PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 185 



return. This resolution was communicated to the crew, 

 who, though deeply disappointed at having achieved so 

 little, acquiesced in the necessity, and consoled them- 

 selves with the idea of having gone further north than 

 any previous expedition of which there was a well- 

 authenticated record. 



The furthest point of latitude reached was on the 23d, 

 and was, probably, to 82 45'. " At the extreme point 

 of our journey," says Parry, " our distance from the 

 Ilecla was only one hundred and seventy-two miles in a 

 S. 8 W. direction. To accomplish this distance we 

 had traversed, by our reckoning, two hundred and 

 ninety-two miles, of which about one hundred were per- 

 formed by water previously to our entering the ice. 

 As we travelled by far the greater part of our distance 

 on the ice three, and not unfrequently five, times over, 

 we may safely multiply the length of the road by two 

 and a half; so that our whole distance, on a very mod- 

 erate calculation, amounted to five hundred and eighty 

 geographical, or six hundred and sixty-eight statute 

 miles, being nearly sufficient to have reached the pole 

 in a direct line. Up to this period we had been par- 

 ticularly fortunate in the preservation of our health." 

 Their day of rest (July 21th), before starting to return, 

 was one of the pleasantest, they had experienced upon 

 the ice ; the thermometer only from 31 to 36 in the 

 shade, and 37 in the sun ; no bottom with five hundred 

 fathoms of line. 



The return was equally laborious as the going out, 

 and in some respects more unpleasant, from the increas- 

 ing softness of the ice and snow depriving them of 

 confidence in any spot on which they placed their boats 

 or persons, and often sinking two or three feet in an 

 instant. On the 1st of August some recent bear-tracks 

 were seen, and, soon after, Bruin himself appeared ; but, 



