122 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. A.«;rsi 



10.30 p.m., a little before high-water. The ice would 

 have permitted us to reach a point two miles farther 

 north, but there it touched the shore. Expecting that 

 the ebb-tide would force the pack against the land, I 

 determined to wait for a more favourable opportunity ; 

 and it was well that I did so, for very soon after the 

 ice closed in and not a speck of water was to be seen 

 anywhere. The ship was secured in twenty- two 

 fathoms water alongside a floe formed that season, 

 consisting not of newly frozen smooth ice, but of a 

 conglomeration of ice of all sizes interlocked above 

 and below water by pressure and then frozen together, 

 forming an .extremely hummocky floe some eight or 

 ten feet in thickness. Already it was so compact as to 

 be extremely ominous of the approaching winter. 



During the forenoon of the 30th the flood-tide 

 opened the ice sufficiently for a boat to reach the 

 northern shore of the bay ; the opportunity was taken 

 to land a depot of provisions for travellers, consisting of 

 1000 rations. The depot was placed about thirty feet 

 above the sea on a hill-side fronting the first dip in 

 the coast hills from the extreme east point of the bay. 

 A cairn, which can be seen from the ice a mile from 

 land, was built a few yards inshore of where these 

 provisions were deposited. This depot was not sub- 

 sequently interfered with by us, and no doubt still 

 remains intact. 



At noon, about the time of high-water, the ice 

 commenced to open off shore and set towards the 

 north ; we immediately got underweigh and with a little 

 trouble succeeded in getting to within three miles ot 

 Cape Union. There the ice inshore was closed, but 



