PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 143 



that dreadful insensibility which is the prelude to death 

 by cold, and to reel about like drunken men. In fact, 

 they had resigned almost every hope of escape, when, 

 providentially, there appeared a newly-beaten track, 

 which they determined to follow, and in ten minutes it 

 led them to the ships. Their arrival there caused 

 indescribable joy, as they had been nearly given up for 

 lost ; while no one could be sent in search of them 

 without imminent risk of sharing their fate. 



After various incidents, and unsuccessful attempts to 

 free the vessels from the ice, they at length, on the 2d 

 July, resumed their voyage of discovery. They had a 

 favorable run through the entrance, which formed a 

 continuation of Fox's Channel ; but a strong current 

 from the north was still bringing down the ice with 

 great force. The Hecla underwent some severe press- 

 ures, and, within five or six hundred yards of the Fury, 

 two large floes dashed against each other with such a 

 tremendous concussion, that numberless huge masses 

 were thrown fifty or sixty feet into the air. The ves- 

 sel, had she come for a second within the sphere of 

 these movements, must have been crushed to pieces 

 happily she escaped. This current, however, was highly 

 promising, since it could not be traced to the mouth of 

 Hudson's Strait, and must therefore, they concluded, 

 have come from the Western Ocean, which they were so 

 anxious to reach. 



The ice passed by, and the ships proceeded with a 

 favoring wind and tide. The shores began now to put 

 on their summer aspect ; the snow had nearly disap- 

 peared, and the ground was covered with the richest 

 bloom of Arctic vegetation. The navigators came 

 to a fine river named Barrow, which formed a most 

 picturesque fall down rocks richly fringed with very 

 brilliant plants. Here the reindeer sporting, the eider- 



