32 THK POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



curly part of the winter this pack is most of the time in motion, some 

 times moving northeastward with the prevailing em-rent and grinding 

 along the edge of the barrier, sometimes moving off to sea before an off 

 shore wind, leaving &quot;leads&quot; of open water, which in calm weather are 

 immediately covered with new ice (at the rate of f&amp;gt; inches in 24 hours), 

 and again coming in with greater or less violence against the edges of 

 this new- ice, crushing and crumpling it up against the barrier. Portions 

 of the land-floe even float off and move away with the pack at this season. 



The westerly gales of the later winter, however, bring in great quan 

 tities of ice, which, pressing against the land-floe, are pushed up into 

 hummocks and ground firmly in deeper water, thus increasing the breadth 

 of the fixed land-floe until the line of separation between the laud-floe 

 and the moving pack is 4 or 5 or sometimes even 8 miles from land. The 

 hummocks of the laud-floe show a tendency to arrange themselves in 

 lines parallel to the shore, and if the pressure has not been too great 

 there are often fields of ice of the season not, over 4 feet thick between 

 the ranges of hammocks, as was the case in the winter of 1881- 82. In 

 the following year, however, the pressure was so great that there were 

 no such fields, and even the level ice inside of the barrier was crushed 

 into hummocks in many places. 



After the gales are over there is generally less motion in the pack, 

 until about the middle of April, when easterly winds usually cause 

 leads to open at the edge of the land-floe. These leads now continue to 

 open and shut, varying in size with the direction and force of the wind. 

 As the season advances, especially in July, the melting of the ice on 

 the surface loosens portions of the land-floe, which float oft&quot; and join the 

 pack, bringing the leads nearer to the shore. In the meantime the level 

 shore ice has been cut away from the beach by the warm water running 

 down from the land and has grown &quot;rotten&quot; and full of holes from the 

 heat of the sun. By the time the outside ice has moved away so as to 

 leave only the floes grounded on the bar the inside ice breaks up into 

 loose masses, moving up and down with wind and current and ready 

 to move oft through the first break in the barrier. Portions of the re 

 maining barrier gradually break off and at last the whole finally floats 

 and moves out with the pack, sometimes, as in 1881 a very remarkable 

 season moving out of sight from the land. 



This final departure of the ice may take place at any time between 

 the middle of July and the middle of August. East of Point Barrow 

 we had opportunities only for hasty and superficial observations of the 

 state of the ice. The land floe appears to form some distance outside 

 of the sandy islands, and from the account of the natives there is much 

 open water along shore early in the season, caused by the breaking up 

 of the rivers. Dr. Simpson 1 learned from the natives that the trading 

 parties which left the Point about the 1st of July found open water at 

 Dease Inlet. This is more definite information than we were able to 

 obtain. We only learned that they counted on finding open water a 

 few days journey east. 



