240 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. VIII.. 



exertion of eight tedious weeks by the officers and 

 men to overcome it. 



The extraordinary weather, which accompanied 

 the low temperature of August, is noticed as some- 

 thing remarkable. It is stated by Parry that, of 

 the thirty-one days in that month, there was ac- 

 tually but one in which they had not a deposit of 

 snow, sleet, rain, or fog, during some part of the 

 twentv-four consecutive hours ; and the northerly 

 wind, which is the usual harbinger of a clear, dry, 

 wholesome atmosphere, was just as thick as any 

 other. And he adds, "for ten weeks in July, 

 August, and September, though we were constantly 

 watching for an opportunity of airing the ships' 

 companies' bedding on deck, we could only venture 

 to do so once." 



In their struggle through the ice of Davis's Strait 

 and Baffin's Bay, Parry noticed the set of the 

 currents by which the whole body of the ice might 

 be actuated. " It was obvious," he says, " that a 

 daily set to the southward obtained, when the wind 

 was northerly, differing from two or three to eight 

 or ten miles per clay, according to the strength of 

 the breeze; but a northerly current was equally 

 apparent when the wind blew from the southward." 

 But he observes as a remarkable circumstance, that 

 a westerly set was frequently apparent, even against 

 a fresh breeze blowing from that quarter. 



On the 10th of September they entered that 



