32 



NATURE 



[Nov. 9, 1 8 



the western shore and the pack, which was driving 

 quickly to the northward, at about three miles distance 

 from the land. By noon, having carried Her Majesty's 

 ship into latitude 82° 24' N., a higher latitude than any 

 vessel had ever before attained, the ensign was hoisted at 

 the peak. On hauling to the westward at the northern 

 entrance of Robeson Channel, we lost the wind under 

 the lee of the land, and were obliged to furl sails and 

 proceed under steam ; at the same time the breadth of 

 the navigable water channel was much contracted, until 

 off Cape Sheridan the ice was observed to be touching 

 the shore. 



In Robeson Channel proper, except where the cliffs rise 

 precipitously from the sea, and afford no ledge or step on 

 which the ice can lodge, the shore line is fronted at a few 

 paces distance by a nearly continuous ragged-topped ice 

 wall from fifteen to thirty-five feet high. It is broken only 

 opposite the larger ravines, where the soil carried down 

 by the summer flood has, by accumulating, shallowed the 

 water sufficiently to catch up the drifting ice as it passes, 

 and form a line of more isolated ice hummocks. Here 

 the continuity of the ice wall is occasionally broken. But 

 on leaving Robeson Channel, immediately the land trends 

 to the westward, the coast line loses its steep character, 

 and the heavy ice is stranded at a distance of 100 to 200 

 yards from the shore, forming a fringe of detached masses 

 of ice from 20 feet to upwards of 60 feet in height above 

 water, aground in from eight to twelve fathoms water, and 

 except where the coast is shallow extending close into the 

 beach line. The average measurement of the ice in 

 thickness as it floated is 80 feet, and it always breaks 

 from the salt water floe of which it originally formed a 

 part in pieces of slightly greater dimensions in horizontal 

 measurements. On finding the ice close in at Cape 

 Sheridan, having made good 25 miles of northing since 

 leaving Lincoln Bay in the morning, my only alternative 

 was to secure the ship inside this protecting barrier of ice, 

 where she was accordingly placed during the afternoon, 

 and a depot of provisions of 2,000 rations established for 

 the use of travelling parties. The weather remained thick 

 until the evening, when 1 obtained a good view from a 

 station about 300 feet above the sea level. The coast line 

 continued to the north-west for about thirty miles, form- 

 ing a large bay bounded by the United States' range of 

 mountains — Mounts Marie and Julia and Cape Joseph 

 Henry, named by the late Capt. Hall, are so conspicuous 

 that it was impossible to mistake their identity although 

 more than thirty degrees out in bearing on the chart. No 

 land was to be seen to the northward although our wishes 

 leading to the thought, we still hoped that the heavy 

 clouds in that direction might hide it from our view. But 

 considering the character and movement of the ice I was 

 reluctantly forced to admit that it gave convincing proof 

 that none existed within a reasonable distance, and that 

 we had arrived on the shore of the Arctic Ocean finding 

 it exactly the opposite to an " Open Polar Sea." The 

 pack ice extended close in to Cape Sheridan and the 

 shore to the westward of it, a pool of water being noticed 

 on the east or lee side of each projecting point in the bay 

 which the intervening ice effectually prevented our think- 

 ing of reaching. To the eastward the channel by which 

 we had advanced was completely blocked by the return 

 of the ice, and the ship, although fairly protected, was 

 thoroughly embayed by the pack. The last snowfall had 

 covered the land completely to a depth of from 6 to 12 

 inches and the low sloping hills formed anything but a 

 cheering landscape. 



During the night the wind again freshened considerably 

 from the south-west, and in a squall carried away the 

 hawsers by which we were secured and obliged me to let 

 go a bower anchor ; this faUing on gravel did not bring 

 the ship up until she had drifted half a cable's length out- 

 side the barrier of " floe-bergs " from which the pack was 

 slowly retreating towards the north-east. The gale con- 

 tinued all night and drove the pack two miles off shore, 



but its constant motion to the eastward kept it tight 

 against Point Sheridan and cut us off from all chance 

 advancing. I was much struck at the time by the i 

 tinacity with which the pack kept its ground during t 

 severe gale, and could not help fearing that there wo 

 be little chance of its opening out sufficiently to allow 

 to advance much farther this year ; but knowing well 

 occasional inexphcable uncertainty in its movements 

 still hoped for the best. 



On the morning of September 2 the wind sudde 

 shifted from south-west to north-west, bringing the p; 

 rapidly in towards the land, and causing the ship to sw 

 broadside on to the heavy stranded ice ; fortunately, 

 barometer having indicated the probability of a chai 

 occurring, steam had beea kept ready, and after a ci 

 siderable amount of manoeuvring the anchor was weigh 

 Our protected dock was so small, and the entrance tc 

 so narrow and encumbered with ice, that it was vi 

 extreme difficulty, much labour, and no trifling expense 

 broken hawsers, that the ship was hauled in stern fc 

 most, with the united force of the wind and flood t 

 pressing at right angles to the course. It was a r 

 question whether the ice or the ship would be in fi 

 and my anxiety was much relieved when, as the wh 

 northern pack reached the outside of our friendly fl 

 bergs, I saw the ship's bow swing clear inside into safi 

 and the pack, instead of doing us an injury, considera 

 strengthen our protecting outwork by forcing new pie 

 on shore ; at the same time, we could not help foresee 

 that by so doing our chance of advancing when we wisi 

 was proportionately lessened. The danger we had 

 narrowly escaped from was forcibly represented to us 

 as the pack, with irresistible force, swept past us to 

 eastward at the rate of a mile an hour, and constat 

 added to the accumulated masses outside. 



The projecting point of a heavy floe would first groi 

 in from ten to twelve fathoms of water ; then the ou 

 mass, continuing its course, unable to stop its progre 

 would tear itself away from its cast-off portion. 1 

 pressure, however, still continuing, the severed piece \ 

 forced, and frequently by the parent mass itself, up 

 steeply inclined shore, rising slowly and majestically < 

 of the water 10 or 12 teet above its old line of flotati 

 and remaining usually nearly upright. The motion \ 

 entirely different to that produced when two ordin 

 floes some 4 or 6 feet thick met together ; then, 

 broken edges of the two pieces of ice, each striving 

 the mastery, are readily upheaved and continually 

 over with a noisy crash. Here, the enormous presst 

 raising pieces, frequently 30,000 tons in weight, in cc 

 parative silence, displays itself with becoming solemr 

 and grandeur. What occurs when two 80-foot floes m 

 we cannot say ; but the result, as far as a ship is c 

 cerneJ, floating as the ice does higher out of the wa 

 than herself, would be much the same as the clos 

 together of the two sides of a dry dock on the confir 

 vessel. 



For the next three days we experienced light weste 

 winds ; the ice remained close in to the coast, movi 

 generally to the south-eastward, but occasionally stoppi 

 and closing up towards the north-west during the e 

 tide. During the flood, pools of water, half a mile lo 

 by a quarter broad, frequently formed on the south-e 

 side of the larger floes, but they were always complet 

 isolated from each other by several miles of heavy i 

 Although a few large floes could be distinguished in 1 

 offing, the pack within five miles of the land usually c( 

 sisted of floes of less than a mile in diameter, with a v( 

 large proportion of rubble ice evidently broken off 1 

 large floes as they forced their way past the points 

 land to the north-west of us, the whole forming as rou 

 a road for sledge travelling as could well be imagined. 



At this period, although all regular navigation was e 

 dently at an end, I was naturally most anxious to m( 

 the ship from her exposed position before the setting 



