20 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. MAY 



main land, we crossed a ridge about thirty feet high, 

 and half-a-mile in width, which extends for a mile from 

 about the middle of the south shore of the island. 

 Thinking it was land, I dug down through three feet 

 of snow, and came to ice. Similar looking ridges 

 extend to the eastward and westward. 



4 St/i. A perfect morning. Temperature minus 

 15. Under weigh at 3.20. Crossed another ice -wave ; 

 dug down, and came to ice under three feet of hard 

 and compact snow. Travelling very good, though not 

 very slippery. I cannot make out where the land 

 ends and ice begins ; a second time to-day I sounded 

 with our shovel, to find ice on a slope not fifty yards 

 from where bare stones were visible. There is no 

 crack, but the shelving land" appears to blend with the 

 ice, which rises in the form of a roller, with a second 

 roller behind it, exactly as water rolls on a beach after 

 a breeze of wind. The line of hummocks is between 

 five and six miles off, and does not seem to differ from 

 those farther east. Floes exceedingly small, and the 

 fringes between them very close and numerous. 



' After lunch we crossed two cracks, which extend 

 northward, and look fresh. Got on to rising ground 

 in an hour. In walking ahead I came to what 

 appeared like a ravine in our path. Altered course 

 down an incline to clear it, then began a gradual 

 ascent up low land, which extends two to three miles 

 from the hills, and in the form of rollers like the ice- 

 waves before mentioned. We dragged up hill till 2 P.M., 

 when we camped. I walked on about two miles after 

 camping ; the ascent being so gradual, I got scarcely 

 any better view for so doing. The hummocks appear 



