ICE TOPOGRAPHY. 241 
clogged with ground masses of granular ice : toward 
the south it is more open. 
"The wind to-day is getting stronger from the west, 
with some northing, of all winds the most to he feared : 
the north drives us into Lancaster ; the west comes in 
aid of the current to keep us there, and speed us back 
toward Baffin. 
"Our thermometer does not fall helow —11°. The 
frost-smoke is all around us in bistre-colored vapor. 
Can it be that we are again detached, our floe independ- 
ent altogether of the field ? We have heard noises of 
grinding ice, distant, but bodingly distinct. 
" In my walks for some days past, I have been study- 
ing the topography of our ice-island residence. Here 
are my elements : 
"1. To the north ; over broken ice and edge-hum- 
mocks, that is to say, hummocks formed at the margin 
of floes and afterward cemented there, all of this sea- 
son's growth. Several large masses, resembling berg- 
ice ; one, the largest, twenty-seven feet high. The 
water-lead margined by rude hummocky crags trend- 
ing to the westward and southward from the south- 
ward and eastward, forming a rude, broken horseshoe. 
Distance to water, one mile. 
" 2. To the south ; over long floes of recent ice, young 
snow-covered, and smooth, with few indications of 
heavy pressure at their junctions. Distance to open 
water, glazed over with young ice, two miles : trend 
of this lead east and west. The diameter of the floe, 
north and south, is three miles from water to water. 
"3. To the east, i. e., northea'fet by east; rough, 
mixed ice, with lines of recent heavy hummocks. 
Thickness of ice, averaging four feet to five feet eight 
inches ; ice of the early part of last August. Distance 
Q 
