286 
THE DRIFT. 
the brig. We had some difficulty in finding it : it was 
the closing of a fissure considerably more than half a 
mile ofi". 
" As we were returning we noticed some additional 
results of the ice action of the 13th. Among them 
was a table of ice, four feet thick, eighteen long, and 
fifteen broad, so curved without destroying its integ- 
rity as to form a well-arched bridge across a water 
chasm. It had evidently reared up high in air, and 
then, toppling over, bent into its present form — a mark- 
ed instance of the semi-solid or viscous character which 
forms the basis of Professor Forbes's glacial theory. 
It is not, however, the first extreme change of form 
that I have noticed in apparently matured ice at a low 
temperature : its plasticity at +32° must be much 
greater. 
" Observations by meridian altitudes of Saturn and 
Aldebaran give us to-day a latitude of 73° 47'' north. 
Yesterday we were at 73° 5'. This progress to the 
south is shown also by the bearing of the Walter 
Bathurst coast in the neighborhood of Possession Bay. 
We are fully inside of Baffin's Bay, and with the wind 
at northwest. There are some signs of ice trouble 
ahead; a crack has been gradually opening toward 
