124 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



difficult to regain tlieir port of refuge in Spitzbergen 

 before winter set in or their stores were exhausted. 

 Besides, there were no signs of water in the direction 

 they had been taking. The water-sky of arctic regions 

 can be recognized by the experienced seaman long 

 before the open sea itself is visible. On every side, 

 however, there were the signs of widely-extended ice- 

 fields. It seemed, therefore, hopeless to persevere, 

 and Parry decided on returning with all possible speed 

 to the haven of refuge prepared for the party in Spitz- 

 bergen. He had succeeded in reaching the highest 

 northern latitudes ever yet attained by man. 



The most remarkable feature of this expedition, 

 however, is not the high latitude which the party 

 attained, but the strange circumstance which led to 

 their discomfiture. What opinion are we to form of 

 an ocean at once wide and deep enough to float an 

 ice-field which must have been thirty or forty thou- 

 sand square miles in extent? Parry had travelled 

 upward of three hundred miles across the field, and 

 we may fairly suppose that he might have travelled 

 forty or fifty miles farther without reaching open 

 water ; also that the field extended fully fifty miles on 

 each side of Parry's northerly track. That the whole 

 of so enormous a field should have floated freely before 

 the arctic winds is indeed an astonishing circumstance. 

 On every side of this floating ice-island there must 

 have been seas comparatively free from ice ; and could 



