ER 



128 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. Septemb: 



shore, I moved the ship to a more protected position 

 inside of some pieces of ice lying aground close to the 

 beach. 



Since entering Smith Sound I had remarked the 

 almost total absence of a continuous line of shore 

 hummocks similar to what is usually met with in the 

 western channels of Lancaster Sound. Such a ridge, by 

 protecting the water-space from disturbance that lies 

 between them and the shore, admits of the formation of 

 perfectly smooth ice. 



The advantage in sledge travelling of finding smooth 

 ice extending between the shore and a line of outside 

 hummocks is incalculable. I therefore foresaw that 

 when our sledging parties had to journey along these 

 unprotected shores, the daily distances travelled would 

 necessarily fall short of those accomplished during the 

 Franklin Search Expeditions. 



In Eobeson Channel, except in a few places where 

 the cliffs rise precipitously from the sea and afford no 

 ledge or step on which the ice can lodge, the shore 

 line is fronted at a few paces distant by a nearly con- 

 tinuous ragged-topped wall formed by accumulated 

 ice pressed up by the pack on top of the original ice- 

 foot, and rising from fifteen to upwards of thirty-five 

 feet high. Opposite the large ravines the water carried 

 down by the summer floods melts a way for itself 

 through the barrier and occasionally breaks the con- 

 tinuity of the wall ; but immediately the pack closes 

 against the shore with pressure, a newly formed pile of 

 ice is quickly raised and closes up the gap. ' The 

 debris brought down the valleys, being unable to 

 escape out to sea, is deposited inside of the ice-barrier, 



