第49章 LETTER VIII.(12)

As soon as we had got a little over our first feelings of astonishment at the panorama thus suddenly revealed to us by the lifting of the fog,I began to consider what would be the best way of getting to the anchorage on the west--or Greenland side of the island.We were still seven or eight miles from the shore,and the northern extremity of the island,round which we should have to pass,lay about five leagues off,bearing West by North,while between us and the land stretched a continuous breadth of floating ice.The hummocks,however,seemed to be pretty loose with openings here and there,so that with careful sailing I thought we might pass through,and perhaps on the farther side of the island come into a freer sea.Alas!after having with some difficulty wound along until we were almost abreast of the cape,we were stopped dead short by a solid rampart of fixed ice,which in one direction leant upon the land,and in the other ran away as far as the eye could reach into the dusky North.Thus hopelessly cut off from all access to the western and better anchorage,it only remained to put about,and--running down along the land--attempt to reach a kind of open roadstead on the eastern side,a little to the south of the volcano described by Dr.

Scoresby but in this endeavour also we were doomed to be disappointed;for after sailing some considerable distance through a field of ice,which kept getting more closely packed as we pushed further into it,we came upon another barrier equally impenetrable,that stretched away from the island toward the Southward and Eastward.Under these circumstances,the only thing to be done was to get back to where the ice was looser,and attempt a landing wherever a favourable opening presented itself.But even to extricate ourselves from our present position,was now no longer of such easy performance.Within the last hour the wind had shifted into the North-West;that is to say,it was now blowing right down the path along which we had picked our way;in order to return,therefore,it would be necessary to work the ship to windward through a sea as thickly crammed with ice as a lady's boudoir is with furniture.Moreover,it had become evident,from the obvious closing of the open spaces,that some considerable pressure was acting upon the outside of the field;but whether originating in a current or the change of wind,or another field being driven down upon it,Icould not tell:Be that as it might,out we must get,--unless we wanted to be cracked like a walnut-shell between the drifting ice and trio solid belt to leeward;so sending a steady hand to the helm,--for these unusual phenomena had begun to make some of my people lose their heads a little,no one on board having ever seen a bit of ice before,--I stationed myself in the bows,while Mr.Wyse conned the vessel from the square yard.Then there began one of the prettiest and most exciting pieces of nautical manoeuvring that can be imagined.Every single soul on board was summoned upon deck;to all,their several stations and duties were assigned--always excepting the cook,who was merely directed to make himself generally useful.As soon as everybody was ready,down went the helm,--about came the ship,--and the critical part of the business commenced.Of course,in order to wind and twist the schooner in and out among the devious channels left between the hummocks,it was necessary she should have considerable way on her;at the same time so narrow were some of the passages,and so sharp their turnings,that unless she had been the most handy vessel in the world,she would have had a very narrow squeak for it.

I never saw anything so beautiful as her behaviour.Had she been a living creature,she could not have dodged,and wound,and doubled,with more conscious cunning and dexterity;and it was quite amusing to hear the endearing way in which the people spoke to her,each time the nimble creature contrived to elude some more than usually threatening tongue of ice.Once or twice,in spite of all our exertions,it was impossible to save her from a collision;all that remained to be done,as soon as it became evident she could not clear some particular floe,or go about in time to avoid it,was to haul the staysail sheet a-weather in order to deaden her way as much as possible,and--putting the helm down--let her go right at it,so that she should receive the blow on her stem,and not on the bluff of the bow;while all hands,armed with spars and fenders,rushed forward to ease off the shock.And here I feel it just to pay a tribute of admiration to the cook,who on these occasions never failed to exhibit an immense amount of misdirected energy,breaking--I remember--at the same moment,both the cabin sky-light,and an oar,in single combat with a large berg that was doing no particular harm to us,but against which he seemed suddenly to have conceived a violent spite.Luckily a considerable quantity of snow overlaid the ice,which,acting as a buffer,in some measure mitigated the violence of the concussion;while the very fragility of her build diminishing the momentum,proved in the end the little schooner's greatest security.

Nevertheless,I must confess that more than once,while leaning forward in expectation of the scrunch I knew must come,I have caught myself half murmuring to the fair face that seemed to gaze so serenely at the cold white mass we were approaching:"O Lady,is it not now fit thou shouldest befriend the good ship of which thou art the pride?"At last,after having received two or three pretty severe bumps,--though the loss of a little copper was the only damage they entailed,--we made our way back to the northern end of the island,where the pack was looser,and we had at all events a little more breathing room.

It had become very cold--so cold,indeed,that Mr.Wyse --no longer able to keep a clutch of the rigging--had a severe tumble from the yard on which he was standing.