METHOD OF TRAVELLING.

307

work) prove that we are justified in holding to our opinion that this is the true gateway to the Pole :

"Our plan of travelling being nearly the same throughout this excursion, after we first entered upon the ice, I may at once give some account of our usual mode of proceeding. It was my intention to travel wholly at night, and to rest by day, there being, of course, constant daylight in these regions during the summer season.

"The only disadvantage of this plan was, that the fogs were somewhat more frequent and more thick by night than by day, though even in this respect there was less difference than might have been supposed, the temperature during the twenty-four hours undergoing but little variation. This travelling by night and sleeping by day so completely inverted the natural order of things, that it was difficult to persuade ourselves of the reality. Even the officers and myself, who were all furnished with pocket chronometers, could not always bear in mind at what part of the twenty-four hours we had arrived; and there were several of the men who declared, and I believe truly, that they never knew night from day during the whole excursion."*

* Had we succeeded in reaching the higher latitudes, where the change of the sun's altitude during the twenty-four hours is still less

Steering due north, he states we made good progress, our latitude by the sun's meridian altitude at midnight being 80° 51′ 13′′. Soon after they observed that a considerable current was setting us to the eastward just after leaving the land, so that we had made a N.N.E. course, distance about ten miles.

"We here perceived that the ice was close to the northward, but to the westward discovered some open water, which we reached after two or three hours' paddling, and found it a wide expanse, in which we sailed to the northward without obstruction, a fresh breeze having sprung up from the S.W. The weather soon after became very thick, with continued snow, requiring great care in looking out for the ice, which made its appearance after two hours' run, and gradually become closer, till at length we were stopped by it at noon, and obliged to haul the boats upon a small floe-piece, our latitude by observation being 81° 12′ 51"."

perceptible, it would have been essentially necessary to possess the certain means of knowing this; since an error of twelve hours of time would have carried us, when we intended to return, on a meridian opposite to, or 180° from, the right one. To obviate the possibility of this, we had some chronometers constructed by Messrs. Parkinson and Frodsham, of which the hour-hand made only one revolution in the day, the twenty-four hours being marked round the dial-plate

PARRY'S JOURNAL.

309

Once fairly started, the intrepid voyager states:— "We set off on our first journey over the ice at ten P.M. on the 24th, Table Island bearing S.S.W., and a fresh breeze blowing from W.S.W., with a thick fog, which afterwards changed to rain. The bags of pemmican were placed upon the sledges, and the bread in the boats, with the intention of securing the latter from wet; but this plan we were very soon obliged to relinquish. We now commenced upon very slow and laborious travelling, the pieces of ice being of small extent and very rugged, obliging us to make three journeys, and sometimes four, with the boats and baggage, and to launch several times across narrow pools of water. This, however, was nothing more than we had expected to encounter at the margin of the ice, and for some distance within it; and every individual exerted himself to the utmost, with the hope of the sooner reaching the main or field ice.

"We pursued our journey at half-past nine P.M., with the wind N.E., and thick weather, the ice being so much in motion as to make it very dangerous to cross with loaded boats, the masses being all very small. Indeed, when we came to the margin of the floe-piece on which we had slept, we saw no road

by which we could safely proceed, and therefore preferred remaining where we were, to the risk of driving back to the southward on one of the smaller

masses.

Again, after hauling the boats to the edge of the floe we found such a quantity of loose rugged ice to the northward of us, that there was no possibility, for the present, of getting across or through it. Soon afterwards the whole of it became in motion, and driving down upon the floe, obliged us to retreat from the margin, and wait for some favourable change. We here tried for soundings, but found no bottom with two hundred fathoms of line. The weather was beautifully clear, and the wind moderate from the S.W. From this situation we saw the easternmost of the Seven Islands, bearing S.b.W.; but Little Table Island, though more to the northward, yet being less high, was not in sight. Observing a small opening at 10.30 P.M., we launched the boats, and hauled them across several pieces of ice, some of them being very light and much decayed. latitude, by the sun's meridian altitude at midnight was 81° 23′; so that we had made only eight miles of northing since our last observation at noon on the 25th.

Our

LATITUDE 81° 31′ 41′′ N.

311

"We had passed, during this day's journey (July the 30th), a great deal of light ice, but, for the first time, one heavy floe, from two to three miles. in length, under the lee of which we found the most open water. A number of rotges and ivorygulls were seen about the 'holes' of water, and now and then a very small seal. We set out again at 11:30 A.M., the wind still fresh from the S.W., and some snow falling; but it was more than an hour before we could get away from the small piece of ice on which we slept, the masses beyond being so broken up, and so much in motion, that we could not at first venture to launch the boats. Our latitude, observed at noon, was 81° 30′ 41′′. After crossing several pieces, we at length got into a good 'lead' of water, four or five miles in length; two or three of which, as on the preceding day, occurred under the lee of a floe, being the second we had yet seen that deserved that name. We then passed over four or five small floes, and across the pools of water that lay betwixt them. The ice was now less broken up, and sometimes tolerably level; but from six to eighteen inches of soft snow lay upon it in every part, making the travelling very fatiguing, and obliging us to make at least two, and some