360 Chapter VI. 



showed a marked stratified formation, recalling the 

 stratification of a glacier. Even the darker and dirtier 

 strata were there, the colour in this case produced by the 

 brownish-red organisms that inhabit the water, specimens 

 of which I found at an earlier date. In several places 

 the strata were bent and broken, exactly in the same 

 manner as the geological strata forming the earth's crust. 

 This was evidently the result of the horizontal pressure 

 in the ice at the time of packing. It was especially 

 noticeable at one place, near a huge mound formed 

 during the last pressure. Here the strata looked very 

 much as they are represented in annexed drawing.* 



It was extraordinary too to see how this floe of over 

 three yards in thickness was bent into great waves 

 without breaking. This was clearly done by pressure 

 and was specially noticeable more particularly near the 

 pressure-ridges, which had forced the floe down so that 

 its upper surface lay even with the water-line, whilst at 

 other places it was a good half-yard above it, in these last 

 cases thrust up by ice pressed in below. It all shows 

 how extremely plastic these floes are, in spite of the cold; 

 the temperature of the ice near the surface must have 

 been from 4 F. to 22 F. below zero( 20 to - 30" C.) 

 at the time of these pressures. In many places the 

 bending had been too violent, and the floe had cracked. 



In spite of this bending of the strata, the surface of the ice and 

 snow remained even. 



