Page:Enterprise and Adventure.djvu/197

Rh and by noon blew a terrible gale, with gusts laden with a thick snow, which froze as it fell on the deck and rigging, and frequently limited their horizon to a few ships' lengths.

Hemmed in as they were, between the land and the shoal, and obliged to manoeuvre in a space encumbered with icebergs, their position now became most menacing. In spite of all efforts and the alarming crowd of sail which they carried, they soon perceived that they were driving to the westward, and that, if the storm should last four-and-twenty hours longer, they had but little chance of safety. Providentially the wind gradually lulled, the sea subsided, and the horizon expanded to half a mile, and sometimes a mile. In twelve hours their sails and rigging had suffered more than in six months of previous navigation. A few days later the wind shifted round again to the east-south-east, and rapidly freshened, accompanied by gusts and snowflakes. Abandoning, therefore, all further projects of exploration on this portion of the land, Captain D'Urville bore northward, for the purpose of escaping the labyrinth in which they were involved. They thus soon found themselves in a space where the icebergs, more widely scattered, permitted them to navigate with less peril; and it was time, for the wind blew afresh from the east with extreme violence, making a heavy sea, and wrapping them in a thick and continual snow-storm, which entirely shut out the view of all around them.

Wind, snow, sleet, and hail were now the daily companions of their lonely voyage, till, the weather clearing a little, the look-out man suddenly announced