Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/137

Rh was seen rising from the horizon; and scarcely had we accomplished our passage into a fine space of water, when a most dense fog enveloped us.

The density of the fog prevented our seeing objects scarcely a ship's length from us, and consequently the vessel was run against several pieces of ice during the night; in the morning, the wind changed to the south-west, and blew a hurricane all the day, during which we had most fearful sailing between floes that were in rapid motion, but which were passed with great adroitness. As the wind abated, the fog became more dense, and our companion, the Trafalgar, like ourselves, was encompassed by an impenetrable barrier of ice, which the gale had collected. Finding that there was no opening to proceed, and that the one through which we had come was closed, our situation was considered perilous, and the apprehension of being beset was entertained by every one conversant with the nature of the ice. The only consolation was, that the wind having ceased, there were hopes of our being enabled to cut a dock in a floe, large enough to receive the ship; this would be less dangerous than being forced between a stationary field, and a floe driven by the impulse of the elements, with a fury against which no human ingenuity could avail in preventing the inevitable destruction that must ensue. Happily we were not reduced to the extremity which we had so much reason to dread.

That some opinion may be formed of the dangers