182 PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 



crossed without unloading the boats. It was commonly 

 necessary to convey these and the stores by two stages ; 

 and the sailors, being obliged to return for the second 

 portion, had to go three times over the same ground. 

 Sometimes they were obliged to make three stages, and 

 thus to pass over it five times. 



There fell as much rain as they had experienced dur- 

 ing the whole course of seven years in the lower lati- 

 tude. A great deal of the ice over which they travelled 

 was formed into numberless irregular needle-like crys- 

 tals, standing upwards, and pointed at both ends. The 

 horizontal surface of this part had sometimes the ap- 

 pearance of greenish velvet, while the vertical sections, 

 when in a compact state, resembled the most beautiful 

 satin spar, and asbestos when going to pieces. These 

 peculiar wedges, it was supposed, were produced by 

 the drops of rain piercing through the superficial ice. 

 The needles at first afforded tolerably firm footing ; but, 

 becoming always more loose and movable as the sum- 

 mer advanced, they at last cut the boots and feet as if 

 they had been pen-knives. Occasionally, too, there 

 arose hummocks so elevated and rugged that the boats 

 could only be borne over them, in a direction almost 

 perpendicular, by those vigorous operations called " a 

 standing pull and a bowline haul. 7 ' 



The result of all this was, that a severe exertion of 

 five or six hours did not usually produce a progress of 

 above a mile and a half or two miles, and that in a wind- 

 ing direction ; so that, after having entered upon the 

 ice on the 24th of June, in latitude 81 13', they found 

 themselves on the 29th only in 81 23', having thus 

 made only about eight miles of direct northing. Parry 

 soon relinquished all hope of reaching the pole ; how- 

 ever, it was resolved to push on as far as possible ; and 

 the party coming at length to somewhat smoother ice 



