1854.] INDICATIONS OF THE SEASON. 131 



to view these matters it will of course be apparent ; but 

 to the uninitiated it may be necessary to explain, that 

 this dislocated state of the off-lying pack affords us better 

 grounds for release than if we had been frozen up in 

 smooth continuous floe of equal thickness, as the pack 

 invariably falls asunder at the first thaw, and may either 

 float off or be compressed into smaller space, and thus 

 afford space for motion, the great desideratum in these 

 cases; on the other hand, when the floe is continuous 

 and of equal thickness, it is only disrupted by forces 

 which would entail destruction on our insignificant 

 vessels. 



My own conviction is, that no opinion as to ultimate 

 release can be formed on this side of Beechey Island, 

 and then not before July or probably until the 22nd of 

 August, notwithstanding the unprecedented open water 

 found here on the 14th of the latter month in 1852, 

 and that, as it appears by reports of not many hours later, 

 was closed almost to boats. 



Last year Commander Pullen, on his first journey to 

 Cape Becher, on the 10th of April, found the ice very 

 treacherous with many pools of water ; but then we ex- 

 perienced many warm days during the months of Fe- 

 bruary and March. But the open water above our pre- 

 sent position and that below, or southerly to Beechey 

 Island, are dependent on very different conditions. We 

 know, from actual experience now, that the Polar Sea 

 may be open and in active motion as early as the 18th 

 of May, as noticed on that date from Britannia Cliff, and 

 we also know that the sea was open on the 14th of July, 

 last season, at Northumberland Sound, yet still sealed 



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