Fast in the Ice | Page 5

floes are closin' round us, an' we'll soon be fast in
the pack, if a breeze don't spring up to help us."
As the reader may not, perhaps, understand the terms used by Arctic
voyagers in regard to the ice in its various forms, it may be as well here
to explain the meaning of those most commonly used.
When ice is seen floating in small detached pieces and scattered masses,
it is called "floe" ice, and men speak of getting among the floes. When
these floes close up, so that the whole sea seems to be covered with
them, and little water can be seen, it is called "pack" ice. When the
pack is squeezed together, so that lumps of it are forced up in the form
of rugged mounds, these mounds are called "hummocks." A large mass
of flat ice, varying from one mile to many miles in extent, is called a

"field," and a mountain of ice is called a "berg."
All the ice here spoken of, except the berg, is sea-ice; formed by the
freezing of the ocean in winter. The berg is formed in a very different
manner. Of this more shall be said in a future chapter.
"Well, my lad," said Gregory, in reply to Jim Croft's last observation, "I
have not seen much of the ice yet, as you truly remark, so I hope that
the wind will not come to help us out of it for some time. You don't
think it dangerous to get into the pack, do you?"
"Well, not exactly dangerous, sir," replied Croft, "but I must say that it
aint safe, 'specially when there's a swell on like this. But that'll go down
soon. D'ye know what a nip is, Dr Gregory?"
"I think I do; at least I have read of such a thing. But I should be very
glad to hear what you have to say about it. No doubt you have felt one."
"Felt one!" cried Jim, screwing up his face and drawing his limbs
together, as if he were suffering horrible pain, "no, I've never felt one.
The man what feels a nip aint likely to live to tell what his feelin's was.
But I've seed one."
"You've seen one, have you? That must have been interesting. Where
was it?"
"Not very far from the Greenland coast," said Croft, giving his quid
another turn. "This was the way of it. You must know that there was
two ships of us in company at the time. Whalers we was. We got into
the heart of the pack somehow, and we thought we'd never get out of it
again. There was nothin' but ice all round us as far as the eye could see.
The name of our ship was the Nancy. Our comrade was the Bullfinch.
One mornin' early we heard a loud noise of ice rubbin' agin the sides o'
the ship, so we all jumped up, an' on deck as fast as we could, for
there's short time given to save ourselves in them seas sometimes. The
whole pack, we found, was in motion, and a wide lead of water opened
up before us, for all the world like a smooth river or canal windin'
through the pack. Into this we warped the ship, and hoistin' sail, steered

away cheerily. We passed close to the Bullfinch, which was still hard
and fast in the pack, and we saw that her crew were sawin' and cuttin'
away at the ice, tryin' to get into the lead that we'd got into. So we
hailed them, and said we would wait for 'em outside the pack, if we got
through. But the words were no sooner spoken, when the wind it died
away, and we were becalmed about half a mile from the Bullfinch.
"`You'd better go down to breakfast, boys,' says our captain, says he,
`the breeze won't be long o' comin' again.'
"So down the men went, and soon after that the steward comes on deck,
and, says he to the captain, `Breakfast, sir.' `Very good,' says the
captain, and down he went too, leavin' me at the wheel and the mate in
charge of the deck. He'd not been gone three minutes when I noticed
that the great field of ice on our right was closin' in on the field on our
left, and the channel we was floatin' in was closin' up. The mate noticed
it, too, but he wouldn't call the captain 'cause the ice came so slowly
and quietly on that for a few minutes we could hardly believe it was
movin' and everything around us looked so calm and peaceful like that
it was difficult to believe our danger was so great. But this was only a
momentary feelin', d'ye see.