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
The floe on which we stopped to dine, at one A.M. on the 16th, was not
more than four feet thick, and its extent half a mile square; and on
this we had the rare advantage of carrying all our loads at one journey.
At half past six the fog cleared away, and gave us beautiful weather
for drying our clothes, and once more the cheerful sight of the blue
sky. We halted at half past seven, after being twelve hours on the road,
having made a N.b.W. course, distance only six miles and a quarter,
though we had traversed nine miles. We saw, during this last journey, a
mallemucke and a second Ross gull: and a couple of small flies (to us an
event of ridiculous importance) were found upon the ice.
We again pursued our way at seven in the evening, having the unusual
comfort of putting on dry stockings, and the no less rare luxury of
delightfully pleasant weather, the wind being moderate from the S.S.E.
It was so warm in the sun, though the temperature in the shade was only
35°, that the tar was running out of the seams of the boats; and a
blackened bulb held against the paint-work raised the thermometer to
72°. The floes were larger to-day, and the ice, upon the whole, of
heavier dimensions than any we had yet met with. The general thickness
of the floes, however, did not exceed nine or ten feet, which is not
more than the usual thickness of those in Baffin's Bay and Hudson's
Strait.
The 17th of July being one of the days on which the Royal Society of
Edinburgh have proposed to institute a series of simultaneous
meteorological observations, we commenced an hourly register of every
phenomenon which came under our notice, and which our instruments and
other circumstances would permit, and continued most of them throughout
the day. Our latitude, observed at noon, was 82° 32' 10", being more
than a mile to the southward of the reckoning, though the wind had been
constantly from that quarter during the twenty-four hours.
After midnight the road became, if possible, worse, and the prospect to
the northward more discouraging than before; nothing but loose and very
small pieces of ice being in sight, over which the boats were dragged
almost entirely by a "standing-pull." The men were so exhausted with
their day's work, that it was absolutely necessary to give them
something hot for supper, and we again served a little cocoa for that
purpose. They were also put into good spirits by our having killed a
small seal, which, the following night, gave us an excellent supper. The
meat of these young animals is tender, 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 ourselves. We also considered it a great
prize on account of its blubber, which gave us fuel sufficient for
cooking six hot messes for our whole party, though the animal only
weighed thirty pounds in the whole.
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