Tov. 9, 1876] 



NATURE 



29 



isterly direction across the bay. Several small icebergs 



;re frozen in at the head of the bay, where there are 



ime large discharging glaciers named after the Empress 



;ijgenie. The land, as far as our explorations went, was 



iry bare of game, and not well vegetated. A floe of 



It season's ice was observed in the bay, between Cape 



[ilgard and Cape Louis Napoleon, but off each of those 



dlands the piled-up ice foot denoted very heavy recent 



issure from the eastward. 



'On the evening of August 15, after considerable labour, 

 succeeded in blasting and clearing away a barrier 

 lich separated the ships from a water channel leading 

 syond Cape Louis Napoleon, but so narrow was the 

 lannel that, notwithstanding the extreme care of Capt. 

 Stephenson, the Discovery took the ground for a few 

 minutes whilst steaming between the ice and the shallow 

 shore. By 8 a.m. of the 16th Ave had advanced to within 

 five miles of Cape Frazer, but here we again met with a 

 block. Calm weather and spring tides caused much and 

 constant movement in the ice, the main tendency being 

 to drift to the southward at the rate of about five miles a 

 day. 



The character of the pack had changed considerably, 

 few icebergs were seen that were not aground, and the 

 floes consisted principally of old hummocky pieces pressed 

 together, of from 12 to 20 feet in thickness, the surface 

 being studded over with worn-down hummocks of a blue 

 bottle-glass colour, which denotes great age. In such ice 

 it was impossible to cut into dock on account of the time 

 it would occupy, even had we been provided with saws 

 of sufficient length. Our only possible safety lay in keep- 

 ing close in shore of grounded icebergs, but in doing so 

 the two ships were obliged to separate. The Alert secur- 

 ing to one, and the Discovery forcing herself in between 

 three smaller ones farther in shore. 



On the two following days, during which the ice con- 

 tinued to drift to the southward and westward, the con- 

 stant movement of the heavy floes, nipping together with 

 great force, like the closing of a gigantic pair of scissors, 

 between which, if once caught, the ships would have been 

 instantaneously crushed, caused much anxiety, and neces- 

 sitated constant watchfulness and much labour on the 

 part of the officers and crew ; and all were much dis- 

 tressed at losing three or four miles of the ground pre- 

 viously gained. The rudders and screws were constantly 

 being shipped and unshipped, the midship boats were 

 obliged to be turned inboard, on account of the ice 

 touching their keels, and steam, when not in use, was 

 always kept ready at twenty minutes' notice. Beyond 

 wrenching the rudder-head, no serious damage occurred. 

 On the igth, the highest spring tide, the ice near us 

 became more open ; and from a high station on Mount 

 Joy I saw that we could at least regain our lost station, 

 and might get further north. Knowmg that this was our 

 last chance during the present tides, and until the strong 

 westerly winds set in, and the pack having opened for 

 the first time, I risked boring my way into the pack for 

 two miles, and by doing so entered a channel round Cape 

 Frazer which had long been considered as one of the 

 most difficult milestones to pass on our passage north. 

 By 9 P.M., after a few hours' delay during the flood tide 

 which brought the ice inshore again, we were fairly in 

 Kennedy Channel, secured to a floe off Cape John Barrow ; 

 only two days later in the year than when the Resolute 

 was blown out of winter-quarters at Melville Island, in 

 1S53, and with a fortnight of the navi>;able season still 

 before us. Between Scoresby Bay and Dobbin Bay there 

 is no protection obtainable except inside grounded ice- 

 bergs ; none of the shallow bays are deep enough to 

 shelter a ship from the pressure of heavy ice. 



Soon after midnight the ice moved off shore, opening 

 a ^passage, and again allowed us to proceed, the water 

 spaces becoming more frequent and larger as we ad- 

 vanced northward. Passing the mouth of a large bay 



about ten miles deep, after making a very tortuous 

 course through the ice and many narrow escapes of being 

 driven to the southward again in the pack, we reached 

 what we supposed to be Cape Collinson, the second of 

 two capes to the north of the large bay, which must be 

 intended to be represented on the chart as Scoresby Bay. 

 But as Cape Frazer is placed eight miles and Scoresby 

 Bay twenty miles too far north, and the re it of the 

 western land very incorrectly delineated on the charts, it 

 is difficult to say where we arrived, and yet for the pre- 

 sent it is necessary for me to describe the advance of the 

 expedition by reference to the published charts. I shall 

 therefore continue to do so with an occasional necessary 

 reference to our correct latitude. 



Between Cape Collinson and Cape McClintock, the 

 north point of Scoresby Bay, is a slight indentation in 

 the coast from half to three-quarters of a mile in depth, 

 but affording no protection. North of Cape Collinson 

 the land trends slightly to the westward, and about three 

 miles north of the Cape turns sharp to the west, forming 

 Richardson Bay, which is much deeper than represented, 

 probably four miles broad and six deep. A heavy ice- 

 berg firmly aground two miles from the land in the shal- 

 low bay north of Cape Collinson, which had evidently 

 never moved this season, prevented a compact floe from 

 floating off shore. The same iceberg caught all the ice 

 that streamed down the west coast and round Richardson 

 Bay, guiding it out towards the south-east, away from 

 Cape Collinson, off which, and between it and the iceberg, 

 was navigable water. In this pool the two ships were 

 secured, watching for an opportunity to get north, and 

 during the forced delay employing our energies in trying, 

 by blasting, to unlock the land ice from the berg, and 

 let it drift south, with the hope of releasing the ice to 

 the northward ; but perhaps it is fortunate we did not 

 succeed, as by doing so, if the ice in the offing had not 

 opened at the same time, our principal protection might 

 have been lost, the iceberg itself being too small to form 

 a pool under its lee sufficiently large for both ships, even 

 had it been for one. A depot of provisions was landed at 

 Cape Collinson for our future travellers bound to the 

 southward along the coast. The current was observed to 

 run with greater rapidity to the southward than in the 

 broader part of Smith's Sound. During each flood-tide 

 about five miles of ice drifted past us ; for four hours of 

 the ebb it remained stationary ; thus about ten miles of 

 ice drifted south daily, adding to the accumulation in the 

 basin of Smith's Sound, unless, as is probable, it is 

 carried as quickly into Baffin's Bay through the southern 

 entrance. On the north side of each point on this shore 

 the ice had piled up a wall-like barrier from 20 to 30 feet 

 high, but elsewhere there was not much display of pressure. 



On the morning of August 21, the water channels in 

 the middle of the straits looking very inviting, we made a 

 start at the top of high water, but were led by the ice so 

 much out from the land that I returned to our friendly 

 protecting floe and iceberg until the next tide, first en- 

 deavouring to clear the nip of one against the other by 

 ramming ; but finding that it would cost too much in coal 

 and shake of the ship to clear it completely, and too much 

 powder to blast it away, I gave up the attempt, after con- 

 sultation with Capt. Stephenson, and considering that the 

 constant open channels in the offing denoted more water 

 farther off. The two ships started again at 9 P.M., just 

 before low water, and after a troublesome passage through 

 about three miles of close heavy floe pieces, we passed 

 into open leads of water, extending to the north-east up 

 the straits. A bitter northerly wind, accompanied with 

 mist and snow, freshening at the same time, carried the 

 ice with great rapidity to the southward, and obliged us 

 to beat to windward under steam and fore and aft sails, 

 tacking frequently to avoid the heaviest streams of ice. 

 After this snowstorm the land remained covered with 

 snow for the season. 



