1876 GROWTH OF POLAR ICE. 63 



indebted to him for placing at my disposal the infor- 

 mation he acquired on this matter. 



' The general depth of the snow was from two and- 

 a-half to three feet, the upper portion, underneath the 

 surface crust, consisting of loose grains of about the size 

 of rifle fine-grain powder, and without the least co- 

 herency ; these gradually increased in size, till about 

 two-thirds of the way down they were as large as rifle 

 large-grain powder, but still separate. Below this, 

 however, the grains began to unite and to form very 

 porous ice, till, at the actual point of junction with the 

 floe, it was very difficult to draw the line of demar- 

 cation. In all cases the ice on the surface of the floes 

 had evidently been formed in the same manner, for it 

 was full of air holes, though not nearly to so great an 

 extent as that which was in process of formation. 



' The conversion of snow into ice was not confined 

 to the surface of the heavy floes, for in making our 

 roads through the hummocks, we frequently came 

 across pieces of snow- ice which had been formed round 

 some of them, and used it for cooking purposes. 



' Digging down into the snow gave the same results, 

 for we could always get the porous ice, and found it 

 very convenient for cooking. On one occasion the 

 surface of a small floe on which we were encamped 

 was composed of separate pieces of ice, about the size 

 of a penknife, placed end up, and covered with snow, 

 but without apparently being joined together in the 

 slightest degree. 



6 In one case, also, we found a section of a drift 

 seven feet thick at the highest point, which was divided 

 into three equal parts by two layers of ice half an 



