S74 Narrative of Captain Parry's Attempt 



trAvdling at 9<?8 geographical miles, or 1127 statute miles. Considering our 

 constant exposure to wet, cold and fatigue, our stockings having generally 

 been drenched in snow water twelve hours out of every twenty-four, I had 

 great reason to be thankful for the excellent health in which, upon the 

 whole, we reached the ship." 



During the absence of Captain Parry, the officers of the 

 Hecla were actively employed in making observations on the 

 natural history of Spitzbergen, and experiments on magnetism. 

 But for these we cannot afford room at present. The following 

 observations on the climate of Spitzbergen, are novel and inte- 

 resting : *' The officers who remained on board the Hecla du- 

 ring the summer, described the weather as the most beautiful, 

 and the climate altogether the most agreeable, they had ever ex- 

 perienced in the polar regions. Indeed, the Meteorological 

 Journal shews a temperature both of the air and of the sea- 

 water, to which we had before been altogether strangers within 

 the Arctic Circle, and which goes far towards shewing that the 

 climate of Spitzbergen is a remarkably temperate one for its 

 latitude *. It must, however, be observed, that this remark is 

 principally applicable to the weather experienced near tfw land, 

 that at sea being rendered of a totally different character by 

 the almost constant presence of fogs ; so that some of our most 

 gloomy days upon the ice were the finest in Hecla cove, where, 

 however, a good deal of rain fell in the course of the summer."^ 

 The Hecla left Spitzbergen on the S8th of August, but did not 

 arrive in the Thames until the 16th of October. 



The following judicious remarks on the nature and practica- 

 bility of the enterprize in which he had been engaged, which 

 close the narrative, we give in the celebrated navigator's own 

 words. 



'* On the tutture and practkahility of the attempt to reach the North Po/^.— That 

 the object is of still more difficult attainment than was before supposed, even 

 by those persons who were the best qualified to judge of it, will, I believe, ap- 

 pear evident from a perusal of the foregoing pages ; nor can I, after much 

 consideration, and some experience of the various difficulties which belong to 

 it, recommend any material improvement in the plan lately adopted. Among 

 the various schemes suggested for this purpose, it has been proposed to set 

 out from Spitzbergen, and to make a rapid journey to the northward, with 



* Mr Crowe of Hammerfest, who lately passed a winter on the south-western coast of Spitz- 

 bergen, in about Lat. 78*. informed me he had rain at Christmas ; a phenomenon which indeed 

 would have astoni^ed us at any of our former wintering-stations In a much lower latitude. Per- 

 haps the circumstance of the reindeer whitering at Spitzbergen, may abo be considered a proof of 

 acomparatlvely temperate climate. 



