126 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. AUGUST 



southward through the northern portion of that chan- 

 nel is borne onward with ever-increasing speed, and 

 leaves behind the more sluggish moving pack jammed 

 together in the funnel-shaped Robeson Channel. 



During our detention near Cape Beechey, the ice 

 in Eobeson Channel, which is only thirteen miles wide 

 at that part, drifted up and down the strait with the 

 tide, the wind having the effect of increasing the speed 

 of the current and the duration of its flow both towards 

 the north and the south. 



As Captain Stephenson, by his last orders, conveyed 

 to him via Polaris Bay in May, supposed that the two 

 ships would probably pass a second winter in the 

 neighbourhood of Discovery Bay, it was necessary to 

 send him instructions to prepare the ' Discovery ' for 

 sea, and to inform him of my intention to proceed to 

 England. 



On the 5th Mr. Egerton with a seaman started 

 with the necessary orders. They arrived at Discovery 

 Bay the following morning, after a march of nineteen 

 hours. Having missed their way, they had crossed a 

 mountain range two thousand feet high, and after 

 having walked at least thirty miles over rough and 

 boggy ground, arrived on board the ship with their 

 boots completely worn out. 



On the 6th the wind increased considerably from 

 the north until it blew a gale. During the height of 

 the flood, or south-going tide, a succession of heavy 

 floe pieces passed us drifting down the strait, toying 

 with our barrier of outlying floebergs, and turning one 

 large one completely topsy-turvy. It was firmly 

 aground in twelve fathoms water on an off-lying shoal 



