342 THE OEBMAN AECTIC EXPEDITION. 



against it and heaped up in wild confusion. This heap- 

 ing up the bank is considerably increased by the ebb-tide, 

 and if the difference only amounts to about three feet, still 

 at each sinking of the water the ice will break away from 

 the bank, and during the flow press slowly but steadily 

 again towards it. In this v/ay, in contrast to the real 

 icy covering of the sea, is formed a more or less seamless 

 wall on the bank, which is called " ice-foot." This push- 

 ing up of the ice was but slight in the harbour, but on the 

 south end of Walrus Island we noticed that it rose to the 

 height of 30 feet. Another phenomenon of the moving 

 ice was the formation of " hummocks," which we could 

 not properly observe in our neighbourhood, as the ice 

 either lay harmless or was torn away by the storm. 



All these movements of the ice — the gradual crowding 

 ancl pressing, bending and pushing, the breaking of the 

 masses of snow lying at the " ice-foot " — do not go on 

 noiselessly, but are generally accompanied by certain 

 sounds, which are called the "voices" of the ice. Now 

 we hear a low singing, splashing, or grumbling, alternating 

 with various other noises, cracking and snapping ; now it 

 sounds irregularly from a great distance, like a confusion 

 of human voices, like the changing din of a train or a 

 sledging party ; or you fancy you hear the steps and 

 voices of all sorts of animals. There is a peculiar charm 

 in listening to these sounds on a still moonlight night, 

 and often at first we were greatly deceived. 



All belonging to the real heavy ice masses we watched 

 the whole autumn through, at ever- varying distances from 

 the coast. Like a boundless, continuous, uneven white 

 mass lay the pack-ice to the north, joining the land-ice 

 at Shannon Island, reaching in the south past Gael 



