190 CONCLUSION. 



the ice was closer down upon the Spitzbergen 

 coast than in any former year that we are ac- 

 quainted with, and consequently that the difficul- 

 ties of getting to the northward were proportion- 

 ably increased. 



This obstruction to the northward ill 1818 

 was coincident with a remarkable dispersion of 

 the ice in low latitudes. In the parallel of 76° 

 N., for instance, it appears that there was a faci- 

 lity of getting westward, such as had not occurred 

 for many years before. The cause of this was, 

 in all probability, the prevalence of southerly 

 and southwesterly gales, for which this year 

 was remarkable, the tendency of which would be 

 to disperse the ice in a low latitude, and drive it 

 to the northward; in which direction, meeting 

 with its usual obstruction, it would accumulate, 

 and encumber the sea, in the manner in which 

 we found it. 



On comparing this season, also, with that in 

 which Captain Parry made his attempt to travel 

 over the ice to the Pole, the unfavourableness of 

 the period (1818) is further confirmed; as it 

 appears from his journal, that on returning from 

 Treurenburg Bay on the 25th August, it was 

 the opinion of every officer on board the Hecla 

 that they might have sailed to 82° N., whereas, in 

 no part of the season of 1818 did we find the 



