30 ' ' MARION ' ' EXPEDITION TO DAVIS STRAIT AND BAFFIN BAY 



be had of the ice pack to the westward. At 7.30 a. m. it was clearing 

 rapidly, and 16 bergs, some in and some east of the flat ice, were 

 counted within the circle of visibility. At 7.45 a. m. the Marlon was 

 headed on her course to the southwestward, proceeding into the 

 open pack. 



B}^ 8 a. m. visibility was excellent. The sky remained overcast 

 throughout, but there was no wind all day long. The Marlon ran 

 among the ice cakes, making good a general course of south-southwest. 

 The pack ice averaged perhaps 10 to 12 feet in thickness and was 

 of the late summer variety, consisting of small pans from a very 

 few yards to about 50 yards across. There w^ere almost no open 

 leads in the slack ice, but in some directions the scattered ice pieces 

 were less numerous than in others, and these paths of least resistance 



AX ICE-CHOKED WAVELESS SEA 



Fk.tkb l;4. — This late summer pack ice was encountered in Davis Strait off Cape Dier, 

 Baffin Island, on August 15, 1928. Tine further westward the Marion worked the 

 closer packed this ice brcame. It effectively stopped all progress when the ship was 

 still 36 miles from the Baffin Island coast. This sort of ice was never on the land, 

 like the icebergs, hut represents the melting remnants of ice fields frozen during winter 

 on the surface of the sea. 



were taken whenever the}^ led in the general direction of our objec- 

 tive. Cape Dier, Baffin Island. 



Tlie farther the Marlon penetrated to the westward the closer 

 packed the sliattered ice became. The land about Cape Dier could 

 not be reached because of 36 miles of close-packed ice without leads at 

 which the Marlon was soon vainly pushing, trying to force a way. 

 Oceanogra])hic stations, soundings, and bottom samples were taken 

 at regular intervals just as though the Marlon were on an ordinary 

 sea instead of a silent, motionless one, choked with broken pack ice 

 above wdiich in all directions rose scattered bergs. Sun sights taken 

 through the light cloud blanket showed that the ship and the ice 

 were both steadily drifting southward with -the cold current. 



Early in the day several walrus were seen resting on ice cakes. 

 One of" them was shot wath a rifle, but it plunged into the sea, where 

 it died and sank before it could be captured. Therefore no Avalrus 



