34 Rev. W. Scoresby's Reynarks <yn the Probability 



from foggy weather or any other cause, missing the ship, and 

 making their way to the place of rendezvous, a commodious 

 boat or cutter might be left on the spot, fitted out for the pur- 

 pose, in which some of the party might return to the northward, 

 and make known their amval to the ship. 



On this plan, as to the meridian of embarkation, two or three 

 particular advantages would be gained over the plan of the re- 

 cent expedition, and very probably a third, the most important 

 of all. The station of embarkation would, in all probability, be 

 accessible at a season sufficiently early for the expedition, that is, 

 by the end of April (or earlier, if desirable) in open seasons^ or, 

 by the middle of May, or very soon after, in usual close seasons. 

 And this would secure the season, considered as favourable for 

 the undertaking, without involving the expence, annoyance, and 

 general disadvantage of wintering *. 



A second advantage would be, that the expedition might start 

 without the ship being secured in harbour, there being exceed- 

 ingly tittle risk of a ship getting hampered by ice in that situa- 



• Captain Parry having expressed an opinion contrary to this (Narrative, 

 p. 1:44), I must appeal to the experience of twenty-one years' observation on 

 the whale-fishing stations for proof. 



In the ten years between 1803 and 1812 inclusive, the Spitzbergen seas 

 were unusually encumbered with ice, there having occurred but ten " open 

 seasons,*' in which access to the usual highest latitudes might be had in the 

 month of April ; but during the same ten years, with one exception, and not 

 • speaking of two other years in which we made no attempt, the 80th degree 

 of latitude was always reached during the month of May, and was in 

 general accessible by the middle of May. During the next ten years, 

 from 1813 to 1823 (omitting 1819, when I did not visit the fishery), 

 there occurred seven " open seasons," in six of which we actually proceeded 

 to as high a latitude as we Avished (generally 1^% to 79°), and, without doubt, 

 might have proceeded farther, as early as the middle, or, at least, before the 

 end of April; and during the other three years, out of the ten, we attained 

 the highest northern latitudes we wished, once on the 1st, and another time 

 on. the 4th, of May, — and, in the remaining year, Avhich was the only really 

 " close season " in the ten, we made our fishery " to the southward," and 

 had no occasion to try the experiment. In the cases just stated, where we 

 stopped short of the 80th degree of latitude, there need be no question of that 

 parallel being accessible ; for, it is a general fact, in respect to the conforma- 

 tion of the Spitzbergen ices, that, whenever the latitude of 78" or 78^^ can be 

 reached inshore, the 80th degree is usually attainable ; for whatever prevalent 

 winds or currents clear the ice from the land in the 79th parallel, always tend 

 to clear a passage to the northward as far as latitude 80'. 



