IN THE ICE. 33 



meroTis liere^ and indeed with the exception 1824. 

 of the entrance of the strait, we had seen August. 

 more ice than during our outward passage on 

 the last voyage. No water was observed in 

 any direction, and I remarked that the ice by 

 which we were surrounded was of two kinds ; 

 either blue and transparent, from being washed 

 clear of snow, or brown, and covered with 

 sand and dirt to a considerable depth. The 

 dirty ice, however, was far the most abundant, 

 and in the proportion of two to one of the 

 clean. Whence the great quantity of ice we 

 had seen could have driven, I cannot imagine, 

 as the Hudson's Bay ships never meet with 

 any impediments in August, or at all events 

 find nothing but " sailing ice," while we had 

 found the sea absolutely crowded, and in many 

 places closely packed as far as the eye could 

 reach*. 



*Tlie having met with such an unusual quantity of 

 Ice, at this late season of the year, was afterwards most 

 satisfactorily accounted for, by my learning from the 

 master of a whale ship, with whom I spoke on my home- 

 ward voyage, that strong north-easterly gales had been 

 prevalent all July and August, and had very materially 

 altered the usual trending of the ice in Davis' Strait, so 

 that the tunnel-shaped entrance to Hudson's Strait must 

 have afforded it an easy reception, 



D 



