1876 ALDRICH'S RETURN JOURNEY. 47 



to the northward or westward, or within the reach of a 

 sledge expedition, however lightly equipped. 



He also discovered that the entrances to all the 

 bays and harbours to the westward of Cape Joseph 

 Henry were so barred by the Polar ice-wall that the 

 ice on the inshore side of it is unable to escape to 

 seaward during the summer. Consequently, should the 

 pack move away from the shore-ice with a southerly 

 wind, which we must suppose to happen occasionally, 

 and a vessel succeed in passing to the westward of the 

 Cape, the only protection that can be hoped for will 

 be that afforded by an accidental break in the con- 

 tinuity of the ice-wall — she must not expect to find 

 any harbour open. 



Lieutenant Beaumont, whose journey along the 

 North Greenland shore is described in a succeeding 

 chapter, likewise found that there the heavy barrier of 

 ice which leaves the land near Cape Bryant, and trends 

 in the direction of Cape Britannia, prevents the ice 

 in the bays and fiords from clearing out ; a ship, there- 

 fore, cannot hope to find airy protection on either of 

 these ice-bound shores. 



The description of the level plateau of uncertain 

 formation which borders the northern shore of Grinnell 

 Land ; whether of ice or soil, but probably alternate 

 layers of the two, formed by the debris brought down by 

 summer torrents being spread out above the unmelted 

 ice, bears a remarkable resemblance to that described 

 by Sir Leopold M'Clintock and Mecham in 1853, as 

 existing on the western shore of Prince Patrick Island ; 

 I therefore conclude that both coasts are equally 

 exposed to and affected by the heavy ice. On the 



