THE RETURN OF DAYLIGHT. 299 



reaching ns, as merely a question of time ; for he asked 

 Melville the other clay why I was having the big walrus 

 skull cleaned and saved, for when the ship was smashed 

 such a big head would be a heavy weight to drag over 

 the ice. 



Although the commotions in the ice at a distance 

 have not affected our floe, it has undergone change 

 from another cause. At different times this winter 

 when we have had trouble close aboard, the pressures 

 and upheavals have made our floe humpy and ridgy, in 

 some places confused piles of ice standing five and six 

 feet, and sometimes twenty feet in height. Not only 

 the height but the shape of these piles has changed. 

 At first I supposed it might have been a kind of settling 

 down or coming in closer contact by downward w^eight 

 and pressure constantly applied to a smoother floe be- 

 neath, but now I have become convinced that it is 

 caused by the wind. The steady friction on the ex- 

 posed surfaces, in part, and the action of driving snow 

 dust and salty efflorescence acting after the manner of 

 a sand-blast have slowly but surely ground the surfaces 

 down. When in high winds the driving of snow and 

 salt from the surface of the floe has made our faces 

 tingle and smart like so many needle pricks, it must 

 have had an appreciable effect on intervening blocks 

 of ice. 



Another curious fact, though easily explained, has 

 come under our notice. The ice floats deeper in winter 

 than in summer. To do this its density must be greater, 

 and our experience in ice digging has shown that it has 

 been of the hardness and closeness of flint. When we 

 came into the ice in August and September, we found 

 it to some extent soft and honey-combed, being so ren- 

 dered by the warmth of the water induced by the heat 



