By the light of the moon we could see the pack as it began to break and pile up just beyond the edge of the ice-foot outside us.

A few minutes later the whole mass broke with a rabid roar into a tumbling chaos of ice blocks, some upheaving, some going under, and a big rafter, thirty feet high, formed at the edge of the ice-foot within twenty feet of the ship.

The invading mass grew larger and larger and steadily advanced toward us.

The grounded piece off our starboard beam was forced in and driven against the big ice block under our starboard quarter.

The ship shook a little, but the ice block did not move.
With every pulse of the tide the pressure and the motion continued, and in less than an hour from the time I had come on deck, a great floe-berg was jammed against the side of the _Roosevelt_ from amidships to the stern.