Nov. 9, 1876] 



NA TV RE 



M 



pinger cleared up all doubt about the nature of Peter- 

 mann Fiord, having reached at a distance of nineteen 

 miles from the entrance, the precipitous cliff of a glacier 

 which stretched across the Fiord. 



On considering the result of the spring sledging opera- 

 tions, I concluded that, owing to the absence of land 

 trending to the northward and the Polar pack not being 

 navigable, no ship could be carried north on either side 

 of Smith's Sound beyond the position we had already- 

 attained ; and also that from any maintainable position 

 in Smith's Sound it was impossible to advance nearer the 

 pole by sledges. The only object, therefore, to be gained 

 by the Expedition remaining in the vicinity for another 

 season, would be to extend the exploration of the shores 

 of Grant Land to the south-westward, and Greenland to 

 the north-east or eastward, but as with the whole resources 

 of the expedition I could not hope to advance more than 

 about fifty miles beyond the positions already attained on 

 those coasts, and moreover, although the crew were 

 r-.pidly recovering from the di.sease which had attacked 

 ihem, they would certainly be unfit for employment on 

 extended sledge parties next year, I decided that the 

 Expedition should return to England as soon as the ice 

 broke up and released the ship. It was with the very 

 };reatest regret I felt it my duty to give up the very inter- 

 esting further examination of the northern coast of Green- 

 land. 



Although pools of water formed along the tidal crack 

 in the ice early in June, the thaw did not regularly set in 

 before the last week of the month. On July i water in 

 the ravines comn^enced to run, after that date the thaw 

 was very rapid both on shore and on the ice, but no 

 decided motion took place before the 20th. On the 23rd, 

 with a strong south-west wind, the pack was driven a mile 

 away from the shore, but, as in the autumn, no navigable 

 channel made to seaward or along the land to the west- 

 ward of Cape Sheridan. On the 26th a record was left in 

 a cairn erected on shore detailing the work performed by 

 the expedition, and of my intention to proceed to the 

 southward. On the 31st, after considerable labour to 

 clear away a passage through the barrier of floe-bergs 

 which had so well protected us during the winter, we suc- 

 ceeded during a strong south west wind, which drove the 

 pack out to sea, in rounding Cape Rawson and entering 

 Robeson Channel on our return voyajje. After a ten 

 miles run along shore, through a fairly open channel 

 between the pack and the cliffy ice foot bordering the 

 coast, we were stopped by a heavy floe one-and-a-half 

 miles in diameter nipping against the land four miles 

 north of Cape Union, and there being no other protection 

 attainable, the ship was secured in a small indentation 

 among a group of grounded floe-bergs lining the shore off 

 a shallow part of the coast. The ice in the offing drifted 

 north and south with the tides in a nearly compact mass, 

 that near the shore alone being loose, but in no way navi- 

 gable. 



Early in the morning of August i, the heavy floe which 

 had stopped us the previous day commenced to move, and 

 was soon travelling to the northward with the whole 

 strength of the tide at the rate of one-and-a-half miles an 

 hour, scraping along the ice foot as it advanced towards 

 the ship in a rathtr alarming manner. Steam being for- 

 tunately ready we cast off, and succeeded in passing 

 between it and the shore, as after a severe wrench against 

 a projecting point close ahead of us, a channel was opened 

 by its rebound, as it coach-wheeled round the north point 

 of the floe, turned m towards the land close to the 

 position which we had vacated a few moments before. 



The difference between an ordinary floe and Polar Sea 

 ice was here exemplified completely ; the former com- 

 posed of ice about 6 feet in thickness, on meeting with an 

 obstruction is torn in pieces as it presses past it; the 

 latter being some 80 or ico feet ihick, quietly hfts any 

 impediment away out A its course, and takes no further 



notice of it. Such was the case on this occcasion : th« 

 Polar floe, which we only escaped by a few yards, or 

 nipping against the heavy breastwork of isolated floe-bergi 

 lining the coast, some of them 40 feet high and mauN 

 thousand tons in weight, which had lately formed oui 

 protection from the smaller ice pieces, tilted them ovei 

 one after another, and forced them higher up the land 

 slope, like a giant at play, without receiving the slightes' 

 harm itself, not a piece breaking away. It was most pro 

 vidential, that by its twisting round the Alert \\s.% enable<3 

 to escape out of the trap in which she was inclosed. 



Steering onward, so close to the shore ice-cliff — fron 

 20 to 40 feet high, and having ten to twenty fathoms watei 

 alongside it — that" the quarter-boats touched on scvera 

 occasions, we reached within two miles of Cape Union 

 but in consequence of the pack remaining close in at th( 

 cape, both during the flood and ebb tides, the ship wa: 

 again brought to a stop. Fortunately we were able t( 

 secure her abreast of a large water-course, the stream o 

 which had been powerful enough to undermine the ice 

 cliff to such an extent as to allow fifty yards of it to breal 

 away and float off to sea ; this left just sufficient space ii 

 which to secure the ship alongside the beach in such < 

 manner that in the event of a nip taking place she wouh 

 merely be forced on the shore before the floe itsel 

 grounded. Here we were delayed for twenty-four hour 

 with the boats from the exposed side lowered down am 

 moored in-shore for safety. 



At half flood, the south-running tide, a narrow lead 

 water formed round the cape ; steam was got up imme 

 diately, but owing to delay in shipping the rudder con 

 sequent on the tide running towards the bow carrying i 

 under the ship's bottom, the ice closed in again before 

 could get round ; it also cut us off from our friendly littL 

 haven, and I was therefore obliged to secure the ship durini 

 the north-running tide in a slight indentation in the higl 

 cliffy ice-foot. Fortunately being within half-a-mile 

 Cape Union, the run of the ice, as it passed to the north 

 ward round the Cape, kept at about twenty yards fror 

 the land until after it had passed our position ; only th 

 lighter ice pieces scraping their way along the ship's side 



As we would be exposed to the whole pressure of th 

 ice duiing the south-going tide, at 4 P.M., low water, i 

 being calm and no prospect of a westerly wind to open 1 

 navigable passage, I cast off and bored a short distanc 

 into the pack with the purpose of allowing the ship t 

 drift round the Cape with the flood or south-going tide 

 The ice carried her with it about a quarter of a mil 

 distant from the land, with no navigable water in sighl 

 the whole pack moving steadily together without nippin; 

 to any great extent. As we passed we noticed that th 

 front of the ice-foot was perfectly smooth, and woul 

 afford no protection whatever if we were obliged to leav 

 the pack. As the tide slackened we succeeded with grea 

 trouble in steaming out of the pack just as the ice com 

 menced to set to the northward with great rapidity. A 

 it remained slack for some twenty yards from the beach 

 we were able to proceed slowly to the southward, close t^ 

 the ice-foot ; the midship boats being turned in-board 

 but the quarter-boats which could not be protected, beinj 

 in constant peril of a squeeze. The water channc 

 widened considerably as we approached Lincoln Bay 

 and we crossed it without any trouble, and arrived with 

 in five miles of Cape Beechey before the tide turned, t 

 run south again, when I secured the ship alongside ; 

 heavy polar floe-piece, with the hope of again driftinj 

 south ; but finding that the lighter pieces of ice wer 

 drifting faster and gradually inclosing us, I was obligei 

 to cast off, and with much trouble succeeded in reachinj 

 the north side of Cape Beechey, before the north runnin; 

 tide made at noon, August 3. After two hours waiting 

 there being plenty of water space to the northward, ; 

 channel opened and allowed us to get round the Cape 

 Here the cliffy ice-foot comes to an end with the precipi 



