Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 2.djvu/205

186 "Shevikoo was the first one of the crew up the side of the vessel. As soon as he got aboard he told Captain B we had seen much ice down at the entrance of the bay. When I went down below, Captain B came to me asking if I had seen any heavy ice—pack—in Davis's Strait. I told him that I had, and proceeded to give him as truthful an account of it as I could. I was astonished at the effect it produced upon him. Then it was that I first began to realize, to feel the overwhelming importance, the momentous character of that pack. On getting through my description, telling him that I not only took repeated careful looks of it through his glass, but had required Shevikoo to do the same, Captain B, with fevered brow, responded, ' Our fate is sealed! Another winter here! We are already imprisoned! ' "This was now the theme, the all-important subject of thought of every one who heard Captain B's explanation of how it was that all hope of returning to the States this season was now cut off. Captain B no longer felt able to rejoice at the capture of another whale. To and fro he paced the cabin—now on deck—another moment back again.

"At eight o'clock the four boats came in announcing the fact that another whale had been secured. At any other time this intelligence would have been received by Captain B with a joyful heart, but now he was occupied in thinking what he was to do under the present dismal circumstances. When the boats came in and were placed in position on their cranes, the captain broke to the officers the subject that now before all others pressed upon him. During the evening he proceeded to state that, from various circumstances during the year, he had been thinking there might be something of the kind, to wit, pack-ice, coming down Davis's Strait. He said, 'Last winter hung on late; there has been no summer; the year has been an unusually cold one; the water of the bay has been almost of sea-ice temperature, while now the first cold snap turns it at once to porridge, and then into solid ice. All these results are from the heavy pack that has probably been coming down Davis's Strait nearly all the season.'