Page 29

[header] 27

scanty half formed sods -- were with [gentium?] &
[Pamya?] among our latests harvests -- The poppy
last. For the changes of the ice, I
cannot record so rapid a progress. Our outside
floe is still firm and although the surface
is studded with water pools the solidity of
the mass is not to an experieced ice eye
at all in keeping with the hoped for changes
of the season.

The quantity of snow which fell
during the past winter and spring was so mea=
=gre as not to give us means of banking up
our vessel. It did not exceed 8 inches
for 9 months. The expected torrents which
were to pour down from the ravines failed
us and it was not until the 29th or
nearly end of this month that the snows
began to discharge in rivulets from the hills.
The land foot or ice=belt is therefore un=
broken.

The ices which line it, however, are
affected by the sun. They no longer rise into
towering pinnacles and spires. Their
bases have been destroyed by the tides and
their exposed surfaces thawed by the sun.
Thus they have sunk into a broken mass
of water sodden ice which invests the true
ice=belt and makes it dangerous and
difficult to reach the shore. Among
this ice I nearly lost my life.

For the legitimate incidents of the
Expedition, this has been the closing as
well as the decisive month. On the
1st Dr. Hayes and our team of seven dogs
returned from N. and S.W. coasts.
He penetrated the heavy hummocks of
the bay -- which know no equals hitherto
recorded for magnitude & disturbace.