RESULTS OF THE ENGLISH ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



n :; 



along the whole of this distance the ice was of 

 the same character. Its existence was an unex- 

 pected and important discovery. The ice is from 

 eighty to a hundred feet in thickness, formed by 

 continual additions from above, due to the an- 

 nual snow-falls. By the ever-increasing superin- 

 cumbent weight this is gradually converted into 

 snow-ice. Complete sections of the huge masses 

 forced upon the shore were carefully taken, and 

 they show the way in which the whole is formed 

 as well as its great age. The process of forma- 

 tion of the ancient floes resembles that of glaciers, 

 and the grounded Jloe-bergs had been chipped off 

 from them. The examination of four hundred 

 miles of coast-line, Captain Markham's journey 

 over the polar sea away from the land, and the 

 minute examination of the sections of the fioc- 

 bergs at the winter-quarters, have given us a 

 thorough knowledge of this remarkable ice for- 

 mation ; while observations during two summer 

 seasons have thrown light on the amount and 

 direction of the drift which annually takes place. 

 Several considerations point to the conclusion 

 that this sea of ancient ice is of considerable ex- 

 tent. There are no flights of birds to the north, 

 which certainly would be the case if there was 

 land in that direction. Animal vertebrate life 

 ceases to exist on the ice-covered polar sea. The 

 cold currents destroy whales' food, and there 

 are no cetaceans. Except two or three stragglers 

 close in-shore, no seals were seen, consequently 

 there are no bears. The falcons, which prey on 

 marine life, also entirely cease. 



The shore to the westward, after culminating 

 at Cape Columbia, trends away south of west ; 

 and it was deduced, from similarity of tides, 

 direction of prevailing winds, and movements of 

 the ice, that this trend continues southwestward 

 toward Prince Patrick Island. Similar evidence, 

 as regards the drift of the ice and the comparison 

 of winds with those experienced by the German 

 expedition on the cast coast of Greenland, lead 

 to the belief that the north coast, from the far- 

 thest point discovered by Commander Beaumont, 

 also trends south to Cape Bismarck. A study 

 of the tides by Prof. Ilaughton confirms this 

 view. 



It usually happens that when a new geograph- 

 ical fact is revealed through the labor of scientific 

 explorers, it is found that it harmonizes with 

 other isolated pieces of knowledge which previous- 

 ly stood alone, and were not intelligible without 

 it. Thus the value of discoveries is scarcely ever 

 confined to the work itself; but they throw light 

 upon the true bearings of former work, and help 



toward the elucidation of far larger questions. 

 As regards the sea of ancient ice discovered by 

 the late Arctic Expedition, this is eminently the 

 case. 



Referring to the information gathered by for- 

 mer expeditions, we find that Sir Richard Collin- 

 son, in coasting along the arctic shore of North 

 America, discovered that similar ancient ice com- 

 posed the pack bounding the narrow lane of 

 water along which he was able to pass in the 

 Enterprise in 1851. He made an attempt to ex- 

 amine this ancient ice from Camden Buy l>y sledg- 

 ing ; but he was stopped on the second day by 

 gigantic uneven floes and lines of hummocks — in 

 short, by obstacles similar to those which were 

 encountered by the northern division of sledges 

 under Captain Markham in Ds7<>. Captain McClure 

 found that the same ancient ice extends along tin- 

 whole western side of Baring Island; and tin: In- 

 vestigator, in daily and hourly peril of destruction, 

 passed along between it and the cliffs in 1851. 

 McClure describes the surfaces of the floes as re- 

 sembling rolling hills, some of them a hundred 

 feet from base to summit — aged sea-ice, which 

 may be centuries old from the accumulated action 

 of alternate thaws and falls of snow, giving it a 

 peculiar hill and dale appearance. McClure em- 

 phatically warned those who might meet such 

 ice that if a vessel got into it she would never 

 be heard of again, and ought not to be followed. 

 Mecham and McClintock found the same ice 

 along the west coast of Prince Patrick Island, 

 and Sir Edward Parry had \ glimpse of it in 1819, 

 from the western end of Melville Bland. 



Standing by itself, as an isolated geographical 

 fact, the heavy ice seen by Collinson, McClure, 

 Mecham, and McClintock, failed to reveal the 

 whole truth. But the discoveries of the Arctic 

 Expedition of 1875-'76 have thrown light upon 

 and explained this interesting question. We now 

 know that the polar sea of ancient ice extends 

 from the shores of North America to the north 

 coast of Greenland, a distance of 1,200 miles; 

 for the gap of 400 miles from Prince Patrick 

 Island to the most western point reached by Al- 

 drich in 1870 is a continuation of coast-line or 

 islands, as is deduced from coincidences of winds, 

 tide, and drift. 



This polar sea is also, in all probability, a 

 comparatively shallow sea. Captain Markham, 

 at a distance of forty miles from the land, found 

 bottom in only seventy-two fathoms, and another 

 indication of the present shallowness of this sea 

 is supplied by proofs of the general recent up- 

 heaval of the adjacent land. The disco vei it 



