Report concerning the remaining part of the expedition. 147 
be adopted when conditions of space prevent one from bringing planks 
for the purpose. Sooner or later a canvas covering gets carried away, 
especially when made of sails which are intended for subsequent use, 
and which one does not wish to spoil by cutting up. 
As a matter of fact one cannot cover the whole ship with one sail 
only, such as the mainsail, and thus there are apertures which it is im- 
possible to cover up entirely, so that a gale sooner or later finds out the 
weak spots through which it can penetrate, and if it has once got in 
under the sail such a canvas roof is doomed beyond repair. 
In the evening of the 17th December the sledge party from Lam- 
bert’s Land returned to Alabama Havn. 
Remarks concerning the current round Shannon Island. 
Respecting the open water at Shannon Island and farther south, I 
should here like to state my views. During the course of the expedi- 
tion I stayed at the Shannon depot at Cape Philip Broke four times, 
on the following dates 4/,,—11/,, 1909, 8/,—12/,, 18/,—15/, and 15/,—?"/, 
1910 and at Bass Rock and Sabine Island from 8/.—!?/, 1910. Each 
time it was apparent that the open water was close to the Shannon 
depot, and moreover during my stay in November far up in Freeden 
Bay (Fig. 67). Only when I stayed there in January was it removed 
about 3 to 4 miles from the depot in a southeasterly direction, 
but again in June and July the open water reached right up to the 
depot. In the following sketch the conditions are shown as they were 
observed from the top of Bass Rock on the ?/, 1910 and the following 
night from the southern point of Sabine Island (Fig. 68). 
Everything indicates that there is a current running in a southern 
direction to the westward of Shannon Island and then southeast be- 
tween Shannon Island and the group of islands, Bass Rock, Pendulum 
and Sabine. This current has possibly become swollen by the liberated 
waters from Ardencaple Inlet, which flows from the Inlandice. 
The many fissures in the perfectly smooth ice to the westward of 
Shannon Island would appear also to indicate the existence of a 
current here. 
From our sojourn in the ice on the outward tour with the “Alabama”, 
we know that the current flows rapidly along the east coast of Shannon 
Island, as at that time we were ice-bound from 2!/,—?4/, 1909, and during 
this period drifted from a point about ten miles NE of Cape Pansch 
and did not get free until we were abreast of Bass Rock, which 
means that in that time we had drifted about fifty miles to the south- 
ward. We estimated the daily set of the current at that time at about 
fifteen miles in a southerly direction, but it must also be borne in 
mind that at certain hours of the day there must be a current going 
northwards on account of the tide, in some way eliminating the 
10* 
В 
LAN 
