176 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. SEPTEMBER 



astern and see Cape Isabella, one of the massive portals 

 to Smith Sound, fading away in an obscurity of snow 

 and midnight darkness; whilst an ice-blink stretch- 

 ing across the northern horizon reminded us forcibly 

 of the perils, dangers, and anxieties that we had con- 

 tended against for so many months. 



In comparing the voyage of the ' Polaris,' and 

 that of the ' Alert ' and ' Discovery/ it is evident that 

 the navigation of the ice which is to be met with every 

 year in Kane Sea is entirely dependent on the westerly 

 winds. Both in 1875 and 1876 we met navigable 

 water off Cape Victoria in latitude 79 12', with only 

 a narrow pack fifteen miles in breadth between it and 

 Grinnell Land, which a westerly wind of a few hours' 

 duration would certainly have driven to the eastward. 

 The same wind would have opened a channel along 

 the shore, and any vessel w r aiting her opportunity 

 at Payer Harbour could under those circumstances have 

 passed up the channel with as little difficulty as the 

 ' Polaris ' experienced in 1871. 



The quantity of one season's ice met with in the 

 bays on the south-east coast of Grinnell Land in 1876, 

 proves that on the final setting in of the frost, after we 

 passed north in 1875, the pack had been driven from 

 the shore, leaving a navigable channel along the land. 

 Nevertheless I do not recommend future navigators 

 who wish to attain a high northern latitude by this 

 route to wait for such a favourable occurrence. 

 Certainly no one could have made a passage through 

 the ice in 1876 before the 10th September by doing 

 so. At that date the season had advanced so far that 

 the attainment of sheltered winter-quarters would have 

 been extremely problematical. 



