1875 MORTON'S OPEN WATER. 105 



' All these illusory discoveries were no doubt chronicled 

 with perfect integrity ; and it may seem to others, as 

 since I have left the field it sometimes does to my- 

 self, that my own, though on a larger scale, may one 

 day pass within the same category.' 



It not unfrequently falls to the lot of the traveller 

 to invalidate some of the conclusions of his predecessors 

 who may not have enjoyed similar opportunities of 

 observation as himself, but it is equally his duty to 

 render to those who went before him, the credit when 

 due, of having given in perfect good faith the result of 

 their investigations. 



In the evening when the two ships were abreast of 

 Cape Constitution, the wind lulling we took in the fore 

 and aft sails, and steered onward through the most 

 open channels, passing to the westward of Franklin 

 Island. By midnight we were abreast of Hans Island 

 with perfectly clear water along the eastern land about 

 John Brown Coast, but streams of ice prevented our 

 approaching the western shore. Hans Island rises on 

 its southern face to a cliff about 500 feet high ; both it 

 and Franklin Island showed signs of great pressure 

 against their northern points, the ice having been piled 

 up to a height of fifty or sixty feet, while the southern 

 shores were free. 



The land about Cape Andrew Jackson is bluff but 

 comparatively low, and sinks as it trends to the east- 

 ward in the direction of the Humboldt Glacier, the 

 position of which was very conspicuously marked by a 

 strong ice-blink as the sun reached its lowest declina- 

 tion. From Cape Andrew Jackson to Cape Constitu- 

 tion the coast of Washington Land gradually rises, 



