NOTES. 
“463 
Note 53, p. 309. 
A popular analysis of these conditions may bo seen in Professor Forbes’s 
recent work on the glaciers of Norway. We cannot refer this open water to 
any analogous causes with those which explain the other polynias on this 
estuary. Davis Straits, off Capo Walsiugham, where the channel narrows to 
one hundred and twenty miles, and Smith’s Straits, which between Capes Isa¬ 
bella and Ohlscn have a breadth of only thirty-six, are at those points clogged 
with immense fields of ice, extending in the earlier season from shore to shore 
and arresting the passage of the drift from above. It is easy to explain the 
occurrence of polynia below these two barriers,—the North Water of the whalers 
and the upper water which I met in my unsuccessful effort to reach Bcechy 
Island. But between Capes Barrow and Jackson, where Kennedy Channel is 
contracted to thirty-five miles across, and where the ices from above, if there 
were such, ought to be arrested as in the other two cases, we found this open 
water; while below it, in Peabody Bay, where analogies would suggest the 
probability of another polynia, wc found a densely-impacted solid mass. I do 
not see how, independently of direct observation, this state of facts could be 
explained without supposing an iceless area to the farther North. 
IIow far this may extend,—whether it does or dote not communicate with a 
Polar basin,—we are without facts to determine. I would say, however, as a 
cautionary check to sonio theories in connection with such an open basin, that 
the influence of rapid tides and currents in destroying ice by abrasion can 
hardly bo realized by those who have not witnessed their action. It is not un¬ 
common to see such tidal sluices remain open in the midst of winter. Such, 
indeed, are the polynia of the Russians, the stromhols of the Greenland Danes, 
and the familiar “open holes” of the whalers. 
Note 54, p. 322. 
I regret that, after a careful study of the work of my predecessor, Captain 
Inglcfield, I am unable to make his landmarks on the E. coast of Greenland 
correspond with my own. The few short hours spent by the “Isabel” on 
Smith’s Straits, and the many difficulties which wo know to be attendant upon 
a hurried survey, readily account for discrepancies of bearing and position. A 
sketch inserted by Captain Inglefield, in his narrative at page 70, locates Cape 
Frederick VII. as the first headland to the N. of the second indentation, which, 
according to my survey, should be “ Force Bay.” But the absence of Pekiutlik, 
(Littleton Island,) which is unmistakably prominent as a feature of the coast, 
embarrasses me. My sketches of this coast are in detail. 
Note 55, p. 336. 
The entire coast between Whale Sound and Capo Alexander is studded with 
small glaciers. Some of these are of Saussure’s second order,—mere troughs 
upon the flanks of the coast-ridge; but, for the most part, they are connected 
