284 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. IX. 



have been driven many leagues over it in a direct 

 line, without obstruction or danger." Great en- 

 couragement these reports certainly afforded for 

 the progress of a sledge-borne boat. Captain Parry 

 however adds a further stimulus — that his hopes 

 of success were principally founded on the propo- 

 sition that had been made by his friend and brother 

 officer Captain Franklin, who had himself volun- 

 teered to conduct it. 



Two boats were specially constructed for this 

 purpose, twenty feet long and seven feet broad, flat- 

 floored, and built as stout as wood and iron could 

 make them ; and so fitted as to contain nautical 

 and other instruments, bags of biscuit, pemmican, 

 spare clothing, and a variety of smaller stores, chiefly 

 provisions. " A bamboo mast nineteen feet long, a 

 tarred duck sail, answering also the purpose of an 

 awning, a spreat, one boat-hook, fourteen paddles, 

 and a steer-oar, completed each boat's comple- 

 ment." Two officers and twelve men (ten of them 

 seamen and two marines) were selected for each 

 boat's crew. Each boat, with all her furniture, 

 tools, instruments, clothing, and provisions of every 

 kind, weighed 3753 pounds, being 268 pounds in 

 weight for each man, exclusive of four sledges, 

 weighing 26 pounds each. 



" My own impartial conviction," says Parry, " at 

 the time of setting out on this enterprise, coincided 

 (with a single exception) with the opinion expressed 



