THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 229 



end of the strait, some had undoubtedly come in from Davis Strait, 

 passing between Resolution Island and East Bluff ; but all of those 

 met to the westward had come from Fox Channel, as observations 

 made by the observer at North Bluff show that an iceberg coming in 

 sight from the westward will pass out of view to the eastward in from 

 three to four tides, showing an easterly set of upward of ten miles a 

 day. In Lieutenant Gordon's opinion, the icebergs seen in Hudson 

 Strait during August and September would form no greater barriers 

 to navigation than do those met with off the Strait of Belle Isle, nor 

 were they more numerous in the former than they frequently are in 

 the latter waters. The field-ice encountered, although it would have 

 compelled an ordinary iron steamer to go dead-slow, gave no trouble 

 to the Neptune, the vessel running at full speed between the pans, 

 and rarely touching one of them. 



In the harbor at Ashe Inlet the ice came in with the flood-tide, and 

 set so fast that the Eskimos were able to walk off to the ship, although 

 she was at least three quarters of a mile from the shore. On the south 

 shore, also, it was much the same ; but still no ice was met with 

 through which the steamer could not easily and safely force her way. 

 In the center of the strait, to the east of North Bluff, no field-ice was 

 seen at all, while between Stupart Bay and Salisbury Island long 

 strings of ice were frequently seen ; but, as their direction was invari- 

 ably parallel to the vessel's course, it was only necessary to coast round 

 them. On the homeward voyage none of this field-ice was seen at all. 

 It is a point of no small significance that, upon the testimony of the 

 Eskimos, both at Ashe Inlet and Stupart Bay, the quantity of ice in 

 the strait had been very unusual that year, and the ice had never 

 been known to hang to the shores so late in the season. 



After passing the east end of Salisbury Island the ice got heavier 

 and closer, and when off Nottingham Island the pack was so run to- 

 gether that no attempt was made to force the ship through it. Viewed 

 from a hill on Nottingham, the sea in every direction seemed one vast 

 ice-field, in which four vessels could be noted fast prisoners. This ice 

 was of an altogether different type to that which had been hitherto 

 met. In some cases there were sheets of solid blue ice not less than 

 forty feet in thickness, not a mere aggregation of field-ice, but evi- 

 dently frozen just as it stood. In other places the thickness would be 

 twenty feet, and the general average of the whole field at least five 

 feet. Now, the question as to the origin of this ice, and whether it 

 will be frequently met with in- the strait, is one of paramount impor- 

 tance. Lieutenant Gordon does not consider it possible for ice to form 

 in Fox Channel to a greater thickness than ten feet in a single year, 

 and consequently feels convinced that much of the ice encountered was 

 the accumulation of several years. Ice is well known to be a very 

 poor conductor of heat, and therefore, when once a certain thickness 

 has been formed, the subsequent rate of thickening must be very slow. 



