RAE. — SALINE MATTER IN ICE. 33 



In the first three (December, January, and February) of the 

 above examinations, carefully made by cutting holes in the ice, 

 the ice was tough (what Weyprecht calls leathery)^ opaque, that 

 is translucent, certainly not transparent like fresh-water ice, and 

 always so salt that the water from it was not fit to drink. 



In March I find no examination was made, my seven men and 

 myself being either away or very busy that month, but the men who 

 measured the ice in April and May assured me that in cutting 

 the holes they found the ice in the same state (tough and opaque) 

 as it had been on the three previous occasions. Being absent in 

 April and May on a long sledge journey, I could not test the ice 

 personally. 



I am told that the " rough, old, wasted ice " mentioned by me 

 as almost always giving good drinking water when thawed, has 

 been confounded with what is called " rotten ice." Now the 

 two are quite distinct and different. Rotten ice, means ice that 

 is worn away whilst lying " in situ," generally early in spring, by 

 certain currents of the sea (usually where there is shallower 

 water between two deeper places) acting on its under surface, 

 whilst the temperature of the air is still much too low to have any 

 effect on the upper part. 



This "rotten ice" becomes spongy and dangerous to travel 

 over. It is very common in Smith's Sound, according to Kane 

 and Hayes. 



The wasted old ice I spoke of, generally breaks up into detached 

 floes when quite solid and several feet thick, and is gradually 

 worn away, sometimes into all sorts of curious shapes, by the 

 combined action of the sea and atmosphere. 



In the very excellent scientific report of the Austro-Hungarian 

 Arctic Expedition given in " Nature " of the 11th March, Wey- 

 precht tells us, " that in 24 hours ice a foot ihick was formed on 

 " the sea by a temperature of minus 37°*5 to 50° C, and that the 

 " salt of the sea water had not time to be displaced entirely, as 

 *' the formation of the ice went on too quickly," &c. 



I found that ice formed on the sea by the gradually lowering 

 temperature of early winter did not eliminate the salt any more 

 than in the case of quick freezing given above. 



To quote again from Weyprecht, " The melted water (from sea 

 " ice) at the end of summer is therefore almost free from salt, 

 " and has a specific gravity of 1*005." 



This distinguished officer may be quite right, but I do not go 

 so far as he does. 



My idea is that at the end of summer the portion of the floe 

 that floats above water will be found fresh or nearly so in most 

 cases, but that the submerged part will be decidedly briny. I am 

 not, however, certain of this. 



