208 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. VI. 



tained in the ice until the present time, the 10th of 

 August, "I am of opinion," he says, "that the 

 season in which it is possible to navigate has 

 now so far passed that nothing material can be 

 effected either by one or both ships. We know 

 from the experience of last year that it is not before 

 the end of August, or the beginning of September, 

 that the ice breaks up in the Strait of the Fury and 

 Hecla, and that it is not until that period that you 

 will be enabled to re-examine its western entrance." 

 And he wisely concludes by advising that the Fury 

 and Hecla return to England together, which Parry 

 as wisely accepts. " Under such circumstances," 

 he says, " I no longer considered it prudent or jus- 

 tifiable, upon the slender chance of eventual success 

 now before us, to risk the safety of the officers and 

 men committed to my charge, and whom it was 

 now my first wish to re-conduct in good health to 

 their country and their friends." 



Having come to this decision, and having extri- 

 cated the ships from their confinement, on the 12th 

 of August they stood out to the eastward, and 

 finally took their departure from Igloolik. The 

 current rapidly hurried them to the southward, 

 their drift being twenty-one miles in twenty-four 

 hours, though closely beset, and without a single 

 pool of water in sight the whole time. At one 

 place the ships were whirled round a headland at 

 the rate of two or three knots an hour. After 



