1853.] UNCERTAINTY OF WINTER. 25 



battened down, we awaited the result. Surrounded by all 

 these threatening dangers, our thoughts were still on the 

 bright side, and we derived some comfort from the pro- 

 bability of our improved condition, should the ice again 

 form, and leave us a smooth surface for spring travelling. 



Parry (Third Voyage, p. 17) observes of bay ice: 

 "September 9, 1824. This phenomenon, to the extent 

 to which it occurred, was to me a new one, and there 

 can be no doubt that, had the temperature continued 

 low for two or three days together, while the sea was 

 thus covered, a sheet of ice would have been formed, too 

 solid to have again dissolved the same season ; it was 

 impossible therefore not to apprehend, at times, that a 

 continuance of weather so unseasonable might expose us 

 to the unpleasant dilemma of being frozen up during a 

 winter in the middle of Baffin's Bay." 



At any close harbour, even at our late winter-quarters 

 on the 18th August, 1852, and later, at Port Refuge, 

 in August, 1853, this reasoning might hold; but where 

 tides, winds, or currents prevail, there is no need of the 

 sun, or even of water of high temperature, to remove the 

 thick bay ice : wherever the wind can act on water, and 

 the tide-ripple obtain play and find the slightest crack, it 

 is astonishing how greedily the former seizes the advan- 

 tage, rips up the ice, weather as well as lee, and causes 

 its almost magical disappearance. 



That high temperatures are indeed our enemies, and 

 not to be despised, we have but too good reason to be 

 assured ; but until the general surface of these Straits, 

 or even of Baffin's Bay, ceases to offer any open water, 

 any spaces for ice to move in, or weak points on which 



