MIGRATIONS OF ICE-FLOES 121 



send this floe-Ice much farther to the southward than it now 

 does. If Newfoundhmd and Nova Scotia should disappear, 

 so that there could be a nearly straight shore from Greenland 

 to Massachusetts Bay, it is likely that these Hoes would in 

 large quantities attain to the coast of New England, and give 

 to the shore lands of that part of the continent the sub-Arctic 

 and inhospitable climate of the islands of the eastern St. Law- 

 rence. This shore current bears few true icebergs with the 

 floe-ice, for the reason, as we shall see more clearly hereafter, 

 that these greater ice-islands are formed altogether on the 

 Greenland shores, and, pressed to the eastward by the pre- 

 vailing winds, do not come into that superficial, shore-skirting, 

 Labrador current. Moreover, any stray bergs that may find 

 their way against this margin of the mainland are almost 

 certain to take the ground in the shallows over which the 

 current passes, and so be arrested in their journey. 



The character of the ice-floes, as well as the steadfastness 

 of their southward journeys, are well shown by the singular 

 experiences of a part of the crew of the exploring ship Polaris, 

 who, in 1872, were forced to abide for several months on these 

 ice-rafts. The ship was in close quarters in the ice-pack of 

 Baffin's Bay, and was pinched between the floes with every 

 prospect of being crushed like an egg-shell between the mov- 

 ing masses ; the crew, with supplies of provisions and boats, 

 were encamped, in two separate parties, on the ice near the 

 distressed vessel. A sudden change in the movements of the 

 ice caused the floes to separate, and one of the parties was 

 swiftly borne away from the ship, which, indeed, they thought 

 had sunk from the strains she had received in the squeezing 

 between the packs of ice. The forlorn party, consisting of a 

 score of sailors, several Esquimaux men, two women, and 



