898 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 
ice was seen along the coast of south Greenland. Approaching 
the land further north than expeditions have commonly done, it 
would not have been strange had we encountered less than the 
accustomed amount of ice, but we neared the coast sufficiently 
far to the south to have encountered at least the northern por- 
tion of the stream of ice which, coming down the east coast, 
usually rounds the point of Greenland, and passes northward 
along the west coast as far as Holstensborg. The fact that no 
ice was seen, where a wide belt of it usually occurs in corres- 
ponding seasons, seems to mean either that it disappeared much 
earlier in 1895 than usual, or that it was much less abundant, or 
both. From various facts which came to our knowledge, it 
seems that the former was certainly true, perhaps also the latter. 
The first floe ice was encountered in the latitude of Uperni- 
vik, a little below 73°. Thesmall pack of ice here seen, made up 
in considerable part of disrupted bergs, extended out a consider- 
able distance from the coast. The floe ice of the pack was thin, 
and the pans were considerably tilted. A considerable number 
of small bergs were held in it. 
In passing Melville Bay during the last days of July, buta 
small amount of ice was seen. Occasional pans a few yards, or 
in some cases a few hundred yards in diameter, were encountered, 
but they were rarely so abundant as to occasion any considerable. 
deviation from a direct course. The pans were low, usually 
standing no more than a foot or two out of water, and were much 
perforated, indicating that they were near the last stage of disso- 
lution. East of Cape York, toward the end of August, a consid- 
erable amount of floating ice was found, but it was nowhere 
sufficiently close to prevent navigation. In Whale and Murchison 
Sounds, and in the outer portion of Inglefield Gulf, ice was so 
abundant as to seriously interfere with navigation during all the 
first half of August. North of Murchison Sound, in the northern 
part of Baffin Bay, there was little ice, and Smith Sound was 
relatively free from it, except its northern end. Here, at the 
entrance to Kane Basin, the ice was plentiful. 
On the American coast, floe ice was somewhat abundant in 
