80 
Davis's straits. 
east to the southwest, is deflected at Cape Farewell, 
and carried abruptly along the west coast of Greenland 
toward the north. Such is the observation of all the 
Danish settlers, strikingly confirmed by the accumula- 
tions of ice on the southeastern shores of the Penin- 
sula. This ice is evidently from the Spitzbergen Seas ; 
and at seasons of the year when the upper waters of 
Greenland are comparatively unobstructed, it com- 
pletely fills up the fiords of the southeastern coast. 
Thus the settlements of Baal's River and Julianshaab 
are for months of the summer in a state of blockade, 
owing to the inroads of the ice-fields from the south ; 
while at Holsteinberg and to the north the land is per- 
fectly accessible. 
The drift-wood is at first entangled with these frozen 
masses ; but there is every reason to believe it contin- 
ues its way onward long after the ice has left it. At 
Egedesminde, for instance, it is almost a staple com- 
modity ; though in the Bay of Disco, where the current 
is controlled by local causes, it is found only in some 
places. Our expedition met it as high as Storoe Isl- 
and, in latitude 71°. 
When it is remembered that this wood, coming from 
the Atlantic quarter, is the offcast of the great Siberian 
and American rivers, and that the distant bay to which 
it travels has its great discharge of water /rom the 
north, we can appreciate the importance of the reflex 
current in supplying these destitute shores with fuel 
and timber. 
Our enemies, the icebergs — for we had not yet 
learned to regard them as friends — made their appear- 
ance again on the 16th. One of them was an irreg- 
ular quadrangle, at least a quarter of a mile long in 
its presenting face. Its summit reminded me of the 
