1875 ARCTIC TERNS. 117 



Immediate advantage was taken of the welcome 

 channel to proceed north, but on reaching Distant 

 Cape the pack, which extended completely across the 

 strait, prevented all farther progress ; there was, there- 

 fore, no option left me but to return to Discovery 

 Harbour; where the ship was again secured at the 

 entrance ready to advance on the first opportunity. 



Commander Markham, with Feilden and Eawson, 

 pulled along shore towards Cape Murchison to watch 

 the ice, but it remained persistently packed against 

 the shore. A small family of terns {Sterna macrura) 

 were found breeding on a rock off Bellot Island, and 

 at this late period of the season an unfl edged young 

 bird was discovered in a nest. A brood of eider 

 ducks unable to fly were also seen. 



At this period of our voyage we supposed Eobeson 

 Channel to be a narrow strait connecting Hall Basin 

 with a similar sea to the northward, and the difficulties 

 experienced by the * Polaris ' when navigating this 

 channel demonstrated that we could not hope to 

 advance through it except when a westerly wind blew 

 the ice off the western shore. On the termination of 

 the westerly wind, or a shift to any other quarter, the 

 ice would naturally close in again, with the prevailing- 

 southerly running current. 



This afterwards proved to be the general move- 

 ment of the pack, except in the narrowest part of the 

 strait between Cape Beechey and Polaris Promontory. 

 There, with a slight northerly pressure during calms, 

 the large floes jammed against each other and blocked 

 the passage. The ice to the south of the block being 

 carried onwards, water-pools were formed under the 



