was frozen as hard as a mask; the eyelids were stiff, and one corner of the upper lip so drawn up as to expose the teeth and gums. My hands being still warm, I had the happiness of restoring the circulation, after which I used all my endeavors to keep the poor fellow in motion; but he complained sadly of giddiness and dimness of sight, and was so weak as to be unable to walk without assistance. His case was so alarming, that I expected every moment he would lie down, never to rise again.

"Our prospect now became every moment more gloomy, and it was but too probable that four of our party would be unable to survive another hour. Mr. Palmer, however, endeavored, as well as myself, to cheer the people up, but it was a faint attempt, as we had not a single hope to give them. Every piece of ice, or even of small rock or stone, was now supposed to be the ships, and we had great difficulty in preventing the men from running to the different objects which attracted them, and consequently losing themselves in the drift. In this state, while Mr. Palmer was running round us to warm himself, he suddenly pitched on a new beaten track, and as exercise was indispensable, we determined on following it, wherever it might lead us. Having taken the Sergeant under my coat, he recovered a little, and we moved onward, when to our infinite joy we found that the path led to the ships."

As the result of this exposure, one man had two of his fingers so badly frost-bitten as to lose a good deal of the flesh of the upper ends, and for many days it was feared that he would be obliged to have them amputated. Quarter-master Carr, one of those who had been the most hardy while in the air, fainted twice on getting below, and every one had severe frost-bites in different parts of the body, which recovered after the usual loss of skin in these cases.

One of the Esquimaux females, by name Igloolik, who plays a conspicuous part in the narrative, was a general favorite, being possessed of a large fund of useful information, having a good voice and ear for

music, being an excellent seamstress, and having such a good idea of the hydrography and bearings of the neighboring sea-coasts, as to draw charts which guided Parry much in his future operations, for he found her sketches to be in the main correct. She connected the and from their winter quarters to the northwest sea, rounding and terminating the northern extremity of this part of America, by a large island, and a strait of sufficient magnitude to afford a safe passage for the ships. This little northwest passage, observes Lyon, set us all castle-building, and we already fancied the worst part of our voyage over; or, at all events, that before half the ensuing summer was past, we should arrive at Akkoolee, the Esquimaux settlement on the western shore. Half-way between that coast and Re pulse Bay, Igloolik drew on her chart a lake of considerable size, having small streams running from it to the sea, on each side; and the correctness of this information was fully proved by Rae in his recent expedition in 1846.

On the 13th of April their Esquimaux friends took their departure for other quarters; towards the end of the month the crews completed the cutting of trenches round the vessels, in order that they might rise to their proper bearings previous to working in the holds, and the ships floated like corks on their native element, after their long imprisonment of 191 days. As the season appeared to be improving, another land expedition was determined on, and Captain Lyon and Lieutenant Palmer, attended by a party of eight men, set off on the 8th of May, taking with them twenty days' provisions. Each man drew on a sledge 126 lbs., and the officers 95 lbs. a-piece.

"Loaded as we were," says the leader, "it was with the greatest difficulty we made our way among and over the hummocks, ourselves and sledges taking some very unpleasant tumbles. It required two and a half hours to cross the ice, although the distance was not two miles, and we then landed on a small island, where we passed the night."

Several islands and shoals in the strait were named Bird's Isles. At noon on the 11th, they camped at the head of a fine bay, to which the name of Blake was given. In spite of all the care which had been taken by using crape shades, and other coverings for the eyes, five of the party became severely afflicted with snow blindness. Before evening two of the sufferers were quite blinded by the inflammation. Their faces, eyes, and even heads, being much swollen, and very red. Bathing would have afforded relief, but the sun did not produce a drop of water, and their stock of fuel being limited, they could only spare enough wood to thaw snow for their midday draught.

As the morning of the 12th brought no change in the invalids, another day was lost. Toward evening, by breaking pieces of ice, and placing them in the full glare of the sun, sufficient water was obtained, both for drinking and for the sick to bathe their faces, which afforded them amazing relief, and on the morrow they were enabled to resume their journey. At noon the sun was sufficiently powerful to afford the travelers a draught of water, without having to thaw it, as had hitherto been the case.

For nearly three days after this, they were imprisoned in their low tent by a snow-storm, but on the morning of the 18th, they were enabled to sally out to stretch their legs, and catch a glimpse of the sun. After examining many bays and indentations of the coast, the party returned to the ships on the evening of the 21st. A canal was now cut through the ice, to get the ships to the open water, in length 2400 feet, and varying in breadth from 60 to 197 feet. The average thickness of the ice was four feet, but in some places it was as much as twelve feet. This truly arduous task had occupied the crews for fifteen days, from six in the morning to eight in the evening; but they labored at it with the greatest spirit and good humor, and it was concluded on the 18th of June, when the officers and men began to take leave of their several haunts and promenades, particularly the "garden” of each ship, which had become favorite

lounges during their nine months' detention. A few ill-fated bunting came near enough to be shot, and were instantly roasted for a farewell supper, and bright visions of active exertions on the water on the morrow were universally entertained. But the night dispelled all these airy castles, for with the morning's dawn they found that the whole body of ice astern of the ships had broke adrift, filled up the hard-wrought canal, and imprisoned them as firm as ever.

Death now for the first time visited the crews. James Pringle, a seaman of the Hecla, fell from the mast-head to the deck, and was killed on the 18th of May. Wm. Souter, quarter-master, and John Reid, Carpenter's mate, belonging to the Fury, died on the 26th and 27th, of natural causes. Toward the end of June, the sea began to clear rapidly to the eastward, and the bay ice soon gave way as far as where the ships were lying, and on the 2d of July they put to sea with a fresh breeze, after having been frozen in for 267 days.

In making their way to the northward, they were frequently in much danger. On the 3d, the ice came down on the Hecla with such force as to carry her on board the Fury, by which the Hecla broke her best bower anchor, and cut her waist-boat in two. On the 4th, the pressure of the ice was so great as to break the Hecla adrift from three hawsers. Four or five men were each on separate pieces of ice, parted from the ships in the endeavor to run out a hawser. A heavy pressure closing the loose ice unexpectedly gave them a road on board again, or they must have been carried away by the stream to certain destruction. On the 8th, the Hecla had got her stream-cable out, in addition to the other hawsers, and made fast to the land ice, when a very heavy and extensive floe took the ship on her broad side, and being backed by another large body of ice, gradually lifted her stem as if by the action of a wedge.

"The weight every moment increasing, obliged us, says Captain Lyon, "to veer on the hawsers, whose friction was so great as nearly to cut through the bitt-heads, and ultimately to set them on fire, so that it became

requisite for people to attend with buckets of water. The pressure was at length too powerful for resistance, and the stream-cable, with two six and one five-inch hawsers, all gave way at the same moment, three others soon following them. The sea was too full of ice to allow the ship to drive, and the only way in which she could yield to the enormous weight which oppressed her, was by leaning over on the land ice, while her stem at the same time was entirely lifted to above the height of five feet out of the water. The lower deck beams now complained very much, and the whole frame of the ship underwent a trial which would have proved fatal to any less strengthened vessel. At the same moment, the rudder was unhung with a sudden jerk, which broke up the rudder-case, and struck the driver-boom with great force."

From this perilous position she was released almost. by a miracle, and the rudder re-hung.

The ships a. last reached the island which had been so accurately described to them by the Esquimaux ladyIglolik, where they came upon an encampment of 120 Esquimaux, in tents. Captains Parry and Lyon and other officers made frequent exploring excursions along the shores of the Fury and Hecla strait, and inland. On the 26th of August the ships entered this strait, which was found blocked up with flat ice. The season had also now assumed so wintry an aspect that there seemed but little probability of getting much farther west: knowing of no harbor to protect the ships, unless a favorable change took place, they had the gloomy prospect before them of wintering in or near this frozen strait. Boating and land parties were dispatched in several directions, to report upon the different localities.

On the 4th of September, Captain Lyon landed on an island of slate formation, about six miles to the westward of the ships, which he named Amherst Island. The result of these expeditions proved that it was impracticable, either by boats or water conveyance, to examine any part of the land southwest of Iglolik, in consequence of the ice.