110 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. IV. 



serjeant of artillery, together with three seamen and 

 two marines, making in the whole a party of twelve. 

 They took with them tents, provisions, and a cooking- 

 apparatus. It was found that those parts of the 

 island, which were clear of snow, produced the dwarf 

 willow, sorrel, and poppy, and that the moss was 

 very luxuriant. On the second day they saw a 

 pair of ducks {Anas spectabilis), and killed seven 

 ptarmigan; sorrel and saxifrage were abundant. 

 They found pieces of coal embedded in sandstone ; 

 passed a very extensive, dreary, and uninteresting 

 level plain covered with snow; and this kind of 

 ground, with occasional ravines and foggy weather, 

 continued for three days, during which they saw 

 not a living animal, except one or two flocks of 

 geese {Anas bernicla). 



Parry being desirous of obtaining a view of the 

 sea, on the northern shore, took with him the two 

 midshipmen Nias and Reid, with a quarter-master 

 of the Griper. After a long and disagreeable 

 march they came to what they considered to be the 

 sea. Anxious, however, to leave nothing uncer- 

 tain, they walked a few hundred yards upon the 

 ice, and endeavoured by means of a boarding-pike 

 and their knives to make a hole through it, in order 

 to taste the water; but after two hours' labour they 

 only succeeded in getting through two feet of very 

 hard, brittle, and transparent ice, more so than that 

 of salt-water usually is. This did not satisfy Parry, 



