142 THE SIEGE OF THE NORTH POLE 



the sea-level, and at a distance of about a mile from the 

 shore of Watercourse Bay, in Robeson Channel. Unfor- 

 tunately, very little shelter is obtainable for a lame 

 vessel among the small floebergs stranded in this indenta- 

 tion. The distance between the coal-seam and Discovery 

 Bay is about 4 miles, and the track leads over the brow 

 of a hill about 800 feet high. 



" A short distance above the quarry, in a narrow 

 part of the ravine where a large quantity of snow, 

 collected in a shaded part, remains unmelted during the 

 summer, the mountain torrent has melted away a water- 

 course for itself through the snow-bank. In winter 

 this ice grotto, with a trifling expense of labour, could 

 be readily formed into a convenient Arctic residence.'" 



On the 18th August, Captain Stephenson deposited 

 an account of their proceedings in a cairn which had 

 been constructed out of the empty preserved meat-tins, 

 refilled with gravel. A post-office box was placed in the 

 centre of the pile. 



On the 20th August the ice opened sufficiently to 

 allow the two ships to leave for the south. At Cape 

 Isabella they found a package of letters and newspapers 

 left there by Sir Allen Young a few weeks previously. 



Nares writes: "After our long sojourn within the 

 Polar ice it was a strange transition to feel the ship rise 

 and fall once more on the ' north water ' of Baffin's Bav, 

 and to look astern and see Cape Isabella, one of the 

 massive portals of Smith Sound, fading away in an 

 obscurity of snow and midnight darkness ; whilst an ice- 

 blink stretching across the northern horizon reminded 

 us forcibly of the perils, dangers, and anxieties that we 

 had contended against for so many months. 



" In comparing the voyage of the Polaris and that 

 of the Alert and Discovery, it is evident that the naviga- 

 tion of the ice which is to be met with every year in 



