4 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. June 



symptoms. Bruin, an old dog that refuses to work 

 witli the sledge team, has for some time been perform- 

 ing very valuable service in dragging fresh-water ice 

 from the quarry to the ship. The men merely load 

 the sledge and start him on his journey, when he 

 runs home by himself. To-clay I observed one of the 

 men riding on the empty sledge for a short distance 

 where the road was hard : the dog was therefore 

 dragging about two hundred pounds' weight. The 

 poor thing looked over its shoulder occasionally, begging 

 for compassion and a little more consideration. 



' 20th. — At 3 a.m. I could see the depot plainly ; 

 at nine it was not so distinct, probably on account of 

 mirage. A small tern (Sterna macrura) with a black 

 head and light slaty-blue wings was shot while hovering 

 above one of the water-pools formed on the surface of 

 the ice. 



'A few brent geese have passed us flying from 

 Eobeson Channel towards the north-west, but two of 

 them were observed to return south again. 



' All the ice hummocks which have projecting 

 upper surfaces, and the mushroom-shaped floebergs, 

 denoting age, are now enveloped in a drapery of 

 gigantic icicles, and the entrances to the few caves 

 are completely blocked up by them. The sharp edges 

 are rounding off much quicker than we anticipated. 

 Consequently the formation of the glassy ice-knolls 

 on the surface of the aged floes, out of a range of 

 lofty hummocks of pressed up angular blocks of ice, 

 may not occupy a very great number of years. While 

 the ice above water is thus melting rapidly from the 

 influence of the sun, that exposed to the warm surface 



