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
of water than we had met with for a long time, and halted for our
night's rest at half past seven A.M., after nearly twelve hours' hard,
but not altogether unsuccessful labour, having traversed about twelve
miles, and made good by our account, seven and a half, in a N.W.b.N.
direction. The rain ceased soon after we had halted, but was succeeded,
by a thick, wet fog, which obliged us, when we continued our journey, to
put on our travelling clothes in the same dripping state as when we took
them off. The wind continued fresh from the southeastward, and at nine
P.M. the weather suddenly cleared up, and gave us once more the
inconceivably cheering, I had almost said the blessed, sight of a blue
sky, with hard, well-defined white clouds floating across it. We halted
at six A.M., after making, by our day's exertions, only three miles and
a half of northing, our latitude at this time being 82° 14' 28", and our
longitude, by chronometers, 22° 4' E. The thermometer was from 35° to
36° in the shade during most of the day, and this, with a clear sky over
head, was now absolute luxury to us. Setting out again at seven P.M., we
crossed a small lane of water to another floe; but this was so
intersected by ponds, and by streams running into the sea, that we had
to make a very circuitous route, some of the ponds being half-a mile in
length. Notwithstanding the immense quantity of water still upon the
ice, and which always afforded us a pure and abundant supply of this
indispensable article, we now observed a mark round the banks of all the
ponds, showing that the water was less deep in them, by several inches,
than it had been somewhat earlier in the summer; and, indeed, from about
this time, some small diminution in its quantity began to be perceptible
to ourselves. We halted for our resting-time at six A.M. on the 13th,
having gained only two miles and a half of northing, over a road of
about four, and this accomplished by ten hours of fatiguing exertion. We
were here in latitude, by the noon observation, 82° 17' 10", and could
find no bottom with four hundred fathoms of line. We launched the boats
at seven in the evening, the wind being moderate from the E.S.E., with
fine, clear weather, and were still mortified in finding that no
improvement took place in the road over which we had to travel; for the
ice now before us was, if possible, more broken up and more difficult to
pass over than ever. Much of it was also so thin as to be extremely
dangerous for the provisions; and it was often a nervous thing to see
our whole means of existence lying on a decayed sheet, having holes
quite through it in many parts, and which the smallest motion among the
surrounding masses might have instantly broken into pieces. There was,
however, no choice, except between this road and the more rugged though
safer hummocks, which cost ten times the labour to pass over. Mounting
one of the highest of these at nine P.M., we could discover nothing to
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