Chap. IV. PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 123 



" rubs " and " nips," which both ships experienced 

 between the sea-ice and the shore-ice, when nothing 

 but extreme watchfulness and good management 

 could possibly have saved them from being crushed. 

 Instead, therefore, of having to " watch the occa- 

 sional openings between the ice and the shore, ,, 

 would it not be more advisable to avoid placing the 

 ship between the ice and the shore ; to keep as far 

 as possible from the shore, and trust to an open sea, 

 free from land of any kind, even with the usual 

 quantity of loose ice, hummocks, or floes ? A ship, 

 it is presumed, may always make her way through 

 such a sea with little or no danger, as is well known 

 to the whale-fishing ships, which carefully avoid 

 coming near an ice-bound coast. 



Against wintering in the ice there are numerous 

 objections, though the detention cannot always be 

 avoided. One of them, but perhaps the least 

 serious, is the great inconvenience and discomfort 

 which the officers and crew must unavoidably be 

 subject to, without any chance of compensation by 

 carrying out the objects of the expedition — without 

 hope of thereby advancing discovery or geographical 

 knowledge. And although the hardships of winter- 

 ing in the ice have been shown, on the present 

 occasion, to admit of mitigation, when they happen 

 under so able and discreet an officer as Commander 

 Parry, whose resources are inexhaustible, it may 

 fall to the lot of another, whose mind is less fertile 



