Chap. IX. PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 301 



have no suspicion, though Parry says, u they often 



laughingly remarked that ' we were a long time 



getting to this 83°.' This was merely the point 



assumed, as the} T certainly had no suspicion that on 



their arrival at that point they would have been 



entitled to one thousand pounds.* But had they 



known it thev could not have laboured more ear- 



nestly than they did. In their slow advance to the 



northward the ice became so small that a single 



piece only could be found to place the boats upon. 



On the 26th Parry says, 



" The weather improving towards noon on the 26th, we 

 obtained the meridian altitude of the sun, by which we found 

 ourselves in latitude 82° 40' 23 ;/ ; so that, since our last 

 observation (at midnight on the 22nd), we had lost by drift 

 no less than thirteen miles and a half; for we were now 

 more than three miles to the southward of that observation, 

 though we had certainly travelled between ten and eleven 

 due north in this interval ! Again, we were but one mile to 

 the north of our place at noon on the 21st, though we had 

 estimated our distance made good at twenty-three miles. 

 Thus it appeared that for the last five days we had been 

 struggling against a southerly drift exceeding four miles a 

 day."— p. 102. 



It now became obvious that the sea in this lati- 

 tude had assumed a character utterly unfit for 

 the kind of navigation, or rather of floe-travelling, 

 which had hitherto been pursued — in short, that 

 it had become hopeless to pursue the journey any 

 further. 



* By order in council. 



