176 PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 



after being diligently cleared of its thick coating of dirt 

 and oil, was found to have a "tawny, copper-colored 

 skin. The natives were astonished and alarmed beyond 

 measure by the effect of fire-arras. A seal being shot, 

 one of tksm was sent to fetch it. He examined it ail 

 over till he found the hole made by the ball, when, 

 thrusting his finger into it, he set up a shout of aston- 

 ishment, dancing and capering in the most extravagant 

 manner. Another was prevailed upon to fire a pistol ; 

 but instantly, on hearing the report, started and ran 

 back into the tent. 



The observations were not completed till the begin- 

 ning of September, when the season was too late to 

 allow Clavering to gratify his wish of making a run to 

 the northward. Nor did he extricate himself from the 

 ice without some severe shocks ; but nevertheless, after 

 spending six weeks at Drontheim, he entered the 

 Thames about the middle of December. 



After the abortive voyage of Buchan and Franklin, in 

 1818, no further attempt was made to reach the pole in 

 ships ; but a plan was devised to accomplish that object 

 in vehicles drawn over the frozen surface of the ocean 

 a scheme first suggested by Scoresby, who endeav- 

 ored to prove that such a journey was neither so vision- 

 ary nor so very perilous as it might appear to those 

 who were unacquainted with the Arctic regions. 



His suggestions did not, for a considerable time, 

 attract attention ; but at length Captain Parry, after his 

 three brilliant voyages to the north-west, finding reason 

 to suspect that his further progress in that direction 

 was hopeless, turned his thoughts to the probability of 

 penetrating over the frozen sea to the pole. Combining 

 Scoresby's ideas with his own observations, and with a 

 Beries of reflections derived by Captain Franklin from 

 his extensive experience, he submitted to the Lords of 



