300 HOBSON'S JOURNEY. Chap. XVII. 



" haycock floes," from the rounded hummocks or mounds 

 which studded their surfaces. 



Although I have occasionally sledged over these floes, I 

 never measured the actual height of the irregularities on 

 their surfaces ; they were, however, more than sufficient to 

 intercept my view of the horizon. 



The late lamented Commander Mecham mentions one 

 very old floe which he sledged over, the mounds of blue ice 

 upon it varying from five to twenty feet in height, and the 

 ridges between them, over which he was obliged to pass, 

 were from four to nine feet high ! Another accurate ob- 

 server describes some pieces of these floes which he found 

 lying upon the shore of Banks' Land, where they had been 

 forced up by enormous ice-pressure ; they were from twenty- 

 two to twenty-four feet thick, and one of them had a mound 

 or knoll upon it ten feet high ! 



Hobson left King William's Island on the last day of May, 

 having spent thirty-one days on its desolate shores. During 

 that period, one bear and five willow-grouse were shot ; one 

 wolf and a few foxes were seen. One poor fox was either 

 so desperately hungry or so charmed with the rare sight of 

 animated beings, that he played about the party until the 

 dogs snapped him up, although in harness and dragging the 

 sledge at the time. A few gulls were seen, but not until 

 after the first week in June. 



It was at a short distance westward of Cape Felix that 

 Hobson first came upon the traces of the Franklin Expedi- 

 tion ; he found a large cairn, and close beside it three small 

 tents, with blankets, old clothes, and other vestiges of a 

 shooting, or a magnetic station ; but although the cairn was 

 dug under, and a trench dug all round it at a distance of ten 

 feet, no record was discovered. A sheet of white paper 

 folded up was found in the cairn, but even under the 

 microscope no trace of writing appears. 



