end of the strait, some had undoubtedly come in from Davis Strait, passing between Resolution Island and East Bluff; but all of those met to the westward had come from Fox Channel, as observations made by the observer at North Bluff show that an iceberg coming in sight from the westward will pass out of view to the eastward in from three to four tides, showing an easterly set of upward of ten miles a day. In Lieutenant Gordon's opinion, the icebergs seen in Hudson Strait during August and September would form no greater barriers to navigation than do those met with off the Strait of Belle Isle, nor were they more numerous in the former than they frequently are in the latter waters. The field-ice encountered, although it would have compelled an ordinary iron steamer to go dead-slow, gave no trouble to the Neptune, the vessel running at full speed between the pans, and rarely touching one of them.
In the harbor at Ashe Inlet the ice came in with the flood-tide, and set so fast that the Eskimos were able to walk off to the ship, although she was at least three quarters of a mile from the shore. On the south shore, also, it was much the same; but still no ice was met with through which the steamer could not easily and safely force her way. In the center of the strait, to the east of North Bluff, no field-ice was seen at all, while between Stupart Bay and Salisbury Island long strings of ice were frequently seen; but, as their direction was invariably parallel to the vessel's course, it was only necessary to coast round them. On the homeward voyage none of this field-ice was seen at all. It is a point of no small significance that, upon the testimony of the Eskimos, both at Ashe Inlet and Stupart Bay, the quantity of ice in the strait had been very unusual that year, and the ice had never been known to hang to the shores so late in the season.
After passing the east end of Salisbury Island the ice got heavier and closer, and when off Nottingham Island the pack was so run together that no attempt was made to force the ship through it. Viewed from a hill on Nottingham, the sea in every direction seemed one vast ice-field, in which four vessels could be noted fast prisoners. This ice was of an altogether different type to that which had been hitherto met. In some cases there were sheets of solid blue ice not less than forty feet in thickness, not a mere aggregation of field-ice, but evidently frozen just as it stood. In other places the thickness would be twenty feet, and the general average of the whole field at least five feet. Now, the question as to the origin of this ice, and whether it will be frequently met with in-the strait, is one of paramount importance. Lieutenant Gordon does not consider it possible for ice to form in Fox Channel to a greater thickness than ten feet in a single year, and consequently feels convinced that much of the ice encountered was the accumulation of several years. Ice is well known to be a very poor conductor of heat, and therefore, when once a certain thickness has been formed, the subsequent rate of thickening must be very slow.
