Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/101

80 the cup remained in its position! Three half-reams of paper, that had been placed securely over my bunk, and had there rested quietly all the previous part of the voyage from New London, were found scattered over an area of say seventy-five feet. One heterogeneous mass presented itself to all eyes in the morning. Medicine-chest and contents—guns and ammunition—my arctic library and the library of the George Henry—geological and ornithological, cetaceous and floral specimens—sailors' chests—magnetic and astronomical instruments—pens, ink, and paper, charts and maps, &c. besides two human beings—the captain and myself—wrapped in deep slumber by their side. But soon out of all this chaotic mass we produced harmony again. Things got into their places; and I, by degrees, mastered my sickness, and was the man once more.

On July 27th we had a heavy snow-storm, and soon afterward the land on the west side of Davis's Straits was seen, the mountains covered with snow; but, owing to frequent fogs (sometimes it seemed to rain fog) and unsettled weather, we could not near the George Henry's destination, which was now changed to a place more south of Northumberland Inlet. We came across but little ice, except bergs, and frequently expressed much surprise at it. The icebergs, however, were numerous, and many of them deeply interesting—one especially so, from its vast height and odd shape. I say "odd," though that applies in all bergs, for no two are alike, nor does any one seem long to retain its same appearance and position. The following is a sketch of one I called the Belted Iceberg; but ice movements are as mysterious almost as the magnetic pole. The captain told me that he had known two vessels to be beset near each other in the ice, and in a few days, though the same ice was around each vessel, yet they would be many miles apart! Bergs have been known to approach and recede from each other in as beautiful and stately a manner as the partners in the old-fashioned, courtly dances of years gone by.

Of the various bergs I particularly noticed, a few