172 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. SEPTEMBER 



and south-west ; but it is impossible to say that Capes 

 Stevens and Baker are not islands/ 



At 2 A.M. of the 9th the pack commenced setting 

 out of the bay with the ebb-tide. Observing that the 

 point of the large floe to which we were attached 

 would shortly be carried against the icebergs, and that 

 then a channel would be opened for a short time, 

 steam was kept ready ; and as the drift of the floe was 

 checked on its coming into collision with the bergs, the 

 outer ice, borne onward by the current, opened for a 

 moment a clear channel, and permitted us to escape 

 from the pack. 



After this there was only one serious obstacle to 

 our advance. Owing to the low temperature and calm 

 weather the newly-frozen ice was never less than two 

 inches in thickness, and obliged us to use full steam. 

 In the thickest places the ships were frequently stopped 

 altogether, and frequently had to back out through 

 the channel they had formed and circle round the 

 obstruction. After passing Cape Albert the pieces of 

 old floes became fewer, and we gradually lost sight 

 of the pack to the eastward, although large fields 

 of young ice were met with until we neared Cape 

 Sabine, but there we bade farewell to the ice for good. 



As an instance of the great changes that take 

 place in the pack, and how uncertain its navigation is, 

 it is noticeable that on the 28th of August Sir Allen 

 Young found the ice completely blocking up Smith's 

 Sound, and extending from shore to shore eight miles 

 south of Cape Isabella. Ten days afterwards we 

 entered a navigable sea extending to latitude 79 10'. 

 Thus a breadth of sixty miles of ice had drifted away 



