Chap. IX. PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 315 



is called sailing-ice, it may be allowable to sug- 

 gest another and a different plan, and perhaps 

 on the whole less objectionable. It would consist 

 of two small ships similar to those which, after 

 three years' service in the Antarctic Seas, are now 

 engaged in the ice of the North Polar Seas; 

 they should be sent in the early spring along the 

 western coast of Spitzbergen, where usually no im- 

 pediment exists, as far up as 80° ; take every oppor- 

 tunity of proceeding directly to the north, where, 

 about 82°, Parry has told us, the large floes had dis- 

 appeared, and the sea there was found to be loaded 

 only with loose, disconnected, small masses of ice, 

 through which ships would find no difficulty in 

 sailing, though totally unfit for boats dragging ; and 

 as this loose ice was drifting to the southward, he 

 further says, that before the middle of August a 

 ship might have sailed up to the latitude of 82°, 

 almost without touching a piece of ice. It is not 

 then unreasonable to expect that beyond that pa- 

 rallel, even as far as the Pole itself, the sea would 

 be free of ice during the six summer months of 

 perpetual sun through each of the twenty-four 

 hours ; which, with the aid of the current, would 

 in all probability destroy and dissipate the Polar 

 ice. 



If then, on the return of Sir John Franklin's 

 ships, the screw-propeller supplied to each should 

 have been found to answer, a fair opportunity 



