64 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. JULY 



inch thick ; the lower portion being nearly converted 

 into ice, the middle not to such an extent, while the 

 upper had only just commenced. On some of the 

 floes large isolated pieces of ice would be protruding, 

 and in these cases, when tried for cooking purposes, 

 were found perfectly fresh ; though they must evidently 

 have originally been salt, and had no appearance of 

 having had snow drifted up round them, which must 

 either have been the case, or else the briny matter 

 must have melted out of them during previous summers 

 and left that which was fresh. How far the thaw 

 affected the snow on the floes we could not tell, for 

 though the hummocks had got soft before we were 

 clear of them, the snow seemed to be very little 

 affected.' 



4 1th. As the land becomes bare of snow, pieces of 

 drift-wood are exposed to view, and tracks of musk- 

 oxen are common ; but as a footstep once formed 

 in the mud would take many years before it became 

 obliterated, they do not lead us to hope that we shall 

 be visited by much game. 



' This afternoon we have experienced our first 

 shower of rain this season. The carpenters are em- 

 ployed caulking the upper-deck ; the seams above 

 those parts of the lower-deck which remained dry 

 during the winter are very open. 



' 9th. The temperature of the sea-surface was 

 observed to be 32'4 ; at a depth of six and nine feet, 

 31 - 8 ; between twelve feet and the bottom in twelve 

 fathoms it was 29*0. The very marked change of 

 nearly two degrees between the water at a depth of 

 nine and that at twelve feet is evidently due to the 



