Our situation, at our farthest advance, was singular and solitary indeed. No ship, no human being, it was believed, was within 300 or 350 miles of us. Unquestionably, the crew of the Resolution now occupied the most northern position of any individuals in the world! The sea began to freeze and threatened our detention. We had made no progress in the fishery, nor could we find any whales. The seamen began to be anxious, fearful, and troublesome, so that abundant considerations urged our return to the westward, where, as has been shown, our commercial enterprise became so signally successful. The accuracy of the determinations for the latitude we have stated, was variously verified during our progress both ways. Thus, going north-eastward, we observed, May 23d, at noon, in lat. 80° 50′ 28″; at next midnight, as we have noted, in 81° 12′ 42″. At the succeeding noon, after above eight hours sailing on our return, we again observed in 81° 1′ 53″; and, still running south-westerly, we sighted at 8 P.M. of the same day Hackluyt’s Headland, some forty miles still to the southward of our position. We have spoken of this adventure as reaching to the highest latitude ever attained, as far as we have conclusive records, _by sailing_. Captain Parry, in his Polar attempt of 1827, indeed, went beyond my Father’s greatest attainment a distance of seventy or eighty miles; but this advance was wholly gained by travelling across the ice. For with all the advantage of a later period in the summer, and the penetration of the loose ice by boats, the _travelling_ had to be commenced on attaining the latitude of 81° 13′. In referring to this attempt, one can hardly refrain from expressing regret at the success of an expedition so energetically pursued being marred by circumstances which, under better arrangements, might have been avoided. For had the plan as originally suggested, about twelve years before this adventure, been acted on, I have no hesitation in affirming, that _a far greater advance_ northward, if not complete success, must have attended the daring enterprise. It falls not, indeed, within the object of the present Memorials to take up again a question which is discussed in detail in a communication of mine to the “Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,” and published in the number for July 1828; but it may suffice to say, that the opinion offered just above has now the sanction of the gallant conductor of the enterprise himself, who, in a letter published by the late Sir John Barrow, in his volume of “Arctic Voyages” (p. 313) states, that “he believes it to be an object of no very difficult attainment, if set about in a different manner.” And, it may be added, a plan for that adventure is given in the letter now quoted, substantially embodying the characteristic points of my original scheme,[K] and, indeed, in no essential particular, except the suggestion for spending the previous winter at Spitzbergen, differing from it.