Chap. IV. PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 97 



undertook to be the editor, under the promise that it was 

 to be supported by original contributions from the officers 

 of the two ships : and though some objection may, perhaps, 

 be raised against a paper of this kind being generally re- 

 sorted to in ships of war, I was too well acquainted with the 

 discretion as well as the excellent disposition of my officers, 

 to apprehend any unpleasant consequences from a measure 

 of this kind : instead of which I can safely say that the 

 weekly contributions had the happy effect of employing the 

 leisure hours of those who famished them, and of diverting 

 the mind from the gloomy prospect which would sometimes 

 obtrude itself on the stoutest heart." — pp. 106, 107. 



Nothing more was wanting than such devices as 

 these, resorted to in a moment of peculiar and ex- 

 traordinary difficulty, to establish the character of 

 Parry for ready and happy expedients, accompanied 

 by a sound judgment, which thus kept alive the 

 active powers of the mind, and prevented it from 

 falling into a habit of inactivity and listlessness, and 

 from sinking into that worst of all conditions, a state 

 of morbid torpor. His plan was, as it could not well 

 be otherwise, completely successful. 



Besides his editorship, Captain Sabine had abun- 

 dance of employment of a very difficult and more 

 important kind, the results of which are given in 

 detail in the Appendix, under the head of Magnetic 

 Observations, Experiments on the Pendulum, and in 

 the description of objects of Natural History. His 

 first attention, on the arrival of the ships in their 

 winter quarters, was the selection of a proper place 

 for the observatory, which was erected on a con- 



H 



