FRESH WATER ICE ON SEA WATER. 345 



the temperature rises high enough for them to turn 

 liquid again, they of course then run out and are wasted. 

 Other articles, like lime juice, for instance, which is 

 so necessary as a preventative of scurvy, 'become solid 

 masses of hard ice, so difficult to thaw that their use 

 on boat and sledging journeys becomes impossible, as 

 sufficient fuel for melting them cannot be carried. These 

 are only a few among the many difficulties encountered 

 by arctic travellers. On the other hand in the far north 

 meat will keep all the year round; and it is also said 

 that salt beef and pork, if taken out of the barrel and 

 hung in snow houses, gradually parts with most of its 

 salt, and becomes much improved in quality strong 

 brine seems to resist the action of frost for a long 

 time, and to have a tendency to concentrate itself 

 under the influence of severe cold : the watery particles 

 freezing*, and the saturated solution of salt oozing 

 away in liquid form. 



The turning of the salt ice into fresh water ice, is 

 believed to be also due to this cause. As to the fact 

 of its doing so, there can be little or no doubt. The 

 experience of Dr. Rae, during his long and laborious 

 sledging journeys in the arctic regions, seems to be 

 conclusive on this point. 



" We were never (he says) able to find ice ' in situ' (i.e. 

 floating on the sea) either eatable when solid, or drinkable 

 when thawed, it being invariably much too salt. " (The doc- 

 tor is here speaking of " floe" ice, of the previous winter's 

 growth) "but old ice, if projecting a foot or two above the 

 water level, was almost invariably fresh, and when thawed 

 gave excellent drinking water." * 



* Dr. I. Rae on " The Physical Properties of Ice. " See the Manual of 

 Natural History, Geology, and Physics prepared for the use of the Arctic 

 Expedition of 1875 6, by Professor Thos. Rupert Jones, 1875^.650. 



