6REELY RELIEF EXPEDITION. 35 



During the afternoon of the 13th there was considerable movement 

 of the floes and some dangerous grinding of the ice where the floes 

 touched. To avoid this all the whalers, except the Arctic and Wolf, 

 steamed back to the eastward of the Duck Islands to open water seen 

 near Sugar Loaf Peak. 



Most of the 13th and the morning of the 14th the Thetis, Bear, and 

 the Dundee whaler ^rciic were working at intervals into more north- 

 erly positions as the ice opened and closed, the advantage being first 

 with ono and then with the other, but ultimately the Relief Ships 

 gained three miles in advance of the Arctic and saw from this posi- 

 tion the Wolf lying in the ice, southwest about 5 miles, and the re- 

 mainder of the whaling fleet to the eastward of the Duck Islands, 

 distant 10 or 13 miles southeast. 



The wind was light during the afternoon of June 14, but the tide 

 opened a lead into which the Thetis and Bear started, but were jammed 

 for an hour or two in packed ice near a large berg. The Arctic an I 

 Wolf having better luck and more open water about them reached 

 the le£i,d in advance of the Relief Ships, but gained no other advan- 

 tage than leading in open water along the land ice in the lead that 

 broadened from 100 feet to as many yards, extending about 30 miles 

 to the northwest, with here and there a difficult pass that had to be 

 rammed through, until the solid ice was met with again about 3 a. m., 

 June 15. 



This was the best run made for several days and the novelty of 

 malting 8 knots was much enjoyed. Both ships reached the vicinity 

 of the northerly Brown Islands, when further advance was arrested 

 by barriers of ice from 6 to 8 feet thick, and in places where rafted 

 from 15 to 30 feet. 



Ramming ice of this character was so serious a matter to the safety 

 of the ships that it was resorted to with much caution, while torpe- 

 does were of no practicable use, those of gun-cotton producing only 

 local effects. 



We were detained at this point until 3.35 p. m., of June 15, when 

 fairer weather and wind allowed the ice to ease off from the solid 

 land ice, when another advance of some 60 miles was made through 

 dangerous and tortuous leads close to heavy icebergs up to a position 

 58 miles southeast of Cape York. At this position the land ice was 

 found to extend in one unbroken mass off-shore a distance of about 

 60 miles, impenetrable and impassable, with the pack solid in all di- 

 rections, and with some indications of a coming gale. Under such 

 circumstances the imminent peril to both ships from rapidly running 

 floes, whose area, in most cases very great, suggested the importance 

 of ice docks in the land ice. This was soon abandoned, as it was 

 found impossible to work the saws in ice of such thickness. Ramming 

 was not to be thought of. We were obliged, therefore, to keep under 

 way a good deal of the day of June 16, and part of the 17th, during 



