.Nov. 9, 1876] 



NATURE 



47 



From Hayes Sound to Cape Beechey, in lat. 81° 52' N., 

 where Robeson Channel is only thirteen miles across, 

 numerous Esquimaux remains stud the whole line of the 

 west shore of Smith's Sound. To the southward of Cape 

 Beechy the coast line affords fair travelling, to the north- 

 ward the precipitous cliffs cut off all further advance, 

 except durintj the depth of winter, when the ice in the 

 channel is stationary. A very careful exammation was 

 made of the coast north of Cape Union, and I can report 

 with confidence that Esquimaux have never had a per- 

 manent settlement on that shore. All the facts collected 

 by our numerous observers lead me to conclude that the 

 wanderers crossed Robeson Channel from Cape Beechey 

 to Cape Lupton, where tne Polaris Expedition discovered 

 their traces. 



The few pieces of drift wood, all of the fir or pine 

 species, that have been obtained on the shores of the 

 Polar Sea have evidently drifced to the position in which 

 they were found from the westward. One piece was ob- 

 tained lying on the surface of the sea ice itself, two miles 

 distant from the land, the rest were found on the shore at 

 dirierent heights above the sea level up to 1 50 feet ; the 

 former was perfectly fresh with the bark on ; the latter in 

 all stages of decay, usually imbedded in the mud of dry 

 ancient lakes evidently formed by the rising of the land, 

 and of very great age. Besides these evidences of the 

 rising of the land, the clearly defined smoothing of the 

 rocks at all the prominent capes, from the present ice 

 level up to 300 and 400 feet until the marks are lost in 

 the gradually decomposing rocks, caused by the pressure 

 of the bordering ice-foot and the grounding ice as it is 

 forced against the land by the drifting pack, and the 

 numerous sea-shell beds and mud deposits at high eleva- 

 tions were most noticeable. 



At FJocberg Beach the salt-water ice formed during 

 the winter attained its maximum thickness of 75^ inches 

 early in June. In a fresh-water lake at the same date the 

 ice was 79^ inches thick, with 12 feet depth of water at a 

 temperature of 32° below it. 1 his proves decidedly that 

 the deep lakes do not freeze to the bottom during the 

 winter. The lowest temperature registered by a thermo- 

 meter buried 2 feet in the ground beyond the influence of 

 any sudden variation was 13 degrees below zero ; 59 

 degrees warmer than the air at the time. It rose gradu- 

 ally as the summer advanced, and at the end of July had 

 risen to 29 5°. By that time the ravines had nearly 

 stopped running, and the weather was becoming gradually 

 colder. The sun's rays were most powerful on June 13 

 and 21, when a thermometer, with a blackened bulb in 

 vacuo, registered + 128 and + 129 degrees, the tempera- 

 ture of the earth's surface at the time being + 27 and of 

 the air -+- 34 degrees. 



The coldest temperature of the sea-water during the 

 wmter was 28'25°, the same at all depths. On several 

 occasions the Casella reversible thermometer showed that 

 the temperature of the surface water, south of Robeson 

 Channel, was colder than that of the underlying stratum, 

 the difference amounting on one occasion to i^ degrees 

 Fahrenheit. 



At Floeberg Beach the time of high water full and 

 change, loh. 44m. ; spring rise, 3ft, oin. ; neap rise, 

 i!t. 7^in. ; neap range, ott. 5in. 



As I had deposited a notice of our proceedings at 

 Norman Lockyer Island and intended calling at Cape 

 Isabella I ran past our station near Cape Sabine without 

 visiting it ; observing that the cairn was intact and ap- 

 peared to be in the same state as we left it. Payer Har- 

 bour and the neighbourhood was clear of ice. 



We arrived off Cape Isabella on September 9, the 

 weather still remaining calm. On landing, a small mail 

 of letters and newspapers which had been left by the 

 Pandora was found at the depot, the dates informing us 

 that the visit was made this year, but beyond a notice 

 stating that if possible a duplicate box of newspapers 



would be landed at Cape Sabine, we found no record ot 

 her previous or intended movements. Concluding that 

 the remainder of our mail was left at Disco, and being 

 short of coal, and the weather very calm, I pushed on 

 towards the Carey Islands, without losing time by visiting 

 Littleton Island on the opposite side of the strait. A 

 southerly wind springing up, the ships were put under 

 sail. Beating to the southward, we fetched into Whale 

 Sound on the nth without meeting any ice since leaving 

 Smith's Sound. The wind having freshened into a gale 

 I anchored in Bardin Bay on the evening of the 12th, 

 where we observed some Esquimaux on shore, but the 

 weather continuing very bad, I, unfortunately for them, 

 put off communicating until the following day. On the 

 same nij^ht the wind shifted suddenly and forced us to 

 get under weigh, when the misty weather and a dark 

 night prevented my landing at their settlement. The 

 rock a-wash off Cape Powlet, the east point of the entrance 

 on which the Esquimaux village stands, is very dangerous. 

 There is no good anchorage obtainable outside of Tyndall 

 Glacier ; we were obliged to anchor in twenty-three 

 fathoms in a position exposed to the northward, the Dis- 

 covery making fast astern of the Alert. 



During the 13th and 14th we worked to the southward 

 towards Wolstenholm Island with calm and light airs 

 from the west, which prevented my reaching the Carey 

 Islands except at a large expenditure of our rapidly dimi- 

 nishing stock of coal ; the heavy swell left from the late 

 southerly gale would also have prevented our landing ; 

 accordingly our letters, left there the previous year by the 

 Pandora, were obliged to be sacrificed. 



From Wolstenholm Sound a south-easterly wind enabled 

 us to fetch across to Cape Byam Martin at the entrance 

 of Lancaster Sound, where we arrived on the i6th, having 

 seen no field ice, and the temperature of the sea-water 

 ranging from 31 to 34 degrees. Steaming to the eastward 

 on the 1 8th, we met another south-east wind, which car- 

 ried us into the south part of Melville Bay, and we pro- 

 ceeded south along the Greenland shore. I preferred 

 recrossing Baffin's Bay rather than by standing to the 

 southward risk getting in-shore of the middle ice on the 

 west side. On the 20th Cape Shackleton was sighted, 

 and on the 25th we arrived at Disco, having had per- 

 sistent head winds since we left the entrance of Smith's 

 Sound on the loth. Only one light stream of ice was 

 fallen in with all this part of the voyage. Here Mr. 

 Krarup Smith, Inspector of North Greenland, most con- 

 siderately allowed us to take 30 tons of coal out of his 

 small store, and informed me that there were 20 tons 

 more at my disposal if I would visit Egedrsminde ; and 

 in order to give the Expedition the full benefit of his 

 presence in obtaining supplies, Mr. Krarup Smith accom- 

 panied the ship to that port. Nothing could exceed his 

 kindness to us during our stay. Finding that several of 

 the inhabitants of Egedesminde were attacked with 

 scurvy, I made the Governor a present of lime-juice for 

 general use. From Mr. Smith we learnt that all our 

 letters, with the exception of the few left at Cape Isabella, 

 had been deposited at Littleton Island. Only a few 

 letters were received at Cape Isabella, therefore a large 

 mail of private and official correspondence has been lost. 



After coaling and preparing the ships for sea we left 

 Egedesminde on October 2. On October 4 the two ships 

 recrossed the Arctic Circle, exactly fifteen months from 

 the time of crossing it on the outward voyage. Experi- 

 encing contrary winds, slow progress was made to the 

 southward. As the weather became warmer and damper 

 a few men were attacked with rheumatism and colds. 

 On the 1 2th, during a very severe gale, in which the 

 ships were hove to under a close-reefed main topsail and 

 storm staysail, the Alert's rudder head, sprung when the 

 ship was in the ice, worked adrift from the irons with 

 which it had been repaired, the lower part of the rudder 

 being sound. As I had neglected to have the rudder 



