THE WORLD OF ICE, 115

the part of the more ignorant among the men that
there might be some truth in O’Riley’s statement
after all.

But their attention and energies were speedily
called to the dangerous position of the ship, which
unexpectedly took the ground in a bay where the
water proved to be unusually shallow, and before
they could warp her off the ice closed round her in
compact, immovable masses. At first Captain Guy
was not seriously alarmed by this untoward event,
although he felt a little chagrin in consequence of the
detention, for the summer was rapidly advancing, and
it behoved him to return to Baftin’s Bay and prose-
cute the whale-fishing as energetically as possible ; but
when day after day passed, and the ice round the
ship still remained immovable, he became alarmed,
and sought by every means in his power to extricate
himself.

His position was rendered all the more ageravating
by the fact that, a week after he was beset, the main
body of the ice in the strait opened up and drifted
to the southward, leaving a comparatively clear sea
through which he could haye pushed his way without
much difficulty in any direction ; but the solid masses
in which they lay embedded were fast to the ground
for about fifty yards beyond the vessel, seaward, and
until these should be floated away there was no
chance of escape.

“Get up some powder and canisters, Mr. Bolton,” he
exclaimed, one morning after breakfast, “I'll try what

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