TERMINATION OF THE VOYAGE. 189 



remaining she would incur both these risks, 

 Captain Buchan determined upon proceeding to 

 England forthwith, where the expedition at 

 length arrived on the 22nd October, and was 

 paid off soon afterwards at Deptford. 



Thus terminated the third endeavour made 

 under the auspices of the British government, to 

 reach the Pole, — an attempt in which was ac- 

 complished everything that human skill, zeal, 

 and perseverance under the circumstances could 

 have effected, and in which dangers, difficulties, 

 and hardships were endured, such as have rarely 

 been met with in any preceding or subsequent 

 voyage. It has always been regretted by the 

 officers engaged in this expedition that the en- 

 deavour to reach a high northern latitude should 

 have been made in a season extremely unfavour- 

 able for the purpose, as must appear from the 

 fact that vessels of our own country in other 

 years attained a higher latitude, by upwards of a 

 degree, without even entering the ice, than we 

 were enabled to reach with our utmost exertions 

 of warping and dragging the vessels through it. 

 On comparing, also, the relative position of the 

 margin of the ice this year with that which it 

 appears to have held during several preceding- 

 years, as published in Mr. Scoresby's " Arctic Re- 

 gions," it would seem, that, in the season of 1818, 



