AVERAGE THICKNESS OF THE ICE. 313 



This thickness is of course dependent upon the tern 

 perature of the locality ; but the ice is itself the sea's 

 protection. The cold air cannot soak away the 

 warmth of the water through more than a certain 

 thickness of ice, and to that thickness there comes a 

 limit Ions; before the winter has reached its end. The 

 depth of ice formed on the first night is greater than 

 on the second ; the second greater than the third ; 

 the third greater than the fourth ; and so on as the 

 increase approaches nothing. The thickness of ice 

 formed at Port Foulke was nine feet ; and, although 

 the coldest weather came in March, yet its depth was 

 not increased more than two inches after the middle 

 of February. In situations of greater cold, and where 

 the current has less influence than at Port Foulke, 

 the depth of the table will of course become greater. 

 I have never seen an ice-table formed by direct 

 freezing that exceeded eighteen feet. But for this 

 all-wise provision of the Deity, the Arctic waters 

 would, ages ago, have been solid seas of ice to their 

 profoundest depths. 



The reader will, I trust, bear patiently with this 

 long digression ; but I thought it necessary, in order 

 that he might have a clear understanding as well of 

 our situation as of the character of these Arctic seas ; 

 in which I shall hope that I have inspired some in- 

 terest. As for ourselves, we were struggling along 

 through this apparently impassable labyrinth, striv- 

 ing to reach the coast which now began to loom up 

 boldly before us, and thence stretching away into the 

 unknown North, there receives the lashings of the 

 Polar Sea. 



To come back to the narrative w T hich we abandoned 

 bo suddenly. The 24th of April found us on the mar- 



