250 THE ROSS AND PARRY POLAR VOYAGES 



words, it was slowly drifting southward beneath his feet, and bear- 

 ing him and his party along with it. To struggle against an ad- 

 verse Nature was hopeless. In latitude 82 degrees 45 minutes he 

 gave up the struggle; for, though they had traveled nearly three 

 hundred miles over the rugged ice and through frozen water, they 

 had advanced no more than one hundred and seventy-two miles 

 from the "Hecla." Parry's trouble in this instance has been expe- 

 rienced by other polar navigators since his time, the ice of the 

 polar seas being in almost continual motion. But he had won the 

 honor of making the highest point north yet reached, and which 

 was not equalled until fifty years afterwards. With this success 

 the gallant Parry closed his polar record. 



Parry's successful voyage was quickly followed by one com- 

 manded by Captain Ross, his 1818 associate, who went north again 

 in 1829. Steam navigation had now been introduced and this voy- 

 age was made in a steamship, the "Victory," the first of her kind 

 to navigate the Arctic seas. The "Victory" made her way into 

 Prince Regent Inlet; found the wreck of the "Fury" on the I2th 

 of August; and on the I5th reached Parry's farthest point. Thence 

 she accomplished three hundred miles along a previously unexplored 

 coast ; and on the 7th of October went into winter quarters in what 

 is now called Felix Harbor. There Ross was held fast by the ice 

 for eleven months. In September, 1830, he once more got under 

 way, but, after sailing for about three miles, was again caught in 

 the pack-ice, and shut up until August, 1831. On this occasion the 

 "Victory" accomplished four miles, and on the 27th of September 

 was imprisoned for another winter; having thus achieved exactly 

 seven miles in two years. 



In 1831, James Ross, who had again accompanied his uncle, 

 made a sledge excursion to the westward, and crowned himself 

 with glory by reaching and fixing the magnetic north pole in lati- 

 tude 70 degrees 5 minutes 17 seconds north, and longitude 96 de- 

 grees 46 minutes 45 seconds west. This is the point at which the 



