The journey of the next day was the most satisfactory of any that had been made, yet it had its drawbacks. As we proceeded, we began to experience in even a greater degree than in Smith Sound the immense force of ice-pressure resulting from the southerly set of the current. Every point of land exposed to the northward was buried under ice of the most massive description. Many blocks from thirty to sixty feet thick, and of much greater breadth, were lying high and dry upon the beach, pushed up by the resistless pack even above the level of the highest tides. The first embarrassment to our progress occasioned by this cause occurred soon after setting out from our camp above Cape Frazer, and being wholly unable to pass it, we were obliged to take once more to the ice-fields. But this was a matter not easily accomplished. The tide was out, apparently at full ebb, and the land-ice formed a wall, down which we were obliged to scramble. By lashing the two sledges together we made a ladder, and thus secured our own descent; while the dogs were lowered by their traces, and the cargo piece by piece with a line. The field-ice was, however, found to be, in addition to its roughness, in many places very rotten and insecure, so that after one of the teams had broken through and was rescued not without difficulty, we found ourselves compelled to haul in shore and take once more to the land-ice. Being thenceforth under the necessity of following all the windings of the shore line, our distance was at least doubled, and when we hauled up for the night both ourselves and the dogs were very weary.
Although much exhausted with the day's journey, I availed myself of the time consumed by my companions in preparing the camp and supper to climb the hill-side for a view. The air was quite clear, and I commanded an uninterrupted horizon to the eastward. The ice was much less rough than that which we had crossed in Smith Sound, owing to the old floes having been less closely impacted while that part of the sea was freezing up during the last autumn or winter. Hence, there was much more new ice. It was evident that the sea had been open to a very late period; and, indeed, like the water off Port Foulke, had not closed up completely until the spring. I was much surprised to see the ice so thin and washed away thus early in the season. Small patches of open water were visible at points where the conformation of the coast warranted the conclusion that an eddy of the current had operated upon the ice more rapidly than in other places.
I was struck with the circumstance that no land was visible to the eastward, as it would not have been difficult through such an atmosphere to distinguish land at the distance of fifty or sixty miles. It would appear, therefore, that Kennedy Channel is something wider than hitherto supposed. To the northeast the sky was dark and cloudy, and gave evidence of water; and Jensen, who watched the rapid advance of the season with solicitude, was not slow to direct my attention to the "water-sky."
MILDNESS OF TEMPERATURE.
The temperature of the air was strangely mild, and indeed distressingly so for traveling, although it possessed its conveniences in enabling us to sleep upon our sledges in the open air with comfort. The lowest temperature during the day was 20°; while, at one time, it rose to the freezing-point,—the sun blazing down upon us while we trudged on under our heavy load of furs. The day seemed really sultry. To discard our furs and travel in our shirt-sleeves was of course our first impulse; but to do so added to the load on the sledges, and it was of the first importance that the dogs should be spared every pound of unnecessary weight; so each one carried his own coat upon his back, and perspired after his own fashion.
APPEARANCE OF BIRDS.
This unseasonable warmth operated greatly to our disadvantage. The snow became slushy, and with so great a distance of ice between us and Port Foulke, Jensen, whose experience in the rapid dissolution of ice about Upernavik, at the same season of the year, had brought him into many serious difficulties, kept a sharp eye open upon our line of retreat. But danger from a general break-up I did not consider as likely to come for at least a month. Yet the spring (if such it might be called) was approaching rapidly, as was shown by the appearance of birds. As I stood upon the hill-side some little snow-buntings came chirping about me, and a burgomaster-gull flew over our heads wheeling his flight northward. He seemed to have caught the sound of tumbling seas, and was leading his mate, who came sailing along after him with modest mien, to a nuptial retreat on some wave-licked island; and he screamed as if he would inquire, were we too bound on the same errand. A raven, too, came and perched himself upon a cliff above our camp, and croaked a dismal welcome, or a warning. One of these birds had kept us company through the winter, and this one looked very much as if he was bent upon adhering to my fortunes; though, I suppose, in truth, he was only looking for crumbs. He stuck by us for several days, and always dropped down into our abandoned camp as soon as we were on our way.
GEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF COAST.
The coast along which we were now traveling possessed much interest. It presented a line of very lofty cliffs of Silurian rocks[9]—sandstone and limestone—much broken down by the wasting influences of the winter frosts and summer thaws. Behind these cliffs the land rose into lofty peaks, such as I have before described. Upon the sides of these peaks the snow rested, clothing them with a uniform whiteness; but nowhere was there any evidence of mountain-ice. Along the entire coast of Grinnell Land no glacier appears, presenting thus a striking contrast to Greenland and the land on the south side of the Channel which I discovered while crossing Smith Sound—the Ellesmere Land of Captain Inglefield.
[9] At Capes Leidy, Frazer, and other points of the coast I subsequently obtained a considerable collection of fossils,—all of which were forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, soon after my return home. Unhappily, the finest of them were lost after having been sent from Philadelphia; but a sufficient number of specimens were found among the geological collections to enable Prof. F. B. Meek, to whom I intrusted them, to establish some interesting points of comparison. In a short paper published in Silliman's Journal, for July, 1865, Prof. Meek enumerates and describes twelve species. Some of the specimens were imperfect, and their specific character could not be determined. The list is as follows:—