332 
PROGRESS HOPELESS. 
were numerous and large, entangling the floating floes, 
and contributing as much as the currents to the ice- 
clad character of this most dreary coast. The currents 
alone would not explain it. Yet when we recur to 
the observations of Graah, who describes a similar belt 
on the eastern coast of Greenland, and to the observa¬ 
tions of the same character that have been made on 
the coasts of Arctic America to the southeast, it is not 
easy to escape the thought that this accumulation of 
ice on the western shores must be due, in part at 
least, to the rotary movements of the earth, whose 
increasing radius as we recede from the Pole gives 
increased velocity to the southern ice-pack. 
To return to our narrative. It was obvious that a 
further attempt to penetrate to the south must be 
hopeless till the ice-barrier before us should undergo 
a change. I had observed, when passing Northumber¬ 
land Island, that some of its glacier-slopes were mar¬ 
gined with verdure, an almost unfailing indication of 
animal life; and, as my men were much wasted by 
diarrhoea, and our supplies of food had become scanty, 
I resolved to work my way to the island and recruit 
there for another effort. 
Tracking and sometimes rowing through a heavy 
rain, we traversed the leads for two days, working 
eastward; and on the morning of the third gained the 
open water near the shore. Here a breeze came to our 
aid, and in a couple of hours more we passed with now 
unwonted facility to the southern face of the island. 
We met several flocks of little auks as we approached 
