The Modern Prometheus modern design twist on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein | Page 19

Letter 4

To Mrs. Saville,

England, July 7th, 17-

So strange an accident has happened to us that I cannot forbear
recording it, although it is very probable that you will see me
before these papers can come into your possession.
Last Monday (July 31st) we were nearly surrounded by ice, which
closed in the ship on all sides, scarcely leaving her the sea-room
in which she floated. Our situation was somewhat dangerous,
especially as we were compassed round by a very thick fog. We
accordingly lay to, hoping that some change would take place in
the atmosphere and weather.
About two o’clock the mist cleared away, and we beheld, stretched
out in every direction, vast and irregular plains of ice, which
seemed to have no end. Some of my comrades groaned, and my
own mind began to grow watchful with anxious thoughts, when
a strange sight suddenly attracted our attention and diverted our
solicitude from our own situation. We perceived a low carriage,
fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, pass on towards the north,
at the distance of half a mile; a being which had the shape of a man,
but apparently of gigantic stature, sat in the sledge and guided
the dogs. We watched the rapid progress of the traveller with our
telescopes until he was lost among the distant inequalities of the ice.
This appearance excited our unqualified wonder. We were, as we
believed, many hundred miles from any land; but this apparition
seemed to denote that it was not, in reality, so distant as we had
supposed. Shut in, however, by ice, it was impossible to follow his
track, which we had observed with the greatest attention. About
two hours after this occurrence we heard the ground sea, and
before night the ice broke and freed our ship. We, however, lay
to until the morning, fearing to encounter in the dark those large
loose masses which float about after the breaking up of the ice. I
profited of this time to rest for a few hours.
In the morning, however, as soon as it was light, I went upon deck
and found all the sailors busy on one side of the vessel, apparently
talking to someone in the sea. It was, in fact, a sledge, like that
we had seen before, which had drifted towards us in the night on