Chap. IX. PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 299 



half due north ; though from three to four miles 

 had been traversed, and ten at least walked, having 

 made three journeys a great part of the way ; 

 launched and hauled up the boats four times, and 

 dragged them over twenty-five separate pieces of 

 ice ; no improvement in the travelling. " After more 

 than eleven hours of actual labour on the 18th, re- 

 quiring for the most part our whole strength to be 

 exerted, we had travelled over a space not exceeding 

 four miles, of which only two were made good." 

 But this snail-like progress was not the worst that 

 befel them ; it was very small, but still it was 

 progress. Now, however, the 20th of July, Parry 

 says, 



" We halted at 7 a.m., having, by our reckoning accom- 

 plished six miles and a half in a N.N.W. direction, the 

 distance traversed being ten miles and a half. It may 

 therefore be imagined how great was our mortification in 

 finding that our latitude by observation at noon was only 

 82° 36' 52", being less than five miles to the northward of 

 our place at noon on the 17th, since which time we had 

 certainly travelled twelve in that direction." — p. 94. 



Under these discouraging circumstances it was 

 deemed prudent to avoid making the fact known to 

 the men; at the same time a very serious calamity 

 was narrowly escaped : the floe, on which they were, 

 broke under the weight of the boats and sledges, and 

 the latter were nearly lost through the ice ; some of 

 the men too went through, and were providentially 

 saved. On the 22nd, however, the ice had consi- 



