant: nothing could have been conveyed to land, now about seven miles distant, and no one, probably, could have reached it, even without incumbrance.

plank complain. The night was fine, but the vapour which arose from the numerous cracks, quickly became converted into small spicule of snow, rendering the cold intolerably keen to those who had to face the wind.

Under these trying circumstances, the crew were exhorted to implicit obedience to orders, as well as kind and compassionate help to the sick. Fresh articles of warm clothing were distributed, and, as the moment of the destruction of the ship was uncertain, the bags in which those articles were contained were placed on deck with the provisions, to be ready on the instant. Bales of blankets, bearskins, and pyroligenous ether for fuel, were got out, together with whatever might be necessary if the ship should suddenly break up.

The ship thus continued to be assailed by ponderous waves of ice, and the intervals of repose were but short. At ten o'clock P.M. on the 1st March, several sudden jerks were heard, and an hour after a general rumbling, after which all became still. The conflict was apparently ended, when, suddenly, the vast bodies in contact with, and immediately surrounding, the ship, became fearfully agitated, rising up in grinding conflict, piece thrown over piece, until the ponderous walls tumbled over with a hideous compound of such sounds as are expressed by the words screeching, howling, and hining. Such was the violence of the pressure that the ship was lifted up abaft, and both hull and rigging trembled violently. Another pause ensued; the mist cleared away and revealed the magnificence of a polar sky; a faint gleam of aurora was playing near the zenith, and so beautiful and hushed was everything, that nature seemed, as it were, in a trance. But scarcely had the idea flitted across the mind when the war burst out again with redoubled fury, and huge fragments and masses seemed to be rolling down upon the ship with an impetuosity that threatened immediate destruction. Repose was impossible; many started from their beds, preferring to see, as well as hear, the danger. The current rushed irresistibly to the stern, and, taking the hull fore and aft, forced a complete stream of ice under the bottom, lifting the after part still higher up than before. At length, the ship became so completely hampered by ice underneath, that the remainder of the floe, on either side, moved about eight or ten feet a-head, leaving the ship fixed in the midst, and wedged up in every direction. As day-light broke, the havoc was more clearly perceived, and a wild scene of confusion it was. The men were employed in making small sledges, and arrangements were made for whatever might happen.

The broken arches of the snow galleries, the shattered snow walls, the cracks in the floe, and the vast mounds of ice and snow, called to mind the scene which must follow upon an earthquake; and when the ice actually separated, some of the galleries floating in the water looked like tunnels. To be at freedom to move would, two months later, have been the summit of their wishes, but it now only mocked them with hopes that could not be realized, while it involved immediate peril. The ice returned with accumulated force, making the ship crack fore and aft, with a hideous noise. Capt. Back says that his cabin-door could not be forced open without These attacks were now continued almost every difficulty, and was split in the pressure. The peo- night. On the 7th of March there commenced a ple, in alarm, crowded upon deck, and even the series of strange and unaccountable convulsions, poor sick came tottering aft, in an agony of terror. which must have proved fatal to any less strongly Providentially the ship, instead of yielding to the fortified ship. The northerly breezes which had pressure and cracking like a walnut, was forced up, brought the ice down for more than 360 miles, had so that the opposing ice either passed under her, fallen calm: a light westerly wind now prevailed, or was wedged against the large masses at either but some ominous rushing sounds were heard which extremity. Capt. Back remarks that, though he had gradually drew nearer as the flood made its way, seen vast bodies of ice from Spitzbergen, to 150° either under the compact bodies that withstood the W. lon., under various aspects, some beautiful, and shock, or along the cracks and openings, where it all more or less awe-imposing, he had never wit- gained a furious velocity, to which every thing nessed, nor even imagined, anything so fearfully seemed to yield. It happened that there were seve magnificent as the moving towers and ramparts that ral of these around the ship, and, when they opened now frowned on every side. The innermost frag-on it like so many conduits pouring their contents ments of the floe, every now and then, closed upon to a common centre, the concussion was absolutely the defenceless vessel with a force that made every appalling, rending the lining and bulk heads in every

part, loosening some wooden props so that the slightest effort would have thrown them down, and compressing others with such force as to make the turpentine ooze out of them. At the same time the pressure was going on from the larboard side, where the three heaviest parts of the ruin of the floe remained, and after much splitting and cracking, accompanied by sounds like the explosion of cannon, the ship rose fore and aft, and heeled over about 10° to starboard, partly drawing the ship's bolts, and loosening the trenails.

So repeated were these assaults, that on examining the ship, considerable doubt existed whether she would be sea-worthy when the ice should slacken off to let her down to her bearings. The carpenter did what he could in stopping leaks, and otherwise repairing and strengthening the ship; and the officers agreed that, in the event of a wreck, a light boat with provisions should be landed to serve as a last resource, to communicate with the Hudson's Bay Company.

The advancing season, however, was beginning to work a favourable change; many of the huge hummocks which had kept company with the ship during the whole of the winter, and had weathered out every gale, had floated away, taking with them large portions of the surrounding ice. Birds began to be seen about the ship, and, on the 1st of April, it was gratifying to observe such decided symptoms of returning warmth as were afforded by water dripping and running along the decks.

Still, however, the ship was subject to the heavy and repeated assaults of the ice, one of the most fearful of which occurred on the 10th of April. At seven o'clock P.M. a noise was heard along the ice, about a mile to the west of the ship, and soon the breeze brought down the whole western body with irresistible force, suddenly assailing the floe pieces, grinding and ploughing up the edges. There were frequent pauses, not unlike the silence which succeeds a heavy crash of thunder; but, suddenly, on it came again, with a deafening roar, destroying every thing in its furious course.

expected to withstand the overwhelming power opposed to it, and what the result of that night might have been it is impossible to say, and painful to contemplate, had not an overruling Providence mercifully averted the crisis, by suddenly, and at the moment of greatest peril, arresting the tumult. In less time than it could be spoken, there was the stillnes of death, and we were saved. The watch was called, the crew dismissed; and I trust that none that night laid his head on his pillow without offering up a devout thanksgiving for the mercy which had been vouchsafed him."

This was, happily, the last attack of this kind: the months of May and June rolled away with tedious uniformity, and still the ship was unable to move. Ice-saws had hitherto been useless on account of the thickness of the masses they had to contend with, varying often from thirty to fifty feet: but in July an attempt was made to cut away the remaining portion of the floe by joining two ice-saws so as to make one of the length of thirty feet. The work was continued with vigour during several days, when, on the 11th, a loud rumbling sound announced that the ship had broken her icy bonds, and was sliding gently down into her own element. "I ran instantly on deck, and joined in the cheers of the officers and men, who dispersed on different pieces of ice took this significant mode of expressing their feelings. It was a sight not to be forgotten. Standing on the taffrail, I saw the dark bubbling water below, and enormous masses of ice gently vibrating, and springing to the surface; the first lieutenant was just climbing over the stern, while other groups were standing apart, separated by this new gulf, and the spars, together with the working implements, were resting half in the water, half in the ice, whilst the saw, the instrument whereby this sudden effect had been produced, was bent double, and in that position forcibly detained by the body it had severed."

But the poor Terror was not yet free her keel and the lower parts of the hull were still firmly imbedded in solid ice on both sides, though chiefly on the starboard, where a heavy fragment of the old floe still adhered. By means of ice anchors and the capstan the mass was splintered and separated into three pieces, two of which fell away, when, to the astonishment of all, the ship turned over on her side: "Then it was we beheld the strange and appalling spectacle of what may be fitly termed a submerged berg fixed low down, with one end to the ship's side, while the other, with the purchase of a long lever advantageously placed at a right angle with the keel, was slowly rising towards the surface. Meanwhile, those who happened to be below, finding everything falling, rushed or clambered on deck, where they saw the ship on her beam ends, with the lee boats touching the water, and felt that a few moments only trembled between them and eternity." Yet, in that awful crisis, there was no confusion, "the sails were clewed up and lowered; fresh men from former crews were stationed in the boats which again were rather unhooked than lowered; and with a promptitude and presence of mind which I shall ever remember with

"Wherever our eyes were turned, they were met by rising waves of ice rolling their burdens towards the ship. One in particular not more than thirty paces away had reared itself at least thirty feet on our inner floe-piece, which, strong as it was, gave way under the accumulated weight, and a mass of several tons being thus upturned, and added to the original bulk, the whole bore down slowly upon our quarter. The ship herself was high out of the water on the ice, but this overtopped her like a tower." The ship, unable to right herself, began to complain, and the scene became every moment more dark and threatening. Again preparations were made for a wreck, but circumstances were now even more discouraging than on former occasions. The large pieces of ice around, any one of which would have held the boats, provisions, &c., now no longer remained; the ship was surrounded by crushed and broken ice, presenting a multitude of angular and irregular surfaces, but none fit to trust a boat on, still less a human being: at the same time, every piece being in motion, it would have been impossible to have reached the land. "Know-admiration, the whole were provisioned and filled ing this, and feeling acutely for the many beings en trusted to my charge, it may be conceived with what intense anxiety I listened to the crashing and grinding around. The strength of the ship, tried and shaken as it had already been, could hardly be

with arms, ammunition, and clothing, and veered astern clear of all danger. The pumps were never quitted, and though expecting that the ship might capsize, yet the question of, 'Does the leak gain on us?' was asked, and when answered in the nega