May 9, 1884. ] 
is not a bad substitute, but is much heavier, 
and can only be used on horizontal or slightly 
inclined surfaces. 
The importance of securing a winter harbor 
near where Eskimo can visit the ships is not 
Fig. 5. 
to be over-estimated. Besides their aid in 
snow-construction, the clothing procured from 
them is far superior to any that can be manu- 
factured in civilization for 
withstanding the severe 
temperatures of those re- 
gions ; their companionship 
does much to alleviate the 
lonesomeness of the win- 
ter’s solitude, for they are 
generally a most cheerful, 
merry - hearted, and _ con- 
tented race; their services 
in procuring game from 
both land and water, to keep 
the crew in a healthy state, 
and especially to combat the scurvy, is appar- 
ent; while, in case of disaster, their humble 
abodes are always open to the shipwrecked 
sailor until there can be convenient times for 
SoH 
Fie. 6. 
SCIENCE. 
569 
by, which must be opened every morning and 
evening, and a snow: house (igloo) thrown over 
it (if natives are at hand to do the work) to 
protect it from drifting snow, our ship is ready 
to pass her arctic winter unmolested, until the 
coming summer opens a renewal of her labors. 
Should the circumstances warrant a start 
early in the season, it will probably be neces- 
sary to cut a very long channel through from 
six to ten feet of ice, of sufficient dimensions 
to float the ship to the outer open water. The 
methods of cutting these channels vary. I 
show the one I have seen adopted, given in 
plan (fig. 7). The channel BBB B is always 
brought up alongside the ship, as shown; 
since, should she draw more water than the 
thickness of the ice, and the channel be brought 
up immediately behind her, the outgoing tide 
or a strong wind might break her loose, and 
sweep her out before it was intended she should 
move. The scarf-lines cc, cc, cc, formed in 
sawing, are sufficiently intelligible to be under- 
stood without an explanation; the ice-blocks, 
A, A, A, being allowed to float out along with 
the ebbing tide, a single person directing each 
one as fast as sawed off with a pike pole, 
to prevent its horizontal rotation, and con- 
sequent binding in the channel. Where the 
channel is long, and wind favorable, rough 
impromptu sails have been rigged on each ice- 
block to carry it out. If cutting very thin ice, 
as when cutting into harbor in the fall, these 
slabs can be shoved under the edge of the ice- 
channel. If the vessel delays her starting until 
after the solar rays have made considerable im- 
pression on the ice of the harbor, it will save 
much labor to remove the snow along the con- 
templated scarf-lines of the channel, and place 
there a covering of black seaweed, sand, dirt, 
or ashes, which will have cut deeply into the 
ice by the time the sawing is necessary. These 
layers, of course, should be very thin: other- 
retreat to reach more civilized succor, — a re- 
treat in which the white men may be greatly 
aided by the native method of transportation. 
A firehole being dug through the ice near 
wise they will protect the ice, instead of acting 
as ready conductors of the sun’s heat. I no- 
ticed in the ice of Victoria Channel, off King 
William’s Land, as late as the middle of July, 
