154 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. August 



secure the ships to a large floe that was slowly drifting 

 to the northward in the water-channel which remained 

 open on our side of the cape. 



At 9 p.m., low-water, the ice drifting quickly to 

 the northward suddenly opened, and by leaving a 

 channel close to the shore enabled us to enter Gould 

 Bay, and to approach within half a mile of Point 

 Hayes. There a floe about three miles in diameter 

 remained nipped against the land and prevented our 

 farther advance. The ships were accordingly secured 

 inside of three icebergs, lying aground close to the 

 shore, off the mouth of a large ravine. 



The ice-foot in the neighbourhood had been melted 

 away in parts by the summer torrent, leaving exposed 

 a very steep beach, which was evidently the abrupt 

 termination of the flat deposit of gravel collected at 

 the mouth of the river inside of the ice barrier, and 

 which with the gradual rise of the land will ultimately 

 become a raised beach. 



Wishing to see what prospect we had of reaching 

 Dobbin Bay, I landed at 3 a.m. of the 25th to walk 

 round Cape Hayes. 



By this time we had become so experienced in 

 localizing the positions where the Eskimo were likely 

 to have selected spots for encampments that we seldom 

 failed to find ancient remains at the points designated 

 by us beforehand. Observing a very favourable 

 locality situated on a smooth raised beach, about 

 thirty feet above the sea-level, formed there when the 

 course of the river was different from what it is at 

 present, Captain Feilden accompanied me on shore. 

 As we expected, the usual rings of stones used for 



