58 MELVILLE BAY. 



least for the present year, dependent upon an open 

 season, and my most sanguine anticipations did not 

 equal the apparent reality. 



In order that the reader may appreciate, in some 

 measure, the satisfaction which I took in the prospect 

 that opened before me, it is necessary that I should 

 here pause to give a general description of the region 

 we were about to traverse, and an explanation of 

 the physical conditions which made this portion of 

 the Greenland waters of such conspicuous importance 

 in the destinies of our voyage. 



The shores of Melville Bay, as laid down on the 

 maps, appear as a simple curved line of the Greenland 

 coast ; but the Melville Bay of the geographer com- 

 prehends much less than that of the mariner. The 

 whalers have long called by that name the expansion 

 of Baffin Bay which begins at the south with the 

 " middle ice," and terminates at the north with the 

 "North Water." The North Water is sometimes 

 reached near Cape York, in latitude 76°, but more 

 frequently higher up ; and the " middle ice," which 

 is more generally known as " the pack," sometimes 

 stretches down to the Arctic Circle. This pack is 

 made up of drifting ice-floes, varying in extent from 

 feet to miles, and in thickness from inches to fathoms. 

 These masses are sometimes pressed close together, 

 having but little or no open space between them ; 

 and sometimes they are widely separated, depending 

 upon the conditions of the wind and tide. They are 

 always more or less in motion, drifting to the north, 

 south, east, or west, with the winds and currents. The 

 penetration of this barrier is usually an undertaking 

 of weeks or months, and is ordinarily attended with 

 much risk. 



