166 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. September 



In more temperate latitudes, south of Cape Sabine, 

 where the temperature of the water is higher and 

 during the summer is above the melting point of fresh- 

 water ice, the foot of the glacier becomes readily 

 melted, leaving an unsupported mass of ice, from 

 which pieces break off, falling down into the sea as 

 icebergs and floating at a considerably less altitude 

 than the top of the parent glacier. We observed 

 that such was the case with the glaciers on the shores 

 of Ellesmere Land in the neighbourhood of Cape 

 Isabella, and with those on the Greenland shores to 

 the north of Cape York. 



The question whether the icebergs in Melville Bay 

 and other protected positions to the southward, where 

 the flow of the warm current is not felt to so great an 

 extent, fall or rise when they become detached from 

 the glaciers, will depend on the temperature of the 

 sea-water in the neighbourhood being above or below 

 32°. 



On the 4 th the upper clouds were coming fast 

 from the southward with misty weather and a tem- 

 perature at 35°. 



Deeming it desirable to gain as weatherly a position 

 as possible, in order to take advantage of any opening 

 which might occur with the expected westerly wind, we 

 forced our way across Allman Bay, the ' Discovery ' 

 leading and cutting a clear channel through the 

 blackest and thinnest part of the young ice, which was 

 from one to three inches in thickness. On securing the 

 ships to a floe about one mile east of Cape D'Urville, 

 as there appeared no sign of any change in the 

 weather, the steaming fires were put out. 



