The Trinity journal., 1857-01-24
[From DR.. Kane's Arctic Expedition.l
Parting Hawsers among the Icebergs

good hawsers oht ahead, and all things snug
on board.
Still it came on heavier and heavier, and
the ice began 10 drive more wildly than
thought had ever seen it. | had Just
turned in to dry and warm myself during the
momentary lull, and was stretching myself
out in my bunk, when | heard the sharp
twanging snap Of cord Oar six inch haw-
ser had parted, an6 we were swinging by
the two others the gale like roaring lion
to the southwark.
Half minute more, twang, twang ?
came second report. | knew it was the
whale line by the shrilness of the ring. Our
noble ten-inch MANILA still held on. I was
hurrying my last sock into its scal-skin boot,
when McGary came waddling down the
mpanion-adders Captain Kane, she
wont hold much longer it's blowing the
devil himself and I'm afraid to SURGE
The manila cable was proving its excel
ience when | reached the deck and the
crew, as they gathered round me, were loud
in its praises. We could hear its deep
Eolian chant swelling through all the rattle
of the running-gear and moaning of the
shrouds IL 1OaS tie death song! The strand
gave way with the noise of a shotted gun !;
and in the smoke that followed their recoil,
we were dragged out by the wild ice, at its
mercy.
We steadied and did some pretty warping,
and got the brig good bed in the rushing
drift but it all came to nothing We then
tried to beat back through the narrow ice
clogged water way, that was driving, a
quarter Of mile wde between the shore
and the pack. 1t cost us two hours of hard
labor, thought skilfully bestowed but at
the end of that time, we were at least four
miles off, opposite the great valley in the
centre Of Bedeviled reach. Ahead Of us.
farther to the north, we could see the strait
growing still narrower, and the heavy ice
tables grinding up, and clogging it between
the shore cliffs 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
scud under reefed foretopsail all hands
watching the enemy, as we closed in silence
AT in the morning, we were close upon
the piling passes. We dropped our heaviest
anchor with the desperate hope of winding
the brig, but there was no wthstanding the
ice torrent that followed u.s. We had only
time to fasten a spar as buoy to the chain,
and let her slip. So went our best bower {!
Down we went upon the gale again, hope
leSSly scraping along lea of ice seldom less
than thirty feet thick one foe measured
by line as we tried to iasten to it, more
than forty. / had seen such ice only once
before, and never in such rapid motion
One upturned mass rose above our gunwale,
smashing in our bulwarks, and dcpositing
half ton Of ice in a lump upon our decks
Our staunch little brig bore herself through
all this wild adventure as if she had a
charmed life.
But new enemy came in sight ahead
Directly in our way, ust beyond the line of
floe-ice, against which we were alternately
sliding and humping, was group Of bergs.
We had no power to avoid them, and the
only question was, whether we were to be
dashed to pieces against them, or whether
they might not offer us some providential
nook of refuge from the storm. But as we
neared them, VIC perceived that they were
at some distance from the 0oe-edgc and sep
arated from it by an interval of open water.
Our hopes rose as the gale drove us toward
the passage and into it, and we were ready
to cXult when, from some unexplained cause,
probably an eddy of the wind against the
lofty ice-walls, we lost our headway. AL
most ut the same moment we saw that the
bergS were not at rest that with momen-
tum of their own they were bearing down
upon the other ice, and that it must be our
fate to be crushed between the two.
just then broad scohce-p piece Of low
water-washcd berg came driving from the
southwark The thought flashed upon me
of one of our escapes in Melville Bay, and
rs the sconce moved rapidly close alongside
us, McGary managed to plant an anchor on
its slope, and to hold on to it by a whale
line. 1t was an anXious moment. Our
noble tow-horsc, winter than the pale horse
that seemed to be pursuing us, hauled us
bravely on the spray dashed over his
windward 1anks, and his forehead plowng
up the lesser ice as if in scern. The bergs
encroached upon rs as we advanced our
channel narrowed to width of about forty
feet we oraced the yards to keep clear of
the impending ice-walIs.
We passed clear but it was close
shave, so close that our port-quartcr boat
would have been crushed if we had not
taken it from the davts, and found ourselves
under the lea of the berg, in comparatively
open lead Never did heart-tried men ac-
knowledge, with more gratitude, their mer-
ciful dellverancc from q wretched death.
HoLLowAY's PnLs-Persons of bilious
habit, or who are liable to attacks of dys-
pepsia, should fortify their systems against
the relaxing heats of Summer by course of
this mild aperient and Alternative in the
Spring. 1t not only regulates the sccre-
tions, and removes distractions from the
bowels, but braces and re-vitaizes the d-
gestive powers, when weakened by indul-
gence, or rendered torpid by sedentary life
The testimony of invalids of both sexes ard
all ages in every part of the globe demon