110 SOUTHERLY CURRENT. 



the southward that occasioned the failure of the 

 expedition under Captain Parry, in 1827, and 

 against which it is quite useless for any vessel 

 to contend, unless occasionally favoured with 

 open water. 



Captain Parry remarks, in his Journal, " On 

 the 26th we obtained the meridional altitude 

 of the sun, by which we found ourselves in 

 latitude 82° 40' 23" N., so that since our last 

 observation, at midnight on the 22nd, we had 

 lost by drift no less than thirteen and a half 

 miles." And again, " Thus it appeared, that 

 for the last four or five days we had been strug- 

 gling against a southerly drift, exceeding four 

 miles a day."* He also says, "It had for some 

 time past been too evident that the nature of 

 the ice with which we had to contend was such, 

 and its drift to the southward, especially with 

 a northerly wind, so great, as to put beyond our 

 reach anything but a very moderate share of 

 success in travelling to the northward." 



What may be the cause of this current can, 

 at the best, be but a conjecture ; and we must 

 at present remain satisfied with the knowledge 

 of the simple fact. It is a fortunate circum- 

 stance that, during the period in which the ice 



* Parry's Attempt to reach the North Pole, 1827. 



