242 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. February 



one degree and a half. Afterwards the temperature 

 was observed at different heights from the floe, with 

 the following results : 



The first observation, recorded as taken at a height of 

 sixty feet, was above the stratum of mist that clung to 

 the floe. 



' 21st. — To-day the dogs reached the snow-hut 

 built by Eawson last autumn ; all the provisions left in 

 the hut not packed in tin cases had been eaten by a 

 fox, which appears to have taken up his abode there. 

 The dogs are getting on very well ; there have been 

 no fits since the second day's exercise, and their 

 regular allowance of food keeps them farther away 

 from the dirt-heap than formerly. 



'Yesterday, from the summit of Cape Eawson, 

 after a difficult climb up the steep snow slope, we 

 obtained a fine view of Eobeson Channel. The floes 

 although old are of large size, and will afford a fair 

 travelling road for at least half way across the channel. 



' 22?id. — Markham and I scrambled out, over the 

 half-mile of rough ice which borders the shore, and 

 arrived at one of the old floes in the offing, the age of 

 which — whether it be fifty or five hundred years — we 

 have no means of determining. The one we reached, 

 evidently a fair sample of the rest, was about one 

 mile square, separated from its neighbouring floes by 

 broad ridges of pressed up ice, rising in many places 



