Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 2Parry, William Edward, Sir
History
Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 2
Parry, William Edward, Sir
Arctic regions; Northwest Passage; Parry, William Edward, Sir, 1790-1855
We halted at eleven P.M. on the 1st, having traversed from ten to eleven
miles, and made good, by our account, seven and half in a N.b.W.
direction. We again set forward at ten A.M. on the 2d, the weather being
calm, and the sun oppressively warm, though with a thick fog. The
temperature in the shade was 35° at noon, and only 47° in the sun; but
this, together with the glare from the snow, produced so painful a
sensation in most of our eyes, as to make it necessary to halt at one
P.M., to avoid being blinded. We therefore took advantage of this warm
weather to let the men wash themselves, and mend and dry their clothes,
and then set out again at half past three. The snow was, however, so
soft as to take us up to our knees at almost every other step, and
frequently still deeper; so that we were sometimes five minutes together
in moving a single empty boat, with all our united strength. It being
impossible to proceed under these circumstances, I determined to fall
into our night-travelling again, from which we had of late insensibly
deviated. We therefore halted at half past five, the weather being now
very clear and warm, and many of the people's eyes beginning to fail. We
did not set out again till after midnight, with the intention of giving
the snow time to harden after so warm a day; but we found it still so
soft as to make the travelling very fatiguing. Our way lay at first
across a number of loose pieces, most of which were from five to twenty
yards apart, or just sufficiently separated to give us all the labour of
launching and hauling up the boats, without the advantage of making any
progress by water; while we crossed, in other instances, from mass to
mass, by laying the boats over as bridges, by which the men and the
baggage passed. By these means, we at length reached a floe about a mile
in length, in a northern direction; but it would be difficult to convey
an adequate idea of the labour required to traverse it. The average
depth of snow upon the level parts was about five inches, under which
lay water four or five inches deep; but, the moment we approached a
hummock, the depth to which we sank increased to three feet or more,
rendering it difficult at times to obtain sufficient footing for one leg
to enable us to extricate the other. The pools of fresh water had now
also become very large, some of them being a quarter of a mile in
length, and their depth above our knees. Through these we were prevented
taking the sledges, for fear of wetting all our provisions; but we
preferred transporting the boats across them, notwithstanding the severe
cold of the snow-water, the bottom being harder for the "runners" to
slide upon. On this kind of road we were, in one instance, above two
hours in proceeding a distance of one hundred yards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account