POLAR-ICE. — CHANGES IN ITS SITUATION. 275 



Similar changes as those above described, also 

 take place in the ice of Hudson's Bay, Baffin's Bay, 

 and Davis' Strait. The navigation of the former 

 bay is first interrupted by ice, generally, in the 

 month of November ; but on the east side of Davis' 

 Strait, the ice does not usually make its appearance 

 under the land until the spring. Little progress 

 can be made through the ice into the great bays of 

 Hudson and Baffin, until the month of June or 

 July, in the course of which all the bay-ice that 

 serves as a cement to the heavy ice being dissolved, 

 or very much reduced, a passage to the extremity of 

 each bay is gradually opened. Baffin accomplished 

 the navigation to the extremity of the bay called 

 by his name, without much difficulty, in the be- 

 ginning of July ; but Captain Ross, in his late 

 voyage, had much trouble in effecting the same, 

 about the middle of August. In the months of 

 August and September, the ice in the bays seems 

 to be the most open, and in the Straits of Davis 

 and Hudson almost entirely dispersed. 



SSI 



