three Engliih miles, thirty o f which you travel on the ice without
touching on land. This paffage over the frozen fea is, doubtleis,
the moil lingular and ftriking fpeitacle that a traveller from the
South can behold. I laid my account with having a journey
more dull and unvaried than furprifing or dangerous. I expeited
to travel forty-three miles without light o f land over a vaft and
uniform plain, and that every fucceffive mile would be in exact
unifon and monotonous correlpondence with thofe I had already
travelled; but my allonilhment was greatly increafed in proportion
as we advanced from our ilarting-poft. The fea, at firft
fmooth and even, became more and more rugged and unequal.
It affirmed, as we proceeded, an undulating appearance, refem-
bling the waves by which it had been agitated. A t length we
met with mafies o f ice heaped one upon the other, and fome o f
them feeming as i f they were fufpended in the air, while others
were raifed in the form o f pyramids. On the whole they exhibited
a pi ¿lure o f the wildeft and moll favage confufion, that
furprifed the eye by the novelty o f its appearance. It was an
immenle chaos o f icy ruins, prefented to view under every pof-
fible form, and embellilhed by fuperb ftalattites o f a blue green
colour.
Amidft this chaos, it was not without difficulty and trouble that
our horfes and fledges were able to find and purfue their way. It
wasneceffary to make frequent windings, andfometimes to return
in a contrary direction, following that o f a frozen wave, in order to
avoid a colleftion o f icy mountains that lay before us. In lpite
Of
e f all our expedients for difcovering the eveneft paths, our fledges
were every moment overturned to the right or the left ; and frequently
the legs o f one or other o f the company, raifed perpendicularly
in the air, ferved as a lignai for the whole caravan tb halt.
The inconvenience and thé danger o f our journey were ftill farther
encreafed by the following eircumftance. Our horfes were
made wild and furious, both by the fight and the finell o f our
great polices, manufaftured o f the lkins o f Ruffian wolves or
bears. W h en any o f the fledges was overturned, the horfes belonging
tb it, br to that next to it, frighted at the fight o f what
they fuppofed to be a wolf or bear rolling on the ice, would fe't
off at full gallop, to the great terror o f both paffenger and driver.
The peafant, apprehenfive o f lofing his horfe in the midft o f this
defert, kept firm hold o f the bridle, and fuffered the horfe to drag
his body through maffeS o f ice, o f which fome iharp points threatened
to cut him in pieces. T he animal, at laft wearied out by
the conftancy o f the man, and diffieartened by the obftacles continually
oppofed to his flight, would ftop ; then we were enabled
to get again into our fledges, but not till the driver had blindfolded
the animal's eyes : but one time, one o f the wildeft and
moft fpirited o f all the horfes in our train, having taken fright,
completely made his efcape. T he peafant who conducted him,
unable any longer to endure the fatigue and pain o f being dragged
through the ice, let go his hold o f the bridle. The horfe relieved
from this weight, and feeling himfelf at perfexft liberty, redoubled
his fpeed, and furmounted every impediment. T he fledge, which
V o l . I. B b he