AS OBSERVED IN THE WEDDELL SEA. 
803 
to here as fast-ice, or land-floes where adrift ; and, to prevent confusion, “ young-ice ” 
will be always used to denote the old whalers’ “ bay-ice.” 
(2) Opportunities for seeing young-ice forming on a rough sea were of rare 
occurrence. One such, however, took place on July 15, when a blizzard opened 
a lead near the ship 300 yards in breadth. Crystallisation started almost immedi- 
ately, and was materially helped on by the amount of blizzard - driven snow 
which had already formed a slush on the water surface. “It was like a rough 
frozen sea, for the slush had been rippled as it froze. In one place the slush had 
crystallised in circular patches — a type of pancake-ice.” The wind and the motion 
of the water rounded otf these minute pancakes in the usual way ; “ and in one case 
they had been rafted on to one another so as to appear apposed when viewed in 
section.” 
Without going further into detail, it may be stated that “pancake-ice” is the 
result of the sea freezing while rippled by the wind or disturbed by swell ; on the 
contrary, “black-ice” (with its frequent accompaniment of “ ice-flowers”) is confined 
to still water. The term “ pancake-ice ” has a very definite and precise meaning ; 
of all the terms used to describe ice, it is the one least liable to misconstruction. 
It would be well, nevertheless, to emphasise that, though outwardly the same, 
ice-pancakes may originate in two ways. Generally they form during the building 
up of young-ice, when wind and swell roughen the sea and prevent any widespread 
sheet being preserved. As such they range in size from 2 to 3 inches in diameter 
to floes 2 to 3 yards across, capable of supporting a sleeping seal. The other and 
the rarer type occurs during the decay of sea-ice, for the floes may then be broken 
into small areas and assume the form of pancakes ; frequently, too, snow and 
slush, by the wearing down of the floes in summer or from the capsize of an 
iceberg, collect in patches and by a to-and-fro motion behave like young-ice and 
form similar small pancakes. 
Horizontal Banding . — A feature of young-ice, if it grew to any thickness, was 
the frequent presence of horizontal banding. Though previously noticed by David 
and Priestley, this banded structure has never been closely examined and 
thoroughly explained. A block of young-ice of this nature was investigated in 
detail during the winter, and gave the following results : — 
Cl per cent . Spec. Grav. 
cm. white opaque ice ...... ‘274 '894 
1J cm. blue translucent ice . . . . . ‘238 '918 
3 cm. white opaque ice ....... *212 '893 
Thin blue translucent band (followed below by alternating *207 '918 
narrow bands). 
The Cl figures show that the difference between the two kinds of ice was not one 
of salinity ; it is improbable, therefore, that it depends on the rate of freezing. 
The actual difference was one of density, the white bands being the lighter. 
TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. LII, PART IV (NO. 31). 125 
