40 
THROUGH MELVILLE BAY. 
Point, and seven since we fairly left the inside track of 
the whalers, and made our push for the west. I did so, 
not without full consideration of the chances. Let me 
set down what my views were and are.” 
The indentation known as Melville Bay is protected 
by its northern and northeastern coast from the great 
ice and current drifts which follow the axis of Baffin’s 
Bay. The interior of the country which bounds upon 
it is the seat of extensive glaciers, which are constantly 
shedding off icebergs of the largest dimensions. The 
greater bulk of these is below the water-line, and the 
depth to which they sink when floating subjects them 
to the action of the deeper sea currents, while their 
broad surface above the water is of course acted on by 
the wind. It happens, therefore, that they are found 
not unfrequently moving in different directions from 
the floes around them, and preventing them for a time 
from freezing into a united mass. Still, in the late 
winter, when the cold has thoroughly set in, Melville 
Bay becomes a continuous field of ice, from Cape York 
to the Devil’s Thumb. 
On the return bf milder weather, the same causes re¬ 
new their action; and that portion of the ice which is 
protected from the outside drift, and entangled among 
the icebergs that crowd the bay, remains permanent 
long after that which is outside is in motion. Step by 
step, as the year advances, its outer edge breaks off; yet 
its inner curve frequently remains unbroken through 
the entire summer. This is the “fast ice” of the 
(vhalers, so important to their progress in the earlier 
