244 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. Februar 



' It is impossible for us to estimate, or even to 

 hazard an opinion, regarding the thickness of what we 

 term the palaeocrystic floes, having no foundation to 

 form any conjecture upon. On one occasion, at the 

 edge of a large floe, bounded by young ice, the per- 

 pendicular height, 'from the top of the floe to the 

 surface of the young ice, was measured and found to 

 be from five feet six inches to six feet ten inches, but 

 we had no opportunity of measuring the height of the 

 heavier and larger sized floes. On the heavier floes 

 were 'high hillocks, apparently formed by snow-drift, 

 the accumulation probably of years, resembling dimi- 

 nutive snow mountains, and varying from twenty to 

 over fifty feet in height.' .... 



' This afternoon the cold weather broke up with 

 squalls from the S.S.W., lasting six horns; the tem- 

 perature rising immediately from minus 50° to within 

 a few degrees of zero. At midnight a northerly wind 

 again lowered the temperature to minus 40°. During 

 the previous sixteen days the mercury has remained 

 thawed only for forty-eight hours.' 



Neither this wind nor the rise in temperature were 

 experienced at Discovery Bay. After a short calm a 

 southerly squall raised the temperature both at Floe- 

 berg Beach and Discovery Bay ; but at the latter 

 place, although the snow was observed to be drifting 

 from the southward off the high land, it did not reach 

 the ship. At noon the temperature at both stations 

 was minus 14°. 



' 2bth. — A beautiful clear day. Walked to Cape 

 Eawson with Mr. Pullen ; Eawson, Egerton, and Fred- 

 erick, following us with the dog-sledge. The weather 



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