168 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. September 



On the morning of the 6 th the weather cleared up 

 with light airs from the north, which, combined with 

 the release of the pressure from the southward, made 

 a decided difference in the ice, and gave us every 

 prospect of being able to advance shortly. During 

 the flood-tide I landed with Markham and Feilden, 

 and walked about three miles alongshore to the west- 

 ward until we could see Norman Lockyer Island, then 

 about four miles distant from us. Capes Victoria and 

 Albert, seen for the first time sharply defined against 

 the clear sky, and only twenty miles distant from us, 

 created in everyone a feeling of being within easy 

 and certain reach of home, whatever might occur. 



All the coast cliffs west of Cape Hawks are mag- 

 nificent rampart-like headlands from 900 to 1,000 feet 

 high, presenting nearly a straight line facing the sea — 

 the continuity of the front being broken only by the 

 large ravines and the glacier-cut bays. They are 

 composed of a yellowish-pink conglomerate of water- 

 worn pebbles, and are perfectly inaccessible except by 

 ascending the valleys far inland. 



Three or four broods of eider-ducks, still unable to 

 fly, were swimming in a pool near the ice-foot. Owing 

 to the warmer temperature during the few previous days 

 there was a free run of water in the ravines. 



At this season, which may be considered to have 

 been the end of the summer thaw, it was noticeable 

 that — while the surface of the ice-foot bordering the 

 shore was, as before stated, level with the top of high- 

 water — at its inner edge nearest the land a deep and 

 broad gutterway had, partly by reflected heat from the 

 hillside and partly by the run of the freshwater off 



