366 Narrative of Captain Parry's Attempt 



had slept seven hours, the man appointed to boil the cocoa roused us, when it 

 was ready, by the sound of a bugle ; when we commenced our day in the 

 manner before described. Our allowance of provisions for each man per day 

 was as follows : — 



Biscuit - - - 10 ounces. 



Pemmican - - 9 do. 



Sweetened Cocoa Powder - 1 do. to make one pint. 



Hum ... 1 gill. 



Tobacco - - - 3 ounces per week. 



Our ftiel consisted entirely of spirits of wine, of which two pints formed our 

 daily allowance, cocoa being cooked in an iron boiler over a shallow iron lamp 

 with seven wicks,— a simple apparatus, which answered our purpose remark- 

 ably well. We usually found one pint of the spirits of wine sufficient for 

 preparing our breakfast ; that is, for heating twenty-eight pints of water, 

 though it always commenced from the temperature of 32°. If the weather 

 was calm and fair, this quantity of fuel brought it to the boiling point in about 

 an hour and a quarter ; but more generally the wicks began to go out before 

 it had reached 200'. This, however, made a very comfortable meal to persons 

 situated as we were. Such, with very little variation, was our regular rou- 

 tine during the whole of this excursion." 



The quantity of rain which fell was truly extraordinary. 

 Captain Parry remarks, on the 26th June, that they had al- 

 ready experienced, in the course of this summer, more rain than 

 during the whole seven previous summers taken together^ 

 though passed in latitudes from 7° to 15° lower than this. 



The expedition, in its progress northwards, experienced per- 

 petual difficulties and delays from the broken state of the ice, 

 and from its nowhere occurring in fields. The following observa- 

 tions convey a striking picture of the nature of their travel- 

 ling * : — 



" As soon as we landed on a floe-piece, Lieutenant Ross and myself gene- 

 rally went on a-head, while the boats were unloading and hauling up, in order 

 to select the easiest road for them. The sledges then followed in our track 

 Messrs Beverly and Bird accompanying them, by which the snow was much 

 trodden down, and the road thus improved for the boats. As soon as we ar- 

 rived at the other end of the floe, or came to any difficult place, we mounted 

 one of the highest hummocks of ice near at hand, (many of which were from 

 fifteen to five and twenty feet above the sea) in order to obtain a better view 

 around us ; and nothing could well exceed the dreariness which such a view 

 presented. The eye wearied itself in vain to find an object but ice and sky 

 to rest upon ; and even the latter was often hidden from our view by the 

 dense and dismal fogs which so generally prevailed. For want of variety, the 

 most trifling circumstance engaged a more than ordinary share of our atten- 

 * Narrative, p. 67. 



