Fortunately, however, we weathered it
by stretching back a few miles to the southward. In the afternoon
the wind moderated, and we tacked again to the northward, crossing
the Arctic circle at four P.M., in the longitude of 57 deg. 27' W. We
passed at least fifty icebergs in the course of the day, many of
them of large dimensions. Towards midnight, the wind having
shifted to the southwest and moderated, another extensive chain of
very large icebergs appeared to the northward: as we approached
them the wind died away, and the ships' heads were kept to the
northward, only by the steerage way given to them by a heavy
southerly swell, which, dashing the loose ice with tremendous
force against the bergs, sometimes raised a white spray over the
latter to the height of more than one hundred feet, and, being
accompanied with a loud noise, exactly resembling the roar of
distant thunder, presented a scene at once sublime and terrific.
We could find no bottom near these icebergs with one hundred and
ten fathoms of line.
At four A.M. on the 4th we came to a quantity of loose ice, which
lay straggling among the bergs; and as there was a light breeze
from the southward, and I was anxious to avoid, if possible, the
necessity of going to the eastward, I pushed the Hecla into the
ice, in the hope of being able to make our way through it.
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