88 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. Apkil 



son * and " Alert " in proportion, from the Cape 

 Eawson Depot, we started early on the morning of the 

 22nd of April for Eepulse Harbour, on the Greenland 

 coast. 



' Thanks to the road made by Captain Nares' 

 direction, the passage of the fringe of shore hummocks 

 at Black Cape was made in safety by the heavy sledges ; 

 one five-man sledge, however, broke down, and had to 

 be sent back to the " Alert " and exchanged. 



' The line between Black Cape and Eepulse Harbour 

 led us in a south-easterly direction, and was crossed 

 by many bands of heavy hummocks, necessitating a 

 good deal of road-making for the heavy sledges, and 

 great care in the management of the five-man sledges, 

 which are hazily calculated to stand such rough work. 



' As we approached the Greenland coast we passed 

 several floes of last year's ice ; they were not large, 

 but were remarkable because they showed no sign of 

 pressure round the edges ; it seemed to indicate that 

 from the commencement of their formation, the large 

 and heavy old floes which surrounded them had been 

 motionless. The old floes were high, and covered 

 with deep soft snow, while the young floes lay low, 

 and had much less snow on them ; in fact, not only 

 from my observations on that occasion, but later on 

 when returning, I remarked large extents of level and 

 unbroken ice, from which I infer that there is less 

 current or tide-action on this coast than on the other. 

 The entrance to Eepulse Harbour is, however, very 

 different, being a mass of hummock ridges with small 

 floes between them, to within 200 yards of the shore, 

 when you come to a solid barrier of immense floebergs 



