of reaching the North Pole. 37 



was made, appears certain from this fact, that, in the whole 

 course of my experience among the Arctic ices, during which I 

 probably traversed among not less than twenty thousand leagues 

 of ice, I never met with any ice, except icebergs about the shore, 

 at all resembling the scene represented in Captain Parry's Nar- 

 rative, in the plate entitled " Travelling among hummocks of 

 ice.'' These hummocks, in proportion to the men, appear to be 

 from thirty to fifty feet high, or upwards, whereas the ordinary 

 hummocks of the heaviest field-ice that occur in ridges or groups, 

 seldom exceed twenty or thirty feet high, and hummocks of forty 

 feet are not of usual occurrence, though an insulated peak of 

 that height may be seen occasionally. Besides, the want of field- 

 ice was of itself a decisive proof of an unfavourable situation. 

 The largest floe that Captain Parry fell in with was only two 

 and a-half or three miles square, — the only occasion in which 

 they saw any thing answering, in the slightest degree, to the de- 

 scription given of the " main ice ;" yet no fields were met with *. 

 Whereas, as I have already shewn, field-ice, to the westward of 

 Spitzbergen, has often been traced, in a continuous chain, through 

 an extent of six to ten degrees of latitude. In respect to the 

 extent of the different masses, I may remark, that whereas the 

 greater proportion of the ice may consist of floes of various magu 

 nitudes, a very considerable quantity is often found of the na- 

 ture of fields, that is, of such large dimensions, that an observer 

 from a ship's mast-head cannot overlook them. And, in regard 

 to the nature of the surface of these floes and fields, 1 may add, 

 that, although the greater number, perhaps, may exhibit a hum- 

 raocky appearance, fields and floes, containing an even surface, 

 for an extent of miles together, are quite common. 



Having, for some years, been in the habit of observing the na- 

 ture of the Arctic ice in reference to the practicability of a jour- 

 ney to the Pole, I find, on reviewing my journals, several re- 

 marks expressly on the subject. Thus, in my manuscript jour- 

 nal for 1820, I find mention of a field remarkable for its size. 

 We sailed along its solid continuous edge N. NE. 12 miles ; N. 

 4 miles; and N. NW. 8 miles ; and were yet far from its north- 

 ern extremity. It was calculated to be 150 miles in circumfe- 

 rence. I was led to this remarkable sheet of ice by the " blink," 

 • Narmttve, p. 98. 



