148 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. V 



passage to the westward, in which direction it was 

 the principal object of the voyage to endeavour to 

 find a way from the Atlantic to the Pacific. # These 

 instructions were sufficiently explicit, and accorded 

 with the view taken by Commander Parry, in his 

 narrative of the former voyage. 



On the 8th of May, 1821, the Fury and Hecla, 

 accompanied by the Nautilus transport (freighted 

 with stores and provisions to be transhipped on 

 arriving at the ice), sailed from the Nore, and 

 owing to bad weather, it was not till the 14th of 

 June that they found themselves in lat. 60° 48', 

 and saw the first iceberg. At the depth of 460 

 fathoms the temperature of the sea was 40° ; that of 

 the surface 40 J°, and of the air 41 J°. On the 2nd of 

 July they were close to Resolution Island, the val- 

 leys of which were filled with snow and, with the 

 fog that hung over it, " rendered the scene before 

 us indescribably dreary and disagreeable." " It re- 

 quires," says Commander Parry, " a few days to be 

 passed amidst scenes of this nature to erase, in a 

 certain degree, the impressions left by more ani- 

 mated landscapes ; and not till then, perhaps, does 

 the eye become familiarized, and the mind recon- 

 ciled, to prospects of utter barrenness and desola- 

 tion such as these rugged shores present.' 1 The 

 numerous icebergs, of which Commander Lyon 

 counted fifty-four, in sight at one time, some of 



* Admiralty Instructions. 



