46 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. July 



I cclacs and brought down two nearly full-feathered 

 young ones. Flowering plants were scanty, the most 

 conspicuous being the yellow-blossomed Pote?itilla, Coch- 

 learia officinalis, Papaver nudicaule, and a Br aba, also 

 a creeping dwarf willow. Traces of foxes and ptar- 

 migan were observed. 



It was high water at the Cary Islands about 5 a.m. 

 of the 27th. The current from midnight until 2 a.m., 

 the first half of the flood-tide, set to the northward, at 



3 a.m. it was setting towards the north-east, and from 



4 to 6 a.m., when we left, it set to the southward. This 

 agrees with the supposed set of the current the previous 

 night, when we were south-west of Conical Eock, the 

 latter part of the flood-tidal-stream running to the 

 southward instead of setting to the northward. The 

 'Discovery,' steering one steady course from Cape 

 York, also experienced a current which set the ship to 

 the south and west. 



Near the many icebergs stranded on the shallows 

 about the Cary Islands, the temperature of the 

 surface water fell from 40° to 31i°, but imme- 

 diately we left the ice behind us, steering towards the 

 Greenland coast for Hakluyt Island, it rose again to 

 38° and 40°, agreeing with the observations of the 

 previous day. Coupled with the native report that the 

 sea near Hakluyt Island is never completely frozen 

 over during the winter, this high temperature is re- 

 markable. 



The 27th brought us a continuation of calm clear 

 weather. The two ships, one in tow of the other, passed 

 in the afternoon between Northumberland and Hak- 

 luyt Islands. A sounding in mid-channel gave 100 



