187(5 REPULSE HARBOUR. 125 



the Eepulse Harbour of the "Polaris" expedition. 

 After a careful study of the narrative of that voyage, 

 and considering the almost constant pressure of the 

 pack against the land north of Newman Bay, I cannot 

 think that any vessel lias ever, or will ever, reach that 

 shore, always supposing that she is not carried there 

 against her will by the pack. It is therefore my duty 

 to future navigators to record this belief in order to 

 prevent any being blamed if they fail to get to the 

 northward of Cape Brevoort. 



' It is astonishing how different the ice is at different 

 parts of Eobeson Channel. As we came south we met 

 lighter ice, but here we again meet with heavy Polar 

 floes. Coupled with the observations of Dr. Bessels 

 and others, who state that the heavy ice drifts up 

 Lady Franklin Sound, that opening would appear 

 to act as a pocket. After being cleared by a south- 

 west wind driving the pack towards the north, it is 

 sufficiently large to receive almost all the ice driven 

 from the Polar Sea through Robeson Channel with the 

 change of wind from the north.' 



It is only during seasons when northerly winds 

 prevail considerably over the westerly ones that the 

 heavy Polar ice is carried south in large quantities 

 down Kennedy Channel into Kane's Sea. 



The speed of the slowly-moving tidal currents in 

 the Polar Sea becomes gradually accelerated as they 

 pass through the narrow Eobeson and Kennedy 

 Channels. At Floeberg Beach the rise and fall of the 

 tide is only from one and-a-half to three feet ; at Cape 

 Frazer, at the south end of Kennedy Channel, it is 

 fourteen feet. Consequently, the ice in its passage 



