Page:Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, in the Year 1821.djvu/155

Rh ; and I learned at the same time, that the Cato, as well as other ships, had nearly shared the same fate, some of them having been lifted Up .by the ice, several feet above their water line. The destruction of the Thornton in lat. 79° N. was stated to have been progressive for about fifteen minutes, when its sides yielding to the irresistible pressure, the ice formed a junction through the unfortunate wreck. Several other distressing occurrences were enumerated, some where the destruction had been completed within a minute after the ice on either side had come in contact with the vessel.

This day several Sterna Hirundo, ., or seaswallow, came flying round and over the ship, but beyond the reach of shot; they appeared extremely elegant birds on the wing, and were singularly attractive from their long tail-feathers which were extendedly forked.

At four o'clock in the morning, the ice having opened on the north-west side of the bay, all the other ships went out and sailed away to windward, but we remained lying to, until all the duties of the Sabbath had been performed, when we sailed in the same direction; about ten o'clock, a thick fog came on, which made the navigation both difficult and dangerous.

The weather clearing, we found ourselves in a bay of impenetrable ice, of about six miles in depth, and with no inlet but that  through which we came; we therefore lost no time in making a retrograde course. Several unicorns