34 TKAVEL, ADVENTUKE, AND SPORT. 



instead of diminishing in the same degree, the farther 

 we proceeded eastward, they became still greater and 

 greater. We have good cause to infer that the condi- 

 tion of the ice in 1878 was peculiarly unfavourable, 

 and that, under ordinary circumstances, we should 

 have reached Behring Strait without difficulty, and 

 immediately thereafter the Pacific Ocean. We had 

 now to content ourselves with having arrived at the 

 entrance to Behring Strait during the first summer. 

 As proof of the condition of these waters in other 

 years, I quote the following from statistics supplied 

 by the United States Admiralty : 



1st, On the 21st September 1867, the American 

 barque Massachusetts, Captain Williams, reached lat. 

 N. 74 30', long. W. 173 (the same longitude as our 

 winter station), from whence no ice could be dis- 

 covered round the compass. Captain Williams, an 

 old whaler, and a man well acquainted with these 

 waters, adds further, in his report, that he is con- 

 vinced that no ice exists from the middle of August 

 until the 1st of October south of lat. 70 and west of 

 long. W. 170, and that there is seldom a year when 

 it is not possible during the month of September to 

 sail in navigable water between North Cape and 

 Behring Strait. 



2d, Captain K"iebaum, also an experienced ice navi- 

 gator, relates that Behring Strait is open till the first 

 days of November, and that he on two occasions sailed 

 through that Strait as late as the 22d of October. 



