146 TERRACED LOWER LEVELS. [October, 



those luxuriating in warm studies in 52 N., with a tem- 

 perature of 76; but it is my business to present facts, 

 and very stubborn facts too, with the apparent causes in 

 operation to account for them. 



The washhouse brings me back to the fact of its rent 

 at the gables, the sides being parallel to the beach-line. 

 One fact is worth a thousand theories, and such a fact, 

 too strongly pressed on my mind, placed me in great 

 doubt as to the fate of niy Observatory, that is, should 

 the ice march up-hill, and imperceptibly slide it over its 

 gravelly foundation, or disturb its level in the smallest 

 degree perceptible. 



In order perfectly to understand my fears, I may as 

 well exhibit my view of the causes which, throughout the 

 Arctic seas, in perfectly sheltered as well as exposed 

 beaches, produce the lower terraced levels at, and imme- 

 diately above, the flow of the sea. In a pool, land-locked, 

 possibly never sea-washed, by reason of a very narrow 

 belt of water showing only in summer at high water 

 between it and the then floating ice, it is evident no such 

 mode of throwing up gravel in complete tidal strata could 

 be effected, nor even in exposed beaches has the sea any 

 such action, for similar reasons, viz. want of water in 

 sufficient volume, or range, to raise these tidal or beach 

 lines. When I first entered these regions, this matter 

 engaged my attention from the summit of Cape Spencer 

 to the beach. The only rational mode then appeared to 

 be the melting of snows, the formation of successive 

 terraces, confining the water, and its successive similar 

 steps, until it reached the sea. Since then I have thought 

 more, and seen part of the lower operation in action ; 



