36 Rev W, Scoresby's Remarks (yii the Prohahility 



'* the nature of the ice was beyond all comparison the most un- 

 favourable for their purpose that he ever remembered to have 

 seen."" In fact. Captain Parry never reached theJasUice, though 

 he was evidently near either it or some extensive land, as proved 

 beyond any doubt by the yellow-ice blink that was seen to the 

 northward of them, when they found it necessary to return. And 

 it appears not improbable, from the experience which this trial 

 gives, that there is land not only to the eastward, but also to the 

 north-eastward of the Seven Islands*, from the proximity of 

 which the ice had been raised into such formidable hummocks, 

 and broken into such small masses. For, on some meridians, 

 and no doubt to the westward of Hakluyt's Headland, we know 

 that there always is a vast body of field-ice, from the circum- 

 stance of that kind of ice being frequently traced, in one conti- 

 nuous chain, from the 80th to the 74th degree of latitude, or 

 indeed as far to the southward as the whalers have penetrated. 

 And that there is abundance of the same to the northward of the 

 80th parallel, is certain, from the circumstance of the constant 

 south-westerly set, during the summer, of the whole body of ice 

 between Spitzbergen and Greenland, and the constant succession 

 of other fields descending from the north or north-east to sup- 

 ply its place-[-. And it is ice of this nature, to a great extent at 

 least, that we should have good reason to calculate on meeting 

 with, and upon this, the journey to the pole with rein-deer, or 

 other traineaux, might, in reasonable probabihty, be accom- 

 plished ; notwithstanding the broken, rugged, and unfavourable 

 nature of the ice met with by Captain Parry, owing to which, 

 among other causes already stated, his rein-deer were rendered 

 useless, and so little success was attained. 



That the kind of ice across which Captain Parry travelled, 

 was something peculiar to the meridian wherein his progress 



* Captain Parry saw land to the eastward of the Seven Islands ; and in 

 some of the old Dutch charts there is an extensive tract marked out still far- 

 ther to the northward, and designated by the name of " Purchas' Land," or 

 " Purchas'8 Point," or " Giles's Land." 



•f- The proofs of these facts being given, both in the paper on the " Polar 

 Ice," (Wemerian Memoirs, vol. ii. pp. 309, 318), which I had the honour of 

 submitting to the Society, and also in the " Account of the Arctic Regions," 

 (See vol. i. p. 212, 217; also p. 246 and 290-296); it is needless to repeat 

 them here. 



