162 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. September 



On visiting the cairn erected the previous year our 

 papers were found to have been untouched : so re- 

 dating them, and adding a further notice of our 

 movements, the cylinders were replaced. 



I ao'ain examined the two ancient lichen-covered 

 cairns, but could find no record of who had built them : 

 they were probably erected by some enterprising and 

 successful navigator who, if he ever returned home, 

 has not published an account of his discoveries. 



The snow had collected on the ground to a depth 

 of nine inches, but the fall had evidently been local, 

 for near Prince Imperial Island, on the opposite shore 

 of the bay, the lowlands were bare. 



Although I could see the horizon near Cape Albert, 

 thirty miles distant, no cleared water was visible 

 anywhere towards the south : but in the direction of 

 Cape Hayes the water-channel, through which we had 

 advanced with so much trouble, had opened and now 

 presented a clear passage more than a mile wide and 

 extending to within three or four miles of our position. 



I remained at the summit of the island watching 

 the ice until noon, when with the commencement of 

 the ebb-tide, I had the satisfaction of seeing the pack 

 to the westward of Cape Hawks in motion. The ships 

 were immediately got under way. Arriving off the 

 cape we found that the newly-formed floe, which had 

 stopped us twice before, had become fixed between the 

 grounded icebergs and the land, and cut us off from 

 a navigable water-channel beyond. After an hour's 

 ramming at the young ice with full steam up and by 

 rolling the ships, we succeeded in forcing a passage 

 through it, and in rounding Cape Hawks, much to the 



