"The sun had now reached his height, and there was as yet little or no
alteration in the appearance of the sky; but the motion of the sea
under the ice had grown more perceptible, so as rather to alarm the
travellers, and they began to think it prudent to keep closer to the
shore. The ice had cracks and large fissures in many places, some of
which formed chasms of one or two feet wide; but as they are not
uncommon even in its best state, and the dogs easily leap over them,
the sledge following without danger, they are only terrible to new
comers.

"As soon as the sun declined towards the west, the wind increased and
rose to a storm, the bank of clouds from the east began to ascend, and
the dark streaks to put themselves in motion against the wind. The
snow was violently driven about by partial whirlwinds, both on the ice
and from off the peaks of the high mountains, and filled the air. At
the same time, the ground-swell had increased so much, that its
effects upon the ice became very extraordinary and alarming. The
sledges, instead of gliding along smoothly upon an even surface,
sometimes ran with violence after the dogs, and shortly after seemed
with difficulty to ascend the rising hill; for the elasticity of so
vast a body of ice of many leagues square, supported by a troubled
sea, though in some places three or four yards in thickness, would in
some degree occasion an undulatory motion, not unlike that of a sheet
of paper accommodating itself to the surface of a rippling stream.
Noises were likewise now distinctly heard in many directions like the
report of cannon, owing to the bursting of the ice at some distance.

"The Esquimaux therefore drove with all haste towards the shore,
intending to take up their night's quarters on the south side of the