Polar 



Regions. 



36 POLAR REGIONS. 



contributed vastly to the comfort of our voyagers. By 



means of a stove that only required a bushel of coal 



Their habitations consisted of huts, ingeniously but PuUr 

 speedily constructed of blocks of snow. The whole Regions. 



per day, a uniform and comfortable temperature was material was snow and ice, the roof being supported 



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kept up on the lower deck throughout the winter. 

 During a severe storm, when the abstraction of heat is 

 the greatest, with a temperature 25 below zero, the 

 thermometer on the Fury's lower deck never fell below 

 56, and in the " Sick Bay," it was always above 6<). 



One of their amusements, as on the former voyage, 

 was theatrical representations, to which was added ex- 

 hibitions of phantasmagoria ; and among their more im- 

 portant occupations was the establishment of schools 

 for the sailors, at which about twenty of each ship's 

 company attended every evening, from six to eight 

 o'clock ; and the regular and orderly attention to di- 

 vine service on the Sabbath days. It is worthy of re- 

 mark, that the idea of the schools originated with the 

 sailors themselves. 



Before the ships were permanently frozen in, several 

 black whales came up to blow in the pools left open 

 by cutting the ice. 



In the course of the winter, several white foxes were 

 caught in traps, and some of them kept alive on board ; 

 and hares and wolves were occasionally seen. As the 

 sea was frequently open at a short distance from the 

 ships, in the winter, seals, walrusses, and some birds, 

 were generally in the neighbourhood. There were 

 myriads of shrimps, (Cancer nitgax,) near the surface 

 of the sea, which seized on any meat put overboard 

 with such avidity and effect, that they were success- 



by its arched structure, having the form of a dome, 

 which was constructed of separate blocks of snow, 

 laid with great regularity and no small art. 



A Six's thermometer being sent by a kite to the 

 height of 379 feet perpendicular, gave as the lowest 

 temperature 23^, whilst the temperature on the ice 

 was 244 . This result is very nearly the decline of 

 temperature that was to be expected. 



On the 2d of March, the thermometer first rose above 

 zero, since the preceding Christmas. 



On the 7th, the produce of ice, during five winter 

 months, in a single level sheet, was found to be 4 feet 

 7 inches in thickness. The ice was hard, brittle, and 

 transparent, though formed on the sea, except 6' or 8 

 inches of the lower surface, which was porous. 



An excursion over land, to a short distance, which 

 had been for some time meditated, was undertaken by 

 Captain Lyon on the 15th of March. When the party 

 set out the temperature was zero, and the wind mode- 

 rate ; but it soon increased to a hard gale, and the 

 thermometer fell to 32. This proved a dangerous ex- 

 posure, and the most severe that occurred in all their 

 adventures. They returned the following day with 

 great difficulty, and arrived most providentially, in the 

 obscurity of a snow-drift, at the ships, when some of 

 the party were all but exhausted. At this critical time 

 the ship was discovered, and no very bad consequences 



fully employed in anatomising various specimens of ensued, though the most fearful consequences were 



natural history. This service they accomplished with 

 astonishing rapidity and completeness. A goose that 



narrowly escaped. 

 two of his fingers. 



One man lost some of the flesh of 

 Another who had been the most 



had been put overboard to thaw or soak by the officers hardy while in the air, fainted twice on going below ; 



of the Hecla, was in 48 hours completely cleared of the 

 meat, leaving only a skeleton most delicately cleaned. 



The wolves that came about the ships became annoy- 

 ing, injuring the sails and carrying away the dogs of 

 the Esquimaux. 



The state of the atmosphere throughout the winter 

 is worthy of remark. The sky was generally clear. 

 Though it was sometimes overcast or obscured by a 

 slight general haziness, there were no separate clouds ; 

 a meteor which, indeed, they had not hitherto seen 

 during the winter in these regions. Haloes and aurorse 

 boreales were seen not unfrequently. No effect was 

 observed to take place on the magnetic needle during 

 the appearance of the latter phenomenon ; nor any ac- 

 tion whatever on an electrometer connected with a 

 wire from an insulated conductor carried above the 

 highest mast. 



On the 20th of January, 1822, the greatest cold ob- 

 served during the winter occurred, the thermometer 

 indicating a temperature of 40. 



The tedium of confinement was vastly relieved, and 

 the excitement so much wanted afforded, by the fortu- 

 nate arrival of a party of Esquimaux, who, to the 

 amount of above b'O persons, made their appearance 

 near the ships on the 1st of February; or rather were 

 found to have planted themselves there in a village of 

 snow huts. These persons, consisting of men, women, 

 and children, afforded an interesting source of amuse- 

 ment, investigation, or occupation, to the officers during 

 the remainder of their detention. Their minds, divert- 

 ed from mere external inquiries, were naturally direct- 

 ed with a peculiar energy to the investigation of the 

 character and habits of these singular people. The 

 result of these inquiries is given towards the conclusion 

 of Captain Parry's narrative, and will be reserved for 

 the close of ours. 



and all the party had severe frost-bites in different 

 parts of the body, which recovered after the loss of 

 skin usual in these cases. 



Very considerable snow-drifts occurred here in the 

 spring ; but not so frequent or so thick as at Melville 

 Island, though the fall of snow was greater. The dif- 

 ference of latitude between this station and Melville 

 Island was 8| degrees, notwithstanding which the 

 spring was only a fortnight earlier here. 



Some hard well-defined clouds appeared on the 16th 

 of April, which were nearly the first that had been 

 seen. The first flock of ducks was seen on the 15th 

 of May. The progress of spring was as follows : Few 

 symptoms of thawing had occurred even to the end 

 of the month of May. The first indication of vegeta- 

 tion, (little more than microscopic,) was discerned on 

 the 31st of May ; and the first flower, a specimen of 

 Saxifraga oppositifolia, on the 9th of June. Towards the 

 end of the month, the ice was so far decayed and broken 

 away, that means were taken to effect their liberation. 



On the 2d of July, the ships obtained a release from 

 their winter quarters, after near nine months deten- 

 tion ; and proceeded, the same day, ten leagues without 

 obstruction to the northward, and entered the Arctic 

 Regions. The land from hence tended chiefly to the 

 northward for a considerable distance, along which the 

 expedition proceeded, between the eastern ice and the 

 land, in a difficult and hazardous passage, and meeting 

 with occasional complete stoppages, and some very 

 threatening adventures. On the 13th, they reached Cape 

 Penrhyn, a bold headland in latitude 6'7 20', a situation 

 farther to the northward, in this channel, than any 

 other navigator had penetrated. " Fox's Farthest," 

 the highest point of land discovered by Fox, is proba- 

 bly not quite so far north. After passing Cape Pen- 

 rhyn, they fell into a clear sea, in which they had a 



