calculated than those of the timid.  When Daggett got this first good look at the enormous masses of the field-ice, that, stirred by the unquiet ocean, were grinding each other, and raising an unceasing rushing sound like that the surf produces on a beach, though far louder, and with a harshness in it that denoted the collision of substances harder than water, he almost instinctively ordered every sheet to be flattened down, and the schooner’s head brought as near the wind as her construction permitted.  Roswell observed the change in his consort’s line of sailing, slight as it was, and imitated the manoeuvre.  The sea was too heavy to dream of tacking, and there was not room to ware.  So close, indeed, were some of the cakes, those that might be called the stragglers of the grand array, that repeatedly each vessel brushed along so near them as actually to receive slight shocks from collisions with projecting portions.  It was obvious that the vessels were setting down upon the ice, and that Daggett did not haul his wind a moment too soon.

The half-hour that succeeded was one of engrossing interest.  It settled the point whether the schooners could or could not eat their way into the wind sufficiently to weather the danger.  Fragment after fragment was passed; blow after blow was received; until suddenly the field-ice appeared directly in front.  It was in vast quantities, extending to the southward far as the eye could reach.  There remained no alternative but to attempt to ware.  Without waiting longer than to assure himself of the facts, Daggett ordered his helm put up and the main gaff lowered.  At that moment both the schooners were under their jibs and foresails, each without its bonnet, and double-reefed mainsails.  This was not canvass very favourable for waring, there being too much after-sail; but the sheets were attended to, and both vessels were soon driving dead to leeward, amid the foam of a large wave; the next instant, ice was heard grinding along their sides.

It was not possible to haul up on the other tack ere the schooners would be surrounded by the floes; and seeing a comparatively open passage a short distance ahead, Daggett stood in boldly, followed closely by Roswell.  In ten minutes they were fully a mile within the field, rendering all attempts to get out of it to windward so hopeless as to be almost desperate.  The manoeuvre of Daggett was begun under circumstances that scarcely admitted of any alternative, though it might be questioned if it were not the best expedient that offered.  Now that the schooners were so far within the field-ice, the water was much less broken, though the undulations of the restless ocean were still considerable, and the grinding of ice occasioned by them was really terrific.  So loud was the noise produced by these constant and violent collisions, indeed, that the roaring of the wind was barely audible, and that only at intervals.  The sound was rushing, like that of an incessant avalanche, attended by cracking noises that resembled the rending of a glacier.