age, all the more recent ones being sharp and angular.” Day after day they laboured on, with little variation in the circumstances detailed above. The men worked with great cheerfulness and goodwill, “being animated with the hope of soon reaching the more continuous body which had been considered as composing the ‘main ice’ to the northward of Spitzbergen,” which Captain Lutwidge had described as “one continued plain of smooth, unbroken ice, bounded only by the horizon.”(33) They certainly deserved to reach it, if it existed at all; but it is more than probable that this apparently continuous level, mentioned by several navigators, had been seen from an elevation, the “crow’s nest” on board ship, or some hill ashore, and that a nearer inspection would have shown it to be full of hummocks and breaks. It is amusing to read of them _breakfasting_ at five p.m., _dining_ at midnight, and _taking supper_ at six or seven o’clock in the morning! On July 11th, having halted an hour at midnight for dinner, they were again harassed by a heavy rainfall, but although drenched to the skin they made better progress soon after, traversing twelve miles, and making seven and a half in a northerly direction. They had now reached the latitude of 82° 11’ 51". Next day’s exertions only enabled them to make three and a half miles of direct northing, and the following day but two and a half. Much thin ice was encountered; it was often a nervous thing to see their whole means of subsistence lying on a decayed sheet, with holes quite through it, and which would have broken up with the slightest motion among the surrounding masses. One day the ice on one side of a boat, heavy with provisions and stores, gave way, almost upsetting her; a number of the men jumped upon the ice and restored the balance temporarily. A rain-storm of twenty-one hours’ duration is recorded on the 14th and 15th, which was, as generally the case, succeeded by a thick wet fog. On the 16th the narrative records “the unusual comfort of putting on dry stockings, and the no less rare luxury of delightfully pleasant weather.” It was so warm in the sun that the tar exuded from the seams of the boats. Even the sea-water, though loaded with ice, had a temperature of 34°. At this time the ice-floes were larger, though none are recorded over three miles in length. On the 18th, after eleven hours’ actual labour, “requiring, for the most part,” says Parry, “our whole strength to be exerted, we had travelled over a space not exceeding four miles, of which only two were made good in a NNW. direction.” The men, exhausted by their day’s work, were treated to a little extra hot cocoa. They were also put into good spirits by having killed a small seal, which next night gave them an excellent supper. “The meat of these young animals is tender,” says Parry, “and free from oiliness; but it certainly has a smell and a look which would not have been agreeable to any but very hungry people like