34 THE MIDDLE ICE. Chap. II. 



glacier. This is evidently tlie result of long- 

 continued southerly winds ; but as the ice is 

 very much broken up, we may expect it to move 

 off rapidly before the autumnal northerly winds 

 now due, and these winds invariably remove 

 the previous season's ice. All that we know of 

 Melville Bay navigation in August is derived 

 from the experience of Government and private 

 searching expeditions during eight or nine sea- 

 sons. My own three previous transits across it 

 were made in this month. The whalers either get 

 through in June or July, or give up the attempt 

 as being too late for their fishing. It frequently 

 happens that they get round the south end of 

 the middle ice, between latitudes 66° and 69° N., 

 and up the west coast of Baffin's Bay late in 

 the season ; but we have no accounts of these 

 voyages, nor should I be justified, at this late 

 period of the season, in abandoning the prospect 

 before me, in order to attempt a route which, 

 even if successful, would lengthen our voyage to 

 Barrow's Strait by 700 or 800 miles. We have 

 already passed what is usually the most difficult 

 and dangerous part of the Melville Bay transit. 

 There is much to excite intense admiration 

 and wonder around us ; one cannot at once 

 appreciate the grandeur of this mighty glacier, 

 extending unbroken for 40 or 50 miles. Its sea- 



