Bedford inquirer and chronicle. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1854-1857, 1856-11-07

afording SIX hundred pounds of good whole
some flesh, though of rather an unsavory
odor.
But more serious trial was at hand
The vessel had been released from her moor
Ings, and had fought her way through the
ice for several days, when the sky gave
tokens of an approaching storm. On the
20th of August, the storm came on with
unmistakable Arctic fury. Its effects can
be described in no other words than those
of the Journal Of the darntless command
er:
'By Saturday morning it blew perfect
hurricane. We had seen it coming, and
were ready with three good hawsers out
ahead, and all things snug on board.
''Still it came on heavier and heavier,
and the ice began to drive more wildly than
thought had ever seen it. had just
turned in to warm and dry myself during a
niomentary lull, and was stretching myself
out in my bunk, wher heard the sharp
twanging suap of coard. One six>inch
hawser had parted, and we we're swinging
by the two others, the gale roaring like a
lion to the southwark.
s.Half minute more, and "twang.
twang!" came second report. ] knew it
was the whale line by the shriilness of the
ring. Our noble ten inch-manilla still held
on. l was hurryiug my last sock into its
soal skin boot, when McGary came waddling
down the companion ladders. "Captain
Kane, she won't hold much longer; it's
blowing the devil himself, and am afraid
to surge"
"fhe manila cable was proving its excel
lence when ! reached the deck. and the
crew as the Y gathered round me, were loud
IN its praises. We could hear It's deep
Eolian chant, swell ing through all the rat
tie Of running gear, and moaning of the
shrouds. 1t was the deatli-song The
strandsgaye way with the noise Of shotted
gun; and in the amoke that followed their
rccoil, we were dragged out by the wild ice
at its mercy.
eve steadied and did some pretty warp
ing, and got the brig good bed in the rush
ing drift, but it all came to nothing. We
then tried TO beat back through the narrow
iee-clogged waterway, that was driving
quarter of a mile wide, between the shore
and the pack 1t cost US two hours of
hard labor, | thought skillfully bestowed;
bat at the end of that time we were at least
four miles off, opposite the great valley in
the centre of Bedeyilled Reach. Ahead
of us, farther to she north, We could see the
strait growing still narrower, and the heavy
ice-tables grinding up and clogging IL be-
tween the shore-ciiffs on one side and the
ledge on the other. There was but one
thing left for US, to keep in some sort the
command of the helm, by going freely where
we must otherwise be driven. We allowed
her to send under reefed foftopsail; all
hands watching the enemy as sc closed, in
silence.
ssAt seven o'clock in the morning, we
we're close upon the piling masses. We
dropped our heaviest anchor with the des-
perate hope Of winding the br ig; but there
was no withstanding the ice torrent that
followed us. We had only time to fasten a
spar as buoy 10 the chain, and let her slip.
So went our best bower!
s'Down we went upon the gale again,
helplessly scraping along a lee ice seldom
less than thirty feet thick; one foe, measur-
ed by line as we tried to fasten it, more
than forty feet. had seen such ice only
once before, and never in such rapid mo-
ton. 0ne upturned mass rose above our
gunwale, smashing in our bulkwarks, and
depositing half ton of ice in a lump upon
our decks Oar staunch little brig bore
herself through all this Wild adventure as II
she had charmed life.
'.But new enemy came in sight ahead
Directly in our way, just beyond the line of
foe-ice against which we were alternately
sliding and humping, was group of bergs.
We had no dover to avoid them, and the
only question was whether we we're to be
dashed in pieces against them, or whether
they might not offer US some proyidential
nook or refuge from the storm. But as we
nearcd them, We perceived that they were at
some distance from the foe-edse and separ-
ated from 1t BY an interval of open water.
Our hopes rose, as the gale drove Us TO-
wards this passage, ard into il; and we were
ready to sxult, when, by some unexpected
cause, probably an eddy Of the wind against
the lofty ice walls, we lost our headway---
Almost at the same moment We saw that
tho bergs we're not at rest; that with mo-
mentum of their own they were bearing
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