1852.] 



QUIT EXMOUTH ISLAND. 



109 



smooth detritus, which (eventually filled in with snow, and 

 freezing into a mass) puzzles us so much, and induces us, 

 without verification, to suspect the masses to be "bergs." 

 But this is but a trivial illustration of the " ice motion" 

 in, and to the northward of, the " Queen's Channel." It 

 is fearful to think of the possibility of Franklin's ships 

 entering this region, " to be driven by the pack;" no hope 

 of escape could be entertained : and therefore most sin- 

 cerely do I wish they cannot have passed up ; for as to 

 traces, none could exist, subject to such accumulated 

 clangers as are hourly apparent. But this is more pe- 

 culiarly forced upon my mind by the events of today. 

 From the summit we noticed the breaking-up of a very 

 great extent of floe, immediately in our neighbourhood : 

 nothing but a diagram can sufficiently illustrate it. 



Let the reader imagine the white sheet spread beneath 

 him, suddenly to exhibit the deep blue sea in the cracks, 





and then to notice this immense surface, some hundred 

 acres, perhaps loosened by no apparent cause, from late- 



