90 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. August 



been cut away by an old glacier, which has exposed 

 the correspondence in the stratification of the cliffs 

 on either side. At the head of the bay the snow- 

 clad mountains rise to a height of from 3,000 to 

 4,000 feet. The intervening valleys contain glaciers 

 in the higher parts, and one of great size extends to 

 the sea, where it discharges numerous icebergs, a long 

 string of which were waiting the breaking up of the 

 last winter's ice, then filling up the bay, to drift out to 

 sea. The fixed ice extended from Prince Imperial 

 Island to Cape Schott. Except in the small neighbour- 

 ing bay near Cape Napoleon, this was the last fixed ice, 

 left unbroken by the advancing season, which we met, 

 and doubtless it drifted out of the bay a few days after- 

 wards. The discharging glacier at the head of the 

 bay, the largest on the west shore of Smith Sound, was 

 named after the Empress Eugenie, who had shown a 

 great personal interest in the Expedition. 



During the night of the 13th the ice was pressed 

 up with great violence against Cape Hilgard, raising 

 a new pile of hummocks twenty feet high on the ice- 

 foot at the base of the cliffs. 



There being no prospect of our making an immediate 

 advance, and wishing to ascertain what the ice was 

 doing off Cape Napoleon, I started, with Feilden and 

 Aldrich and two men dragging the dingy on a five-man 

 sledge with one day's provisions, over the ice, the pools 

 on the surface of which were frozen over hard enough 

 to bear in most places. Dr. Coppinger, Eawson, and 

 Mr. Hart, with some men, joined the party from the 

 ' Discovery.' 



On reaching Cape Hilgard we found a pool of 



