Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage Part 1

Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Pa.s.sage.

by William Edward Parry.

INTRODUCTION.

William Edward Parry, the son of a physician, was born at Bath in December, 1790. At the age of thirteen he was entered as a first-cla.s.s volunteer on board the flag-s.h.i.+p of the Channel fleet, and after seven years' service and careful study of his profession he obtained a commission in 1810 as lieutenant in the navy. He was then at once, aged twenty, sent to the Arctic seas, where he was during two or three years in command of a s.h.i.+p for protection of the British whale fisheries and for revision of the admiralty charts. In 1813 he was recalled from that service and sent on blockade service to the North American station, where he remained about four years, and occupied his leisure in writing a book on "Nautical Astronomy by Night," which he published upon his return to England in 1817.

At that time the search for a North-West Pa.s.sage to Eastern Asia had been suspended for more than half a century. No expedition had been sent out since 1746. But after Lieutenant Parry's return from the North American station, an expedition was prepared under Sir John Ross in the _Isabella_, which sailed in April, 1818, accompanied by the _Alexander_, to the command of which Parry was appointed, Sir John Ross being chief of the expedition. They went by Davis's Straits to Lancaster Sound, where Sir John Ross gave up hope of success and turned back; though Lieutenant Parry would have gone on. Next year Parry was entrusted with an expedition of his own, which set out in May, 1819, and reached Lancaster Sound in July, discovered Prince Regent's Inlet, and Barrow Straits, named after Sir John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, who was active promoter of these expeditions. Parry wintered among the ice and returned next year, having pushed Arctic discovery by thirty degrees of longitude farther than any who had gone before. That was Parry's first voyage, from which he returned to be received with triumph by his countrymen. He was advanced to the rank of Commander in November, 1820, and made a Fellow of the Royal Society. He had shown in what direction to proceed with further search, and at the age of thirty had established for himself a place of lasting honour in the history of English navigation.

Commander Parry was sent on a second expedition in 1821, from which he returned in 1823. He was to explore the Fox Channel, for the purpose of ascertaining whether it was connected with the Arctic Sea of his first voyage. This voyage had no important results; and in 1824 Parry started again on the third voyage, of which this volume contains his Journal. In 1827 he sailed again in the _Hecla_, but found himself sledging over ice that floated southward as fast as he travelled forward on it northward.

He returned then to the work ash.o.r.e, as a hydrographer, for which his thorough knowledge of navigation marked him out. Desire for a more active life caused him to spend four or five years in Australia (from 1829 to 1834) as Commissioner to the Agricultural Company of Australia.

He was knighted, and became in 1852 a Rear-Admiral. Sir Edward Parry was Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital at the time of his death, in July, 1855.

H. M.

THIRD VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST Pa.s.sAGE.

INTRODUCTION.

Notwithstanding the want of success of the late Expedition to the Polar Seas, it was resolved to make another attempt to effect a pa.s.sage by sea, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The chief attentions in the equipment of the present expedition consisted in the placing of Sylvester's warming stove in the very bottom of the s.h.i.+p's hold, in subst.i.tuting a small quant.i.ty of salt beef for a part of the pork, and in furnis.h.i.+ng a much larger supply of newly corned beef. Preserved carrots and parsnips, salmon, cream, pickles of onions, beetroot, cabbage, and, to make the most of our stowage, split pease instead of whole ones, were supplied. A small quant.i.ty of beef pemmican, made by pounding the meat with a certain portion of fat, as described by Captain Franklin, was also furnished.

To the officers, seamen, and marines my best acknowledgments are once more due, for the zealous support I have at all times received from them in the course of this service; and I am happy to repeat my conviction that, had it depended on their conduct and exertion, our most sanguine expectations would, long ere this, have been crowned with complete success.

CHAPTER I.

Pa.s.sage to the Whale-fish Islands, and Removal of Stores from the Transport-Enter the Ice in Baffin's Bay-Difficulties of Penetrating to the Westward-Quit the Ice in Baffin's Bay-Remarks on the Obstructions encountered by the s.h.i.+ps, and on the Severity of the Season.

The equipment of the _Hecla_ and _Fury_, and the loading of the _William Harris_ transport, being completed, we began to move down the river from Deptford on the 8th of May, 1824, and on the 10th, by the a.s.sistance of the steamboat, the three s.h.i.+ps had reached Northfleet, where they received their powder and their ordnance stores. Two days were here employed in fixing, under the superintendence of Mr. Barlow and Lieutenant Foster, the plate, invented by the former gentleman, for correcting the deviation of the compa.s.s produced by the attraction of the s.h.i.+p's iron; and the continuance of strong easterly winds prevented our getting to the Nore till the 16th. During our stay at Northfleet the s.h.i.+ps were visited by Viscount Melville, and the other Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, who were pleased to approve of our general equipment and arrangements.

During our pa.s.sage across the Atlantic in June, and afterwards on our way up Davis's Strait, we threw overboard daily a strong copper cylinder, containing the usual papers, giving an account of our situation. We also took every opportunity afforded by light winds, to try the temperature of the sea at different depths, as compared with that at the surface.

I now determined, as the quickest and most secure mode of clearing the transport, to anchor at the Whale-fish Islands, rather than incur the risk of hampering and damaging her among the ice. Fresh gales and thick weather, however, prevented our doing so till the 26th, when we anch.o.r.ed at eight A.M., in seventeen fathoms, mooring the s.h.i.+ps by hawsers to the rocks, and then immediately commenced our work. In the meantime the observatory and instruments were landed on a small island, called by the Danes Boat Island, where Lieutenant Foster and myself carried on the magnetic and other observations during the stay of the Expedition at this anchorage, of which a survey was also made.

Early on the morning of the 3rd of July, the whole of our stores being removed, and Lieutenant Pritchard having received his orders, together with our despatches and letters for England, the _William Harris_ weighed with a light wind from the northward, and was towed out to sea by our boats. The day proving calm, we employed it in swinging the _Hecla_, in order to obtain the amount of the deviation of the magnetic needle, and to fix afresh the iron plate for correcting it. On the following morning, the wind being southerly, the pilots came on board, and the _Hecla_ weighed to run through the north pa.s.sage; in doing which she grounded on a rock lying directly in the channel, and having only thirteen feet upon it at low water, which our sounding boats had missed, and of which the pilot was ignorant. The tide being that of ebb we were unable to heave the s.h.i.+p off immediately, and at low water she had sewed three feet forward. It was not till half-past one P.M., that she floated, when it became necessary to drop her down between the rock and the sh.o.r.e with hawsers; after which we made sail, and being soon after joined by the _Fury_, which came out by the other channel, we stood round the islands to the northwards. This rock was not the only one found by our boats which may prove dangerous to s.h.i.+ps going in and out of this harbour, and with which our pilots were unacquainted. Another was discovered by Mr. Head, about one-third of the distance across from Kron Prins Island to the opposite sh.o.r.e of the S.E. entrance, and has not more than eighteen feet water on it at low tide; it lies very much in the way of s.h.i.+ps coming in at that channel, which is the most commonly used. The lat.i.tude of the island, on which the observations were made, called by the Danes Boat Island, is 74 28' 15?; its longitude by our chronometers, 53 12' 56?; the dip of the magnetic needle, 82 53' 66?; and the variation, 70 23' 57? westerly. The time of high water, at new moon, on the 26th of June, was a quarter-past eight, the highest tides being the third and fourth after the conjunction, and the perpendicular rise seven feet and a half.

The s.h.i.+ps standing in towards Lievely on the afternoon of the 5th, Lieutenant Graah very kindly came off to the _Fury_, which happened to be the nearest in sh.o.r.e, for the purpose of taking leave of us. On his quitting the s.h.i.+p a salute of ten guns was fired at Lievely, which we returned with an equal number; and I sent to Lieutenant Graah, by a canoe that came on board the _Hecla_, an account of the situation of the rocks we had discovered. Light northerly winds, together with the dull sailing of our now deeply laden s.h.i.+ps, prevented our making much progress for several days, and kept us in the neighbourhood of numerous icebergs, which it is dangerous to approach when there is any swell. We counted from the deck, at one time, no less than one hundred and three of these immense bodies, some of them from one to two hundred feet in height above the sea; and it was necessary, in one or two instances, to tow the s.h.i.+ps clear of them with the boats. We had occasion, about this time, to remark the more than usual frequency of fogs with a northerly wind, a circ.u.mstance from which the whalers are accustomed to augur a considerable extent of open water in that direction.

The ice soon beginning to close around us, our progress became so slow that, on the 17th, we saw a s.h.i.+p at the margin of the "pack," and two more on the following day. We supposed these to be whalers, which, after trying to cross the ice to the northward, had returned to make the attempt in the present lat.i.tude; a supposition which our subsequent difficulties served to strengthen. From this time, indeed, the obstructions from the quant.i.ty, magnitude, and closeness of the ice, were such as to keep our people almost constantly employed in heaving, warping, or sawing through it; and yet with so little success that, at the close of the month of July, we had only penetrated seventy miles to the westward, or to the longitude of about 62 10'. Here, while closely beset, on the 1st of August, we encountered a hard gale from the south-east, which pressing the ice together in every direction, by ma.s.s overlaying ma.s.s for hours together, the _Hecla_ received several very awkward "nips," and was once fairly laid on her broadside by a strain which must inevitably have crushed a vessel of ordinary strength. In such cases, the ice is forced under a s.h.i.+p's bottom on one side, and on the other up her side, both powers thus acting in such a manner as to bring her on her "beam-ends." This is, in fact, the most favourable manner in which a s.h.i.+p can receive the pressure, and would perhaps only occur with ice comparatively not very heavy, though sufficiently so, it is said, to have run completely over a s.h.i.+p in some extreme and fatal cases. With ice of still more formidable dimensions a vessel would probably, by an equal degree of pressure, be absolutely crushed, in consequence of the increased difficulty of sinking it on one side, and causing it to rise on the other.

_Sept. 9th_.-I shall doubtless be readily excused for not having entered in this journal a detailed narrative of the obstacles we met with, and of the unwearied exertions of the officers and men to overcome them, during the tedious eight weeks employed in crossing this barrier. I have avoided this detail because, while it might appear an endeavour to magnify ordinary difficulties, which it is our business to overcome rather than to discuss, I am convinced that no description of mine, nor even the minute formality of the log-book, could convey an adequate idea of the truth. The strain we constantly had occasion to heave on the hawsers, as springs to force the s.h.i.+ps through the ice, was such as perhaps no s.h.i.+ps ever before attempted; and by means of Phillips's invaluable capstan, we often separated floes of such magnitude as must otherwise have baffled every effort. In doing this, it was next to impossible to avoid exposing the men to very great risk from the frequent breaking of the hawsers. On one occasion, three of the _Hecla's_ seamen were knocked down as instantaneously as by a gunshot by the sudden flying-out of an anchor; and a marine of the _Fury_ suffered in a similar manner when working at the capstan; but, providentially, they all escaped with severe contusions. A more serious accident occurred in the breaking of the spindle of the _Fury's_ windla.s.s, depriving her of the use of the windla.s.s-end during the rest of the season.

The constant besetment of the s.h.i.+ps, and our daily observations for lat.i.tude and longitude, afforded a favourable opportunity for ascertaining precisely the set of any currents by which the whole body of ice might be actuated. By attending very carefully to all the circ.u.mstances, it was evident that a daily set to the southward obtained, when the wind was northerly, differing in amount from two or three to eight or ten miles per day, according to the strength of the breeze; but a northerly current was equally apparent, and fully to the same amount, whenever the wind blew from the southward. A circ.u.mstance more remarkable than these, however, forced itself strongly upon my notice at this time, which was, that a _westerly_ set was very frequently apparent, even against a fresh breeze blowing from that quarter. I mention the circ.u.mstance in this place, because I may hereafter have to offer a remark or two on this fact in connection with some others of a similar nature noticed elsewhere.

With respect to the dimensions of the ice through which we had now scrambled our way, princ.i.p.ally by warping and towing a distance of between three and four hundred miles, I remarked that it for the most part increased, as well in the thickness as the extent of the floes, as we advanced westward about the parallel of 71. During our subsequent progress to the north, we also met with some of enormous dimensions, several of the floes, to which we applied our hawsers and the power of the improved capstan, being at their margin more than twenty feet above the level of the sea, and over some of these we could not see from the mast-head. Upon the whole, however, the magnitude of the ice became somewhat less towards the north-west; and within thirty miles of that margin the ma.s.ses were comparatively small, and their thickness much diminished. Bergs were in sight during the whole pa.s.sage; but they were more numerous towards the middle of the "pack," and rather the most so to the southward.

CHAPTER II.

Enter Sir James Lancaster's Sound-Land at Cape Warrender-Meet with young ice-s.h.i.+ps beset and carried near the sh.o.r.e-Driven back to Navy-board Inlet-Run to the westward, and enter Prince Regent's Inlet-Arrival at Port Bowen.

All our past obstacles were in a moment forgotten when we once more saw an open sea before us; but it must be confessed that it was not so easy to forget that the middle of September was already near at hand, without having brought us even to the entrance of Sir James Lancaster's Sound.

That not a moment might be lost, however, in pus.h.i.+ng to the westward, a press of canvas was crowded, and being happily favoured with an easterly breeze, on the morning of the 10th of September we caught a glimpse of the high bold land on the north side of the magnificent inlet up which our course was once more to be directed. From the time of our leaving the main body of ice we met with none of any kind, and the entrance to the Sound was, as usual, entirely free from it, except here and there a berg, floating about in that solitary grandeur of which these enormous ma.s.ses, when occurring in the midst of an extensive sea, are calculated to convey so sublime an idea.

On the morning of the 11th, the s.h.i.+ps being taken a-back with a fresh westerly breeze when near Cape Warrender, I landed in a small bay close to the westward of it, accompanied by several of the officers, in order to examine the country, and to make the necessary observations.

On the morning of the 12th we were once more favoured with a breeze from the eastward, but so light and unsteady that our progress was vexatiously slow; and on the 13th, when within seven leagues of Cape York, we had the mortification to perceive the sea ahead of us covered with young ice, the thermometer having for two days past ranged only from 18 to 20. On reaching it we had, as usual, recourse to "sallying," breaking it with boats ahead, and various other expedients, all alike ineffectual without a fresh and free breeze furnis.h.i.+ng a constant impetus; so that, after seven or eight hours of unsuccessful labour in this way, we were obliged to remain as we were, fairly and immovably beset.

It now appeared high time to determine as to the propriety of still continuing our efforts to push to the westward or of returning to England, according to my instructions on that head under particular circ.u.mstances. As the crossing of the ice in Baffin's Bay had of itself unexpectedly occupied nearly the whole of one season, it could not, of course, be considered that the attempt to penetrate to the westward in the manner directed by their lords.h.i.+ps had as yet been made, nor could it, indeed, be made during the present year. I could not, therefore, have a moment's hesitation as to the propriety of pus.h.i.+ng on as far as the present season would permit, and then giving a fair trial during the whole of the next summer to the route I was directed by my instructions to pursue. In order, however, to confirm my own opinion on this subject, I requested to be furnished with that of Captain Hoppner; and finding that his views entirely agreed with my own, I resolved still to pursue our object by all the means in our power.

The next breeze sprang up from the westward, drawing also from the southward at times, out of Prince Regent's Inlet, and for three days we were struggling with the young ice to little or no purpose, now and then gaining half a mile of ground to windward in a little "hole" of open water, then losing as much by the necessity of bearing up or wearing (for the ice was too strong to allow us to tack), sallying from morning to night with all hands, and with the watch at night, two boats constantly under the bows; and, after all, rather losing ground than otherwise, while the young ice was every hour increasing in thickness.

On the 17th, when we had driven back rather to the eastward of Admiralty Inlet, an easterly breeze again enabled us to make some progress. The sea was now for the most part covered with young ice, which had become so thick as to look white throughout its whole extent. The holes of water could now, therefore, be more distinctly seen, and by taking advantage of these we succeeded in making a few miles of westing, the "leads" taking us more in-sh.o.r.e, towards Admiralty Inlet, than before. Towards sunset we became more and more hampered, and were eventually beset during the night. A breeze sprang up from the westward, which increasing to a fresh gale, we found ourselves at daylight far to the eastward, and also within two miles of the land, near a long low point, which on the former voyages had not been seen. The sea was covered with ice between us and the sh.o.r.e, all of this year's formation, but now of considerable thickness and formidable appearance. The wind continuing strong, the whole body was constantly pressed in upon the land, bearing the s.h.i.+ps along with it, and doubling one sheet over another, sometimes to a hundred thicknesses.

We quickly shoaled the water from seventy to forty fathoms, the latter depth occurring about a mile from the beach; and after this we drifted but little, the ice being blocked up between the point and a high perpendicular berg lying aground off it.

The sails being furled, and the top-gallant yards got down, we now considered ourselves fortunate in our situation; for had we been only a quarter of a mile farther out we should have been within the influence of a current that was there sweeping the whole body of ice to the eastward, at the rate of a mile and a half an hour. Indeed, at times this current was disposed to approach us still nearer, carrying away pieces of ice close to our quarter; but by means of long hawsers, secured to the heaviest and most compact of the small floes in-sh.o.r.e of us, we contrived to hold on. Under such circ.u.mstances, it evidently became expedient to endeavour, by sawing, to get the s.h.i.+ps as close in-sh.o.r.e as possible, so as to secure them either to grounded ice or by anchoring within the shelter of a bay at no great distance inside of us; for it now seemed not unlikely that winter was about to put a premature stop to all further operations at sea for this season. At all events it was necessary to consult the immediate safety of the s.h.i.+ps, and to keep them from being drifted back to the eastward. I therefore gave orders for endeavouring to get the s.h.i.+ps in towards the bay by cutting through what level floes still remained. At the same time an officer was despatched to examine the sh.o.r.e, which was found safe, with regular soundings in every part.

So strong had been the pressure while the ice was forcing in upon us, that on the 20th, after liberating the _Hecla_ on one side, she was as firmly cemented to it on the other as after a winter's formation, and we could only clear her by heavy and repeated "sallying." After cutting in two or three hundred yards, while the people were at dinner on the 21st, our ca.n.a.l closed, by the external pressure coming upon the parts which we had weakened, and in a few minutes the whole was once more in motion, or, as the seamen not inaptly expressed it, "alive," ma.s.s doubling under ma.s.s, and raising those which were uppermost to a considerable height.

The ice thus pressed together was now about ten feet in thickness in some places, and on an average not less than four or five, so that while thus forced in upon a s.h.i.+p, although soft in itself, it caused her to tremble exceedingly; a sensation, indeed, commonly experienced in forcing through young ice of considerable thickness. We were now once more obliged to be quiet spectators of what was going on around us, having with extreme difficulty succeeded in saving most of our tools that were lying on the ice when the squeezing suddenly began. Towards evening we made fast to a stationary floe, at the distance of one mile from the beach, in eighteen fathoms, where we remained tolerably quiet for the night, the ice outside of us, and as far as we could see, setting constantly at a great rate to the eastward. Some of our gentlemen, who had landed in the course of the day, and who had to scramble their way on board over the ice in motion, described the bay as deeper than it appeared from the offing. Dr. Neill "found, on such parts of the beach as were not covered with ice or snow, fragments of bituminous shale, flinty slate, and iron-stone, interspersed amongst a blue-coloured limestone gravel. As far as he was able to travel inland, the surface was composed of secondary limestone, partially covered with a thin layer of calc-sinter. From the scantiness of the vegetation here, the limestone seemed likely to contain a large proportion of magnesia. Dr. Neill was about to examine for coal, which the formation led him to expect, when the ice was observed to be in motion, obliging him hastily to return on board." Lieutenant Ross "found, about two-thirds up a small peaked insulated hill of limestone, between three and four hundred feet above the level of the sea, several pieces of coal, which he found to burn with a clear bright flame, crackling much, and throwing off slaty splinters."

Hares' burrows were numerous on this hill; Lieutenant Ross saw two of these animals, one of which he killed. A fox was also observed in its summer dress; and these, with a pair of ravens, some wingless ducks, and several snow-buntings, were all the animals noticed at this place.

A sudden motion of the ice on the morning of the 22nd, occasioned by a change of wind to the S.E., threatened to carry us directly off the land.

It was now more than ever desirable to hold on, as this breeze was likely to clear the sh.o.r.e, and at the same time to give us a run to the westward. Hawsers were therefore run out to the land-ice, composed of some heavy ma.s.ses, almost on the beach. With the _Hecla_ this succeeded, but the _Fury_, being much farther from the sh.o.r.e, soon began to move out with the whole body of ice, which, carrying her close to the large berg off the point, swept her round the latter, where, after great exertion, Captain Hoppner succeeded in getting clear, and then made sail to beat back to us. In the meantime the strain put upon the _Hecla's_ hawsers being too great for them, they snapped one after another, and a bower-anchor was let go as a last resource. It was one of Hawkins's, with the double fluke, and immediately brought up, not merely the s.h.i.+p, but a large floe of young ice, which had just broken our stream-cable.

All hands were sent upon the floe to cut it up ahead, and the whole operation was a novel and, at times, a fearful one; for the ice, being weakened by the cutting, would suddenly gather fresh way astern, carrying men and tools with it, while the chain-cable continued to plough through it in a manner which gave one the idea of something alive, and continually renewing its attacks. The anchor held surprisingly, and after this tremendous strain had been put upon it for above an hour, we had fairly cut the floe in two, and the s.h.i.+p was riding in clear water about half a mile from the sh.o.r.e.

I was now in hopes we should have made some progress, for a large channel of clear water was left open in-sh.o.r.e; a breeze blew off the land, and the temperature of the atmosphere had again risen considerably. We had not sailed five miles, however, when a westerly wind took us aback, and a most dangerous swell set directly upon the sh.o.r.e, obliging me immediately to stand off the land; and the _Fury_ being still to the eastward of the point, I ran round it, in order to rejoin her before sunset. The current was here setting very fast to the eastward, not less, I think, in some places, than two miles an hour, so that, even in a clear sea, we had little chance of stemming it, much less beset as we were in young ice during an unusually dark night of nine or ten hours' duration, with a heavy fall of snow. The consequence was, that when we made the land on the morning of the 23rd, we had been drifted the incredible distance of eight or nine leagues during the night, finding ourselves off the Wollaston Islands at the entrance of Navy Board Inlet. We stood in under the islands to look for anchorage during the night, but the water being everywhere too deep close to the sh.o.r.e, we made fast at sunset to some very heavy ice upon a point, which we took to be the main land, but which Captain Hoppner afterwards found to be upon one of the islands, which are at least four in number.

After midnight on the 27th the wind began to moderate, and by degrees also drew more to the southward than before. At daylight, therefore, we found ourselves seven or eight miles from the land; but no ice was in sight, except the "sludge," of honey-like consistence, with which almost the whole sea was covered. A strong blink, extending along the eastern horizon, pointed out the position of the main body of ice, which was farther distant from the eastern sh.o.r.e of the inlet than I ever saw it.

Being a.s.sisted by a fine working breeze, which at the same time prevented the formation of any more ice to obstruct us, we made considerable progress along the land, and at noon were nearly abreast of Jackson Inlet, which we now saw to be considerably larger than our distant view of it on the former voyage had led us to suppose. We found also that what at a distance appeared an island in the entrance was in reality a dark-looking rocky hill, on the south side. A few more tacks brought us to the entrance of Port Bowen, which for two or three days past I had determined to make our wintering-place, if, as there was but little reason to expect, we should be so fortunate as to push the s.h.i.+ps thus far. My reasons for coming to this determination, in which Captain Hoppner's opinion also served to confirm me, will be sufficiently gathered from the operations of the preceding fortnight, which convinced me that the precarious chance of making a few miles' more progress could no longer be suffered to weigh against the evident risk now attending further attempts at navigation: a risk not confined to the mere exposure of the s.h.i.+ps to imminent danger, or the hazard of being shut out of a winter harbour, but to one which, I may be permitted to say, we all dreaded as much as these-the too obvious probability of our once more being driven back to the eastward, should we again become hampered in the young ice. Joining to this the additional consideration that no known place of security existed to the southward on this coast, I had not the smallest hesitation in availing myself of the present opportunity to get the s.h.i.+ps into harbour. Beating up, therefore, to Port Bowen, we found it filled with "old" and "hummocky" ice, attached to the sh.o.r.es on both sides, as low down as about three-quarters of a mile below Stoney Island.

Here we made fast in sixty-two fathoms of water, running our hawsers far in upon the ice, in case of its breaking off at the margin.

On entering Port Bowen, I was forcibly struck with the circ.u.mstance of the cliffs on the south side of the harbour being, in many places, covered with a layer of blue transparent-looking ice, occasioned undoubtedly by the snow partially thawing there, and then being arrested by the frost, and presenting a feature very indicative of the late cold summer. The same thing was observed on all the land to which we made a near approach on the south side of Barrow's Strait this season, especially about Cape York and Eardley Bay; but as we had never been close to these parts of the sh.o.r.e in 1819, it did not occur to me as anything new or worthy of notice. At Port Bowen, however, which in that year was closely examined, I am quite certain that no such thing was to be seen, even in the month of August, the cliffs being then quite clear of snow, except here and there a patch of drift.

Late as we had this year been (about the middle of October) in reaching Sir James Lancaster's Sound, there would still have been time for a s.h.i.+p engaged in a whale-fishery to have reaped a tolerable harvest, as we met with a number of whales in every part of it, and even as far as the entrance of Port Bowen. The number registered altogether in our journals is between twenty and thirty, but I have no doubt that many more than these were seen, and that a s.h.i.+p expressly on the look-out for them would have found full occupation for her boats. Several which came near us were of large and "payable" dimensions. I confess, however, that had I been within the Sound, in a whaler, towards the close of so unfavourable a season as this, with the young ice forming so rapidly on the whole extent of the sea, I should not have been disposed to persevere in the fishery under circ.u.mstances so precarious, and to a s.h.i.+p unprepared for a winter involving such evident risk. It is probable, however, that on the outside the formation of young ice would have been much r.e.t.a.r.ded by the swell; and I am inclined to believe that a season so unfavourable as this will be found of rare occurrence.

We observed a great many narwhals in different parts of Barrow's Strait, and a few walruses, and should perhaps have seen many more of both, but for the continual presence of the young ice.