1853.] HOW ARE DISTURBANCES EFFECTED? 319 



less than congelation, the great disturbing forces are ab- 

 sent ; snow falls harmlessly, serving possibly as a mantle 

 to protect the picture ; frost seals it. Under such ac- 

 tion, and with short glimpses of summer, the face of the 

 hills today may be that to eternity, let him who is com- 

 petent break the seal and enlighten us. 



Under the present aspect of the coast about us, solemn 

 indeed is the feeling as regards our missing countrymen : 

 no hope here, so far as our experience serves, can exist 

 for sustenance beyond the casual capture of bear or fox 

 during six months of the season, and no means of allay- 

 ing thirst but by thawing ice in the mouth until June, 

 perhaps July, then only perhaps for six weeks. 



As regards the surface disturbances throughout these 

 regions, I am far from allowing ice to be the agent. In 

 warmer regions masses of rock are disrupted, because 

 water enters the crevices, is frozen, and rends them : 

 heat drives off the ice entirely ; here no such action 

 takes place ; masses of rock however are disrupted from 

 their deep beds, and rise in confused heaps upon many 

 rounded hills, where the pick, even in the warmest sum- 

 mer day, would not penetrate many inches without being- 

 opposed by a solid mass of ice and stone, defying further 

 progress. The surface heat of some few warm hours 

 (few and far between) would not penetrate one foot ; and 

 even admitting such a fact, for argument sake, the re- 

 sult would be merely adding a fresh icy covering until 

 renewed heat entailed a similar repetition. This we ex- 

 perienced repeatedly during the whole summer season, 

 rendering it difficult to dig a hole any depth ; but if 

 the simple mode of disintegration by frost be advanced, 



