eturn.
However, as the missionaries saw no reason whatever for it, and only
suspected that the Esquimaux wished to enjoy the company of their
friends a little longer, they proceeded. After some time, their own
Esquimaux hinted that there was a ground swell under the ice. It was
then hardly perceptible, except on lying down and applying the ear close
to the ice, when a hollow, disagreeably grating and roaring noise was
heard, as if ascending from the abyss. The weather remained clear,
except towards the east, where a bank of light clouds appeared,
interspersed with some dark streaks. But the wind being strong from the
north-west, nothing less than a sudden change of weather was expected.
The sun had now reached its 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 effect 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 now likewise
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-quarters on the south