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bounded to twenty yards, and every time of resting to take breath we all received severe frost bites. The sun having risen above the thickest part of the drift snow enabled us to steer a direct northerly course, for we expected in that direction to arrive at a small bay, which had been observed by Captain Parry and myself on our first arrival. At ten we were confirmed in our conjecture by descending suddenly and arriving at a quantity of grounded ice, directed by which we made our way round the head of the bay, and arrived on the side of a small hill a little after eleven. The extreme severity of the weather determined me on pitching our tent, and waiting until, in better weather, we could from the rising ground command a view of our future route.

"When the tent had been pitched an hour, and our party were all smoking to promote warmth, the temperature at our feet was 1o below zero, and over our head amongst the smoke + 7o; in the outer air it was 5o, which although of itself sufficiently cold was rendered doubly piercing by the strength of the wind. John Lee was soon seized with a fit of shivering and severe pains in the loins, to check which we put him into his blanket and covered him with clothes which could ill be spared. A deep hole being dug in the snow a fire was made with the greatest difficulty, and we were made comfortable for a time by a warm mess of soup. I afterwards found that it would be possible by extending our excavation to make a cavern in which we might pass the night, for it would have been next to impossible to continue in the tent. Some of the men were therefore set to work, and had thus so good an opportunity of warming themselves, that our only shovel was lent from one to the other as a particular favour. At two P.M. the outer air was -15°, and zero was the temperature of the tent, when Arnold's pocket chronometer stopped from the effects of the cold. By four P.M. the cavern was finished and of sufficient size to contain us all in a sitting posture. After taking some hot soup, Lee was removed to the warmest place we could select and, making a fire, we managed by its smoke, which had no vent, to raise the temperature to + 20°, while outside it had fallen to We now cleaned our clothes as well as possible from the thick coating of snow drift, and closing the entrance of the cave with blocks of snow, we crept into our blanket bags, and huddled close together to endeavour to procure a little sleep. Our small dwelling had a very close feel, which was perhaps not a little augmented by the reflection that a spade alone could liberate us again after a nights drift of snow: and our roof being two feet thick, and not of the most secure description, there was no small probability of its breaking down on us, in which case confined as we were in our bags, and lying almost upon each other, we should have but little chance of extricating ourselves.

25°.

"At daylight on the 16th we found the temperature at + 269 until we dug. out the entrance, when it fell to + 15°, while outside it was 25°. We again lighted our fire and, after sitting two hours in such thick black smoke that we could not see our feet, 12

succeeded in making some tea, which answered a double purpose, as it served to thaw some meat which was frozen in the canisters. At nine A.M. the gale was unabated, and the drift as severe as ever. The tent was half buried in the snow, and I set all hands to work at digging out the sledge, but it was so deeply sunk that our efforts were unsuccessful, and in the attempt our faces and extremities were most painfully frost-bitten. With all these difficulties before us, Mr. Palmer and myself consulted together as to whether it would be most prudent to endeavour to pass another night in our present precarious situation, or while we were yet able to walk make an attempt to reach the ships, which we supposed were about six miles from us. We could not see a yard of our way, yet to remain appeared worse than to go forward, which last plan was decided on. At thirty minutes past nine, having placed all our luggage in the tent, and erected a small flag over it, we set out, carrying a few pounds of bread, a little rum, and a spade. The wind being now in our backs, we walked very briskly, and having an occasional glimpse of a very faint sun through the drift, managed to steer a tolerable course. James Carr having loitered a little behind us was suddenly missed, and by the most fortunate chance we saw him running across our path in search of us; for had he been ten yards further off he might have been lost. After walking several miles we came to grounded ice, and saw the tracks of Eskimaux men and dogs, but these were so confused that we knew not which marks to follow.

"Not knowing on which side of the ships we had arrived, we feared to go to the southward or eastward, and accordingly went as nearly west as possible, in which direction we again crossed tracks. We now wandered amongst the heavy hummocks of ice without knowing which track to pursue, and suffering from cold, fatigue, and anxiety, were soon completely bewildered. Several of our party began to exhibit symptoms of that horrid kind of insensibility which is the prelude to sleep. They all professed extreme willingness to do what they were told in order to keep in exercise, but none obeyed; on the contrary they reeled about like drunken men. The faces of several were severely frost-bitten, and some had for a considerable time lost sensation in their fingers and toes; yet they made not the slightest exertion to rub the parts affected, and discontinued their general custom of warming each other on observing a discolouration of the skin. We continued for some time to employ them in building a snow-wall, ostensibly as a shelter from the wind, but in reality to give them exercise, for standing still must have proved fatal to men in our circumstances. My attention was particularly directed to Serjeant Spackman, who having been repeatedly warned that his nose was frozen had paid no attention to it, owing to the state of stupefaction into which he had fallen. The frost-bite had now extended over one side of his face, which was frozen as hard as a mask, the eye-lids 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 was enabled to restore the circulation, after which I used all my endeavours to keep him in motion, but he complained sadly of giddiness and dimness of sight, and was so weak as to be unable to walk of himself. His case was indeed 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 evident that four of our party could not survive another hour. Mr. Palmer, however, endeavoured with myself to cheer the people, but it was a faint attempt as we had not a single hope to give them. We had less reason to fear immediate danger to ourselves, in consequence of having fur coats instead of woollen ones. Every piece of ice, or even small rock or stone, was now taken for the ships; and we had great difficulty in preventing the men from running to the different objects which attracted them, and 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 indispensible, we determined on following it wherever it might lead us. Having taken the serjeant under my coat he recovered a little and we moved onwards, when, only those who have been in a similar state of distress can imagine our joy at finding the path led to the ships, at which we arrived in about ten minutes.

"John Lee had two of his fingers so badly frost-bitten as to lose a good deal of the flesh of the upper ends, and we were for many days in fear he would be obliged to have them amputated. Carr, who had been the most hardy while in the air, fainted twice on coming below; and all had severe frost-bites in different parts of the body, which recovered after the loss of skin usual in those cases." Parry's Journal, p. 190.

On the 8th of May, Captain Lyon attempted a second land journey. The party was out till the 21st, enduring hardships but little inferior to those which they had before encountered. On one occasion, in a heavy snow-drift, they remained sixtyeight hours on the same wretched spot, under cover of a tent eleven feet by six, and five feet high. Within this narrow space, were huddled ten persons, the snow perpetually thawing and dripping upon them as it fell. By this journey 'they succeeded in ascertaining the course, which it would be adviseable for the ships to run, whenever their expected release took place, without the necessity of examining bays and inlets and they returned on board without more serious injury, than resulted from foot-foundering and snow blind

ness.

:

No change in the ice however, was observable in their winter quarters. The Eskimaux from time to time had broken up and returned again, with a most capricious uncertainty, but most of them had now taken leave. June arrived,

and Captain Parry, anxious to avoid any longer delay, determined to cut a canal through which the ships might get into open water, by sawing through the ice. The track marked out was 60 feet in width next the ships, 197 at the extremity, and 2058 feet in length; a second cut between 50 and 60 feet wide, and 350 in length, connected the two ships. The average thickness of the ice was between 3 and 4 feet, but in some places it amounted to 12. Nothing could exceed the alacrity with which this arduous undertaking was executed. The men worked daily, from six in the morning till eight in the evening, with no intermission but for meals; the singing at each saw was continual, and a person with closed eyes, might have fancied himself at some country merrymaking. In one week the four lateral cuts were completed, but each block was now to be cut diagonally, before it could be removed, and while this operation was proceeding, the lateral cuts adhered again in several places, partly by frost, and partly by pressure. In fifteen days the canal was finished, when the joint operation of the wind and tide,, effectually closed it, and at the same time opened another, which appeared to require but little additional labour to become navigable. While the men were employed in rendering it so, the wind and tide again opened the artificial outlet, and nothing more was wanting, but a breeze from the north or west, to burst their bondage.

It was on the 2nd of July, that they made sail from Winter Island having been frozen in 267 days. At every step which they advanced, the heavy ice came down upon them with increased fury, and the tide ran more impetuously. The Hecla at one time, was carried on board the Fury, broke her best bower anchor, and cut her own waist-boat nearly in two.

As

"On the morning of the 4th, the pressure was so heavy as to break us adrift from three hawsers; we, however, were able to get secure again. Casting off in the forenoon, we towed with all the boats for a short time until the ice again began to set in on us. the Fury followed close astern, we could not get fast, and to avoid again being carried down on her, we were obliged to let the ice take us where it would. The same stream which hampered us, left the Fury in clear water, and she got fast. During the remainder of this day and night, and until the evening of the 5th, we made constant but fruitless attempts to get to the land floe, and in one instance four or five of our men were each on separate pieces of ice, parted from us in the endeavour to run out a hawser. A heavy pressure closing the loose ice unexpectedly gave them a road on board again; and, but for this circumstance, we must have seen

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VOL. XXI, MAY, 1824.

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them carried away by the stream to certain destruction. When at length we were secured, the Fury was twelve or fourteen miles N. E. of us.". Lyon's Journal, p. 216.

At noon, on the 7th, by dint of towing and warping all the preceding night, the Hecla reached her consort. Her dangers, however, were only beginning. The flood-tide brought down with it a heavy and extensive floe, which, taking the vessel on her broadside, lifted her stern as if by a wedge. The friction on the bawsers by which they were fast to the land ice, became so great, that at last they took fire; and the stream cable, two six and one five-inch hawsers gave way at the same moment, three others speedily following them. The sea was too full of ice to allow the ship to drive. She leant over the land ice, and her stern was entirely raised five feet out of the water. The lower-deck beams groaned exceedingly, and a sudden jerk unhung the rudder, and broke the rudder-case. Had another floe supervened at this moment, the vessel must inevitably have turned over, or parted in midships; but the very pressure itself was too strong for the floe by which it was occasioned; it burst upward, and the ship having righted, drifted several miles to the southward before the rudder could be replaced. While the Hecla was endeavouring, on the following day, to rejoin the Fury, the latter vessel was not without her dangers also. The flood tide bore down masses of ice, which continually grazed her sides, and made her heel over under the pressure, till in the end a huge flee, many miles in length, came driving at the rate of a mile and a half an hour, and had already reached within five hundred yards of the ship, which was obliged to remain a quiet spectator of its appalling progress. Happily, at this distance, it struck against a point of land-ice, left the preceding night by its own separation. Here it broke with a tremendous crash, forcing numberless immense masses, many tons in weight, to a height of fifty or sixty feet, whence they again rolled down to the land side, and were quickly ́ succeeded by a fresh supply. The peril, however, had not yet passed away. The floe might swing round and overwhelm the ship, or it might detach the land ice to which she was moored, and send her adrift to the mercy of the tides. Perhaps at no other period of the expedition was Captain Parry exposed to more fearful hazard; but the same Providence which watched over him in other difficulties, was not wanting in this also. The floe remained stationary during the remainder of the tide, and was carried off by the ebb.

Continuing their course northward, occasionally, as they were beset, they landed, and explored the shore on foot. In