142 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. AUGUST 



this Grinnell Land lignite. The coal was pronounced 

 after trial by our engineers to be equal to the best 

 Welsh. The seam where exposed is at an elevation of 

 about two hundred feet above the sea-level, and at a 

 distance of about a mile from the shore of Watercourse 

 Bay, in Eobeson Channel. Unfortunately very little 

 shelter is obtainable for a large vessel among the small 

 floebergs stranded in this indentation. The distance 

 between the coal-seam and Discovery Bay is about 

 four 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 

 watercourse for itself through the snow bank. In 

 winter this ice grotto, with a trifling expense of la- 

 bour, could be readily formed into a convenient Arctic 

 residence. 



On the 17th we again visited the coal seam, ob- 

 taining a considerable collection of fossils. With a 

 temperature of 35 we found geologising very cold 

 work. The stream in the ravine was still running, but 

 ice was forming in the water. 



In my journal I find the following remarks : 



' Now that the temperature at night falls to 28, 

 it is difficult to account for water running from 

 uplands over the frozen lowlands unless we suppose it 

 to come from some sheltered valley with a southern 

 aspect. 



' A lake five hundred feet above the sea thus favour- 

 ably situated gives no sign of freezing, but we can 



