254 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
great central ice-cap flow down into the sea. The fiords and 
bays are open early in summer, while the current sweeps north- 
ward all the ice accumulated along the coast during the winter, 
leaving an open sea, usually early in July, as far as Melville 
bay. 
A portion of this southern current evidently comes from the 
north Atlantic, and the remainder sweeps around the southern 
end of Greenland, bringing with it a stream of Arctic ice 
brought south on the Arctic current of east Greenland. This 
stream of ice is soon deflected from the west coast, and appears 
to melt in the southeastern part of Davis strait, as there is a 
lane of open water separating the southern ice from that of the 
west coast. 
The distance from Wilcox head to Cape York, across Melville 
bay, is 180 miles; that from the centre of this line to the head 
of the bay is upwards of 100 miles. Much of the shore-line of 
the bay is still unexplored, but sufficient is known to state that 
it is an almost unbroken line of glaciers, which constantly dis- 
charge large icebergs into the waters of the bay. A large 
number of rocky islands break its surface, and the bottom 
appears to be very uneven, with much shallow water; in conse- 
quence, many of the icebergs are grounded in the shallower 
parts of the bay. The islands and grounded bergs break the 
winds and waves, and so allow of the formation of heavy sheets 
of ice between them during the winter months, while in the 
summer they act as anchors for this sheet, or floe ice. As before 
stated, the southerly current carries a great part of the shore ice 
of central Greenland north to Melville bay, where it acts as an 
aggravation to the congestion of ice there, so that it is always 
late in the season before the bay is even partly clear of ice, 
which must pass westward, until being influenced by the 
northern current from Smith sound, it is deflected south and 
goes to increase the great mass of ice known as the ' middle 
