58 VOYAGE TO THE 1'olai; SEA. August 



altitude of the sun below the Pole at midnight by 

 using the reflected sun in the sea. 



After passing through the channel between Wash- 

 ington Irving Island and Cape Hawks a large quantity 

 of ice and many small icebergs were met drifting with 

 the ebb-tide to the southward at the rate of about one 

 and a half miles an hour. Larger floes nipping against 

 Cape Schott and the east coast of the island prevented 

 our progress and obliged me to secure the ships to 

 some icebergs which were lying aground, about a 

 quarter of a mile from the shore, in thirty-two fathoms 

 water. I had intended placing our second large depot 

 of three thousand rations, for use in the event of a 

 compulsory retreat without our ships, on the island, 

 but the passing ice prevented our doing so without 

 endangering the boats. Accordingly a small protected 

 bay two miles north of Cape Hawks was chosen. 

 There the depot and a boat were landed while a party 

 visited the island to deposit a notice and obtain a view 

 to the eastward. 



On reaching the summit, about 900 feet high, 

 after a laborious scramble up the steep hill-side, we 

 found two ancient cairns far too old to have been 

 erected by Dr. Hayes, the only traveller known to 

 have visited the neighbourhood. They were built of 

 conglomerate and rested on a similar base, which in 

 one case had become undermined by the natural crum- 

 bling away of the rock, and in. doing so had destroyed 

 a part of the cairn. Lichens which had spread from 

 stone to stone also proved that they were of great age. 

 They contained no records whatever. From our look- 

 out the only water in sight was in Dobbin Bay with an 



