TV. 9, 1876] 



NATURE 



27 



itageously situated near a prominent Cape, where the 



1 currents run with increased velocity, it is however 

 >ject to squally winds ; but in icy seas during; the 

 mer, when awaiting the opening of the ice, they are 

 er an advantage than otherwise, striving as they do 

 the sea currents, which is to be the chief worker in 

 oving the impediments to a vessel's advance, 

 arly in the morning of August 4, after several hours 

 ght south-westerly winds, the main pack, while re- 

 ining perfectly close and impenetrable to the north- 

 d, moved off from the land to a sufficient distance to 

 ble the ships to pass to the westward round Cape 

 ine. In the hope of finding a passage on the western 

 of the island, of which Capes Victoria and Albert 

 the prominent eastern points, sail was immediately 

 de, and we succeeded, with only one short detention, 

 dvancing twenty miles along the southern shores of 

 yes Sound, and securing the ships in a snug harbour, 

 the neighbourhood the sportsmen discovered a richly 

 egetated valley with numerous traces of musk-oxen and 

 other game. Two glaciers coming from nearly opposite 

 directions, which, instead of uniting in their downward 

 direction, abut the one against the other, and maintain a 

 constant warfare for the mastery, a never-ending grapple 

 For victory, suggested the name of Twin Glacier Valley 

 for the locality. 



The ice in the sound was one season old, and decaying 

 so swiftly that if not drifted away it would in a week's 

 time present no impediment to the advance of a steam 

 vessel. On August 5 the strong tides and a south-westerly 

 wind opened a channel to the north-west, and we gained 

 a few miles in advance ; but not wishing to expend much 

 coal, were finally stopped in the light pack. After re- 

 maining sufficiently long to determine that the flood tide 

 still came from the eastward, although the ebb or east 

 running tide was apparently the stronger of the two, I 

 pushed the ship through the pack towards the shore, and 

 with Capt. Stephenson ascended a hill 1,500 feet high. 

 From this station, the appearance of the land giving no 

 prospect of a channel to the northward, and, moreover, 

 the westerly wind having set in in strength, which we 

 expected would open a passage to the eastward of Cape 

 Albert, we decided to bear up and return to the entrance 

 of the Sound; accordingly the ships made a quick run 

 under sail to Cape Albert, arriving off which the wind 

 died away leaving the ice loosely packed. A clear space 

 of water being visible along the shore of the mainland to 

 the northward, and the coast between Cape Victoria and 

 Cape Albert affording no protection, I ran the two ships 

 into the pack under steam, with the hope of forcing our 

 way through, but before midnight they were hopelessly 

 beset ; and the floe, to which the ships were secured at a 

 distance of ico yards apart, drifting rapidly towards an 

 iceberg. Both ships were at once prepared for a severe 

 nip, the rudders and screws being unshipped. At first 

 the Discovery was apparently in the most dangerous 

 position, but the floe in which we were sealed up by 

 wheeling round, while it relieved Capt. Stephenson from 

 any immediate apprehension, brought the Alert directly 

 in the path of the advancing mass, which was steadily 

 tearing its way through the intermediate surface ice. 

 When only 100 yards distant the iceberg, by turning 

 slightly, presented a broader front to the approaching ice, 

 which then accumulated in advance of it to such an 

 extent as to fill up the angle, and form, as it were, a point 

 or bow of pressed-up ice, sufficiently strong to itself divide 

 and split up the floe, and act as a buffer in advance of 

 the berg ; and this it did in our case most successfully, 

 our floe breaking up into numerous pieces. The ship 

 herself escaped with a very light nip, and, sliding past 

 the side without accident, was finally secured in the water 

 space left m the wake of the iceberg by the faster drift of 

 the surface ice. 

 The next twenty-four hours were spent in a constant 



struggle towards the shore through the pack, which for- 

 tunately consisted of ice seldom more than 4 feet in 

 thickness, with occasional pieces up to 12 feet thick, 

 formed by the over-riding and piling up of ordinary floes, 

 and then cemented together by a winter's frost ; the worn 

 down round-topped ice hummocks on these were from 

 6 to 8 feet above the water-line. The icebergs, evidently 

 derived from inferior glaciers, were from 20 to 40 feet in 

 height above water, and 100 yards in diameter. 



Owing to the unsteady wind and the variable tidal 

 currents we were unable to remain for long in any one 

 pool of water — either the iceberg turned round and carried 

 us with it to the exposed side, before we could change the 

 position of the hawsers by which we were secured ; or the 

 pack ice, which was readily acted upon by the wind, 

 drifting back the opposite way with any change, closed 

 up the water space. Securing the ships in a dock in 

 rotten ice in the presence of so many icebergs, was not 

 advisable, and also would have carried the ships deeper 

 into the pack to the southward. There was, therefore, no 

 alternative before me but to get up full steam and dodge 

 about as best we could, taking instant advantage of every 

 change in our favour. The ships were seldom separated 

 for long, and now as on all other occasions, they mutually 

 assisted each other. The Discovery was handled by 

 Capt. Stephenson and her officers in the most masterly 

 and daring manner, combined with great judgment, quali- 

 ties essential in arctic navigation. She, as well as the 

 Alert^ ran not a few hairbreadth escapes. Once in par- 

 ticular when in following us through a closing channel 

 between an iceberg and heavy floe-piece, before getting 

 quite past the danger she was caught and nipped against 

 the berg, and had it not been for a fortunate tongue of 

 projecting ice would certainly have had all her boats on 

 the exposed side ground away from her. Fortunately, 

 the moving ice pushed her clear, much in the same 

 manner as it had done the Alert the previous day. 



Having less beam than the Alert, and a finer bow, with 

 the very great advantage of an overhanging stem, the 

 Discovery is better adapted for forcing her way through 

 a pack. It will be difficult ever to efface from my mind 

 the determined manner in which, when the bluff- bowed 

 leading ship had become imbedded in the ice, which by 

 her impetus against it had accumulated round and sunk 

 under her bows, and a great quantity by floating to the 

 surface again in her wake, had helplessly inclosed her 

 abaft, the Discovery was handled, when advancing to our 

 rescue ; having backed some distance astern, for the 

 double purpose of allowing the debris ice from a former 

 blow to float away and for the vessel to attain distance 

 sufficient for the accumulation of momentum with which 

 to strike a second, coming ahead at her utmost speed she 

 would force her way into the ice burying her bows in it as 

 far aft as the foremast, the commanding officer on the 

 bowsprit, carefully conning the ship to an inch, for had 

 the ice not been struck fairly it would have caused her to 

 cannon off it against ourselves with much havoc to the 

 two. From the moment of the first impact the overhang- 

 ing stem necessarily caused the ship's bow to rise 3 or 4 

 feet as she advanced from 12 to 20 feet into the solid floe 

 and imbedded herself before the force of the blow was 

 expended, and as the ship's way was stopped, the over- 

 hanging weight, by settling down, crushed the ice down 

 still further ahead. Frequently on these occasions her 

 jib-boom was within touching distance of the Alerfs 

 boats ! But after a little experience had been gained, 

 such confidence had we in each other that there was not 

 the slightest swerving in any one. Floes up to 4 feet in 

 thickness, and in a soft state, that is melting, not freezing, 

 may be charged with advantage, thicker or harder ice 

 had better be left alone. It speaks well for our chrono- 

 meters, and the manner in which they are secured, that 

 their rates were little effected by the frequent concussions 

 on this and on many after occasions. 



