THE YEEMAK ICE BREAKER. 451 



The ship was built for the Kara Sea, where is one year's ice, })ut it 

 was resolved to try the ship in heavy polar ice. In the month of June 

 we made our first trial in the polar ice, and found that the ship had 

 to be strengthened and the forward propeller taken out. Ilion we 

 returned to Newcastle, and on August 6 we entered again the polar 

 ice. This time we were in the ice two weeks, covering duiing that 

 period 230 miles in 87 hours. 



We entered the ice to the northwest of Spitsbergen on August H at 

 noon, and in eight hours made, in the ice, about 30 miles to the north, 

 going always in a zigzag route. Then we stopped almost for three 

 days, examining the ice and the ship itself. During that period we 

 were drifted west-southwest at the rate of 10 miles a day, the wind 

 being north. Then we made again 10 miles to the north, and stopped 

 for a day, and in eleven hours made 30 miles to the north again, the 

 wind always blowing from a northerly direction. At this last place 

 we met an ice floe 14 feet thick; stopped to examine it for a day, and 

 as the pressure of the ice increased every hour considerably, without 

 evident reason for this, I thought that we were too much to west, and 

 that this was not the route for the ice breaker. After considering the 

 matter, I came to the conclusion that in this localit}' pressure of the ice 

 should be almost constant; the direction of the movement of the ice to 

 the north of Spitzbergen is west-southwest, while on the western part 

 of it it is southwest by south. There ought to be something that com- 

 pels the whole body of ice to change its direction almost suddenly as 

 much as three points. I presume that this change is due to the position 

 of the Greenland coast, which stops the westerly progress of the ice. 

 Owing to this a heavy pressure is accumulated on the northeastern side 

 of Greenland, which interferes with the drift of the ice of that locality 

 to the south. The ice remains there for many years, growing in thick- 

 ness. Is it not due to this that Nares met on the coast of Greenland 

 heavy ice, to which he has given the name pal^ocrystic? Certainly 

 this is only my conjecture, but it looks at present rather probable. If 

 it is so, this locality is not a place through which one would ad\'ance 

 fairly ahead, even with the powerful ice breaker. 



The pressure of ice was so considerable and the ice so heavy that it 

 took me four hours to make 2 miles to the south. After this the ice 

 was less thick, and we went at our usual rate, making 2i miles an hour; 

 later on the ice became still easier, which allowed us to go more 

 quickly. After we covered about 60 miles we found open water, fol- 

 lowed the boundary of it, and entered the ice again to the north of 

 Seven Islands. In this place we had nmch of the hunuiiocky ice. but 

 that did not stop the progress of the ship. 



On August 14 the weather was very clear, no clouds on the horizon 

 and the air verv transparent. We saw to the east of us a land which 

 is not marked on the map. We did not see that land directly. AN c 



