Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-10-17

hin Of Appah, where / knew from the
Esquimaux we should find plenty fbiris:
but the strength of the party was unsufi-
cient to drag her.
We were 50 sorely disheartened, and
could only wait for the fog to rise, in the
hope Of some smoother platform than
/ that which was about us, or some lead
that might save US the painful labor of
tracking. I had climbed the iceberg;
and there was nothing in view except
/ Dalrymple Rock, with It's red brassy face
towering in the unknown distance. But
l hardly got back 70 my boat, before
gale struck US from the Northwest. and
foe, taking upon the tongue of ice about
a mile to the north of US, began 90 swing
upon it ike pivot and close slowly in
upon our narrow resting-place.
At first our own foe also was driven
before the wind; but in a little while ii
encountered the stationary ice at the foot
of the very rock ITSELF On the instant
the widest imaginable ruin arose around
US. The men sprang mechanically each
one to his station, bearing back the boats
and stores; but I gave up for the moment
all hope Of our escape. 1t was not nip,
such as is familiar to Arctic navigators;
but the whole platform, where we stood
and for hundreds of yards on every side
of US, crumbled and crushed and piled
and tossed itself madly under the pres
sure. do not believe that of our little
body of men, all of them disciplined in
trials, able to measure danger while com
batting it, do not believe there is one
who this day can explain how or why
hardly when, in fact-we found ourselves
afoat. We only know that in the midst
of a clamor utterly indescribable, through
which the braying of thousand trumpets
could no more have been heard than the
r voice of man, we were shaken and
raised and whirled and let down again in
, swelling waste of broken hammocks,
and, as the men grasped their boathooks
/ in the stiffness that followed, the boats
eddied away in a tumultuous skreed Of
. ice and snow and water.
We were borne along in this manner
] as long as the unbroken remnant Of the
in-shore foe continued revolying,-utter-
, ly powerless, and catching a glimpse eve
= ry now and then Of the brazen headIand
that looked down on US through the
| snowy sky. At last the foe brought
against the rocks, the Iooser fragments
that hung round it began to seperate,
and we were able by oars and boat-hooks
to force our battered little Aotilla clear Of
J. them. To our joyful surprise, we soon
found ourselves in a stretch of the land
5 water wide enough TO give US rowing
S room, and with the assured promise o.
d land close ahead.
Il as we neared it, we saw the same forbid.
S ding wall of belt-ice as at Southerland
Q and Hakluyt. We pulled along its mar,
It gin, seeking in vain either an opening o.
n access or a nook Of shelter. The gale
rose, and the ice began TO drive again
e but there was nothing to be done but ge
d a grapnel out to the belt and hold on fol
e the rising tide. The Hope stove hei
II bottom and lost part Of her weather-board
+ ing, and all the boats were badly chafed
y 1t was an awful storm; and it was 40
without constant exertion that we KEEP
8 afoat, baling out the scud that brok,
over Us, and warding Off the ice witt
boat-hooks.
y At three o'clock the tide was higl
q enough for US TO scale the ice-clif On
"a by one We pulled up the boats upon
u narrow shelf, the whole sixteen Of u
s. uniting at each pull. We were too muc
10 worn down to unloadi but deep an
X narrow gorge opened in the cliffs almos
&c at the spot where we clambered up; aB,
nc as we pushed the boatsinto il on an eve
Of keel, the rocks seemed to close aboy
~ our heads, until an abrupt turn in tn
rayine placed a protecting cliff befwee
Sc Us and the gale. We were completed
IL encayed.
Ii. Just as we bad brought in the last boa
ar the Qed Eric, and were snoring her u
ck with blocks Of lee, long unused but &
le miliar and unmisiakable sound staItls
as and gladdened every ear, and 6ock
le- elders Aecking the sky for a mofnsn
ey passed swiftly ia front Of us. We kne
@, that we must be at their breeding grouu,
in and, as We turned in wet and hungry
m our long coveted sleep, Il was only
ier dream Of eggs and abundance.
We We remained almost three days 10 O
gh crystal retreat, gatheiing egg at the "a
&C. Of twelve hundred a day. Outside, i
eff storm ragged without interrnission, a