The travellers had hardly time to reflect with gratitude to God on their
safety, when that part of the ice from which they had just now made good
their landing burst asunder, and the water, forcing itself from below,
covered and precipitated it into the sea. In an instant, as if by a
signal given, the whole mass of ice, extending for several miles from
the coast, and as far as the eye could reach, began to burst and be
overwhelmed by the immense waves. The sight was tremendous and awfully
grand: the large fields of ice, raising themselves out of the water,
striking against each other and plunging into the deep with a violence
not to be described, and a noise like the discharge of innumerable
batteries of heavy guns. The darkness of the night, the roaring of the
wind and sea, and the dashing of the waves and ice against the rocks,
filled the travellers with sensations of awe and horror, so as almost
to deprive them of the power of utterance. They stood overwhelmed with
astonishment at their miraculous escape, and even the heathen Esquimaux
expressed gratitude to God for their deliverance.



[Note: _But high above desert renowned_ = Let it be renowned high above
desert.]




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