SUTHERLAND, DAVIS* STRAIT AND BAFFIN'S BAY. 367 



Davis' Strait. In many of the sheltered bays, where the water is 

 still and the ice dissolves without drifting much about, a brownish 

 slime, consisting of nothing but these forms, occupies the whole 

 surface of the water among the ice, which, after the latter has all 

 disappeared, becomes rolled into rounded pellets by the rippling 

 of the water, and ultimately sinks to the bottom.* This process 

 of deposition extending over thousands of years would produce 

 accumulations scarcely second to those of the " berg-mehl '* of 

 Sweden, or of the " tripoli " of the Isle of France, &c. 



In addition to such varied materials as we have indicated, the 

 accumulation of " Till" will contain abundant remains of animals 

 high in the order of creation. Of all parts of the ocean this is the 

 most frequented by the large Cetacea and the Seals. The numbers 

 of the former are very great, and that of the latter almost beyond 

 comprehension. Their bones must be strewed on the bottom, and 

 thus they will become constituents of the growing deposit. It may 

 also contain the enduring remains of other animals. Every Arctic 

 traveller is aware of the fact tliat Polar Bears are seen on the ice 

 at great distances from the land ; and my own experience bears 

 testimony to the fact that not unfrequently they are found swim- 

 ming when neither ice nor land is in sight. The Arctic Fox and, 

 I believe, also the Wolf, and certainly the Esquimaux Dog, animals 

 not generally known to take the water, are set adrift upon the ice 

 and blown out to sea, where they perish when the ice dissolves. 

 And cases are known, although perhaps not recorded, in which 

 human beings have been blown away from the land upon the drifting 

 floes, and never heard of. Two persons to my own knowledge 

 have thus disappeared from the coast of West Greenland. One of 

 them, however, reached the opposite side of Davis' Strait, where 

 he spent the remainder of his life among his less civilised brethren. 

 And the ships engaged in the whaling on the west side of this 

 Strait sometimes have a deed of humanity to discharge by 

 taking from the drifting pack-ice a group of Natives. I have not 

 alluded to the remains of Ileindeer and other ruminants of these 

 regions, for the reason that I believe they frequent the ice much 

 less than those that have been mentioned, and consequently are 

 much less liable to be drifted away. It is highly probable, how- 

 ever, that their bones, as well as human remains and works of art, 

 sometimes reach the bottom of the Arctic Seas, the ice of rivers 

 and deep inland bays being the conveying agents. 



» For an account of the Diatomaceae of these seas, see Prof. Dickie's " Notes 

 on the Algse," in the Appendix to Dr. Sutherland's " Journal," vol. ii. p. cxcv. 

 et seq. ; also above, page 319, and further on. — Editor. 



