ARCTIC ICE-TRAVELS. 473 



ing to the north ward, and they were in consequence reluctantly com- 

 pelled to abandon their project and return to their ship, which they 

 succeeded in reaching after an absence of sixty-one days. Althougli 

 before turning back the party liad traveled over 202 miles of gi'ound, 

 their greatest distance from the ship was only 172 miles, so much had 

 the set drifted them to the southward. Notwithstanding these ob- 

 stacles, and the enormous weight which each man had to drag, the 

 latitude attained by Parry on this occasion has never been reached' by 

 known man. The experience gained during this enterprise has shoAvn 

 us a great deal. It proved that the allowance of provisions for the 

 amount of work required, and for the hardships endured, was insuf- 

 ficient; that the sledges were too cumbrous and heavy, and the 

 weight that each man was required to drag was far in excess of his 

 capabilities, and that the season was so far advanced as to cause not 

 only the ice to be broken up, and thereby aiFected by the current, but 

 the mild temperature had so rotted and thawed the surface of the 

 floes on which they traveled, that the greater part of their journey 

 was performed walking through sludge and water. As during his 

 former sledge-journey in 1820, Parry preferred traveling by night, 

 and resting during the glare and warmth of the mid-day sun. 



The next authentic accounts of sledge-traveling we hear of are 

 those parties organized by Sir James Ross in 1849 for the relief of Sii 

 John Franklin, in which Sir Leopold McClintock, then a lieutenant.^ 

 received his first initiation in that important branch of arctic work, 

 which through his means has reached such an admirable state of per- 

 fection. But to what consequences did these pioneer expeditions lead ? 

 Experience had to be gained, and the privations and sufferings en- 

 dured by those engaged in these early expeditions are now compen- 

 sated by the lessons they have taught us. They started with two 

 sledges, each drawn by six men, carrying with them their tent and 

 thirty days' provisions. Other parties with more provisions followed 

 on their route. They were away forty days, having accomplished a 

 search over 500 miles of unknown country, but we are told that out 

 of the twelve men that started, seven only returned in comparative 

 health, the remaining five having quite broken down under fatigue. 

 The party suffered severely from hunger, frost-bites, blistered feet, 

 and rheumatic pains, caused by their continually walking through 

 water on the ice and deep soft snow. Two of them, being unable to 

 walk, were brought back on the sledges. Sir Leopold himself ac- 

 knowledges that, after his return to the ship, he did not lose the sen- 

 sation of constant hunger for a fortnight. 



During the next expedition, tliat of Cajitain Austin, in 1851, from 

 the experience which he had already gained in sledge-traveling. Sir 

 Leopold McClintock, by adopting a system of fatigue-parties, was 

 enabled to prolong his absence from the ship to eighty days, and to 

 extend his journey to a distance of 900 miles. During this journey, 



