344 
RETURN To VESSEL. 
March 23, Friday. I visited the western opening 
of yesterday. The sea has dwindled to a narrow lane, 
flanked by the heavy hummocks, whose rupture formed 
the sides. Although the aperture was so distant yes- 
terday that I could barely see the further hanks, here 
and there dotting the horizon, it has now closed with 
such nice adaptation of its line of fracture, that, but for 
a few yards of lateral deviation, this ‘ yesternight sea’ 
would be nothing hut a crack in the ice-field. The 
area of filmy ice that was between the edges of the 
lead had been thrust under the floe, thus aiding the 
process of re-cementation. These ice-actions are very 
complicated and various. 
“ Retracing my steps by a long circuit to the south- 
ward, I came to a spot where, without any apparent 
axis of fracture (chasm), the ice presented all the phe- 
nomena of tahle-hummocks. It was very old and thick, 
at least nine feet in solid depth. About a little circle 
of a hundred yards diameter, it had been thrown up 
into variously-presenting surfaces, with a marked bear- 
ing toward a focus of greatest energy and accumula- 
tion, presenting an appearance almost eruptive. The 
crushed fragments exuding and falling over, and roll- 
ing down toward the level ice, so as to cover it for feet 
in depth with powdery, granulated rubbish ! 
