94 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. August 



of the floe as well prepared as circumstances permitted 

 for whatever might happen. 



In the event of the ice separating the ships, Captain 

 Stephenson was ordered to rendezvous in Dobbin Bay. 



The weather being calm and the atmosphere clear, 

 the sun was extremely powerful during the middle of 

 the day, the temperature rising from 31° at night to 

 39° at noon. Mount Cary, the highest mountain 

 on the south shore of Hayes Sound, was observed 

 seventy miles distant covered with snow and ice. 



About this time the dogs on board the ' Discovery ' 

 showed the first signs of disease, owing probably to 

 close confinement, wet decks, and want of natural 

 exercise. Fits were frequent, and a few deaths oc- 

 curred after symptoms of madness. Doctor Colan and 

 Doctor Ninnis took great trouble to discover the nature 

 of the disease and to arrest it. It was evident that this 

 alarming and very often fatal malady could not be true 

 rabies or hydrophobia, for in several instances the 

 affected dogs recovered. 



Although the weather was calm during the 17th 

 and the following day, the pack had a general tendency 

 to drift towards the south-west at the rate of about 

 five miles a day, moving fast with the ebb-tide and 

 remaining at rest during the flood. In consequence of 

 the floe to which we were attached being held sta- 

 tionary the moving pack outside ground its way past, 

 tearing off the exposed corners in a very alarming 

 manner. The dividing line between the fixed and 

 the moving ice was distinctly marked by a hedge-like 

 line of newly raised ice-hummocks, at least twenty feet 

 in height. 



