PARRY'S BOAT AND SLEDGE JOURNEY. ]79 



expedition reached Hammerfest April 19th, where eight reindeer* were taken on board, with 

 a supply of moss for their provender. A number of snow-shoes and " kamoogas " (leather 

 shoes, intended to be worn with the former) were also obtained. On May 14th the 

 Hecla reached Hakluyt's Headland, where a severe gale was encountered, which almost 

 laid the ship on her beam-ends, and her canvas had to be reduced to her maintop-sail and 

 storm-sails. Shortly afterwards the vessel was driven into a most perilous position, almost 

 on to the packed ice. It was deemed advisable to try the dangerous and almost last 

 resort of running the ship into the pack, and a tolerably open part of the margin 

 having been found, the ship was forced into it under all sail. The plan succeeded, 

 and the Hecla was soon in a secure situation half a mile inside the ice-field, with 

 which she drifted vaguely about for many days. It was not till June 18th that a secure 

 harbour for the vessel was found on the northern Spitzbergen coast, which was named 

 accordingly Hecla Cove. 



Having made all necessary arrangements for the safety of the vessel, Parry left the 

 station on June 21st with the two boats, which were named the Enterprise and the Endeavour, 

 Lieutenant (afterwards Sir) James Clarke Ross having command of the second. Lieutenant 

 Crozier accompanied the boats to Low and Walden Islands, where depots of provisions 

 were made. Provisions for seventy-one days were taken, which, including the boats and 

 all necessary gear, made up a weight of 260 Ibs. per man. Four officers and twenty- 

 four men constituted the party. The boats made good progress until stopped by the 

 ice at noon on the 24-th, when they were hauled upon a small floe, the latitude by 

 observation being 81 12' 51". The plan of travelling on the ice was much as follows: 

 Night if the term can be used at all in connection with the long Arctic summer 

 day was selected for travelling, partly because the snow was harder, and they also 

 avoided the glare on its surface produced by the rays of the sun at its greatest altitude, 

 which is the immediate cause of snow blindness. Greater warmth was enjoyed during 

 the hours of rest, and it also gave them a better chance of drying their clothes. "This 

 travelling by night and sleeping by day/' says Parry, " so completely inverted the natural 

 order of things that it was difficult to persuade ourselves of the reality. Even the 

 officers and myself, who were all furnished with pocket chronometers, could not always 

 bear in mind at what part of the twenty-four hours we had arrived; and there were 

 several of the men who declared and I believe truly that they never knew night from 

 clay during the whole excursion." The day was always commenced by prayers, after 

 which they took off their fur sleeping-dresses, and put on those for travelling. Breakfast 

 was rather a light meal, consisting only of warm cocoa and biscuit. After stowing 

 the boats, &c., so as to secure them from wet, they usually travelled five to five and 

 a half hours, halted an hour for dinner, and then again travelled four, five, or even six hours. 

 After this they halted for the "night," usually early in the morning selecting the 

 largest surface of ice in the vicinity for hauling the boats on, in order to lessen the 

 danger of collision with other masses or from its breaking up. The boats were placed 



* Wo read little of these animals afterwards in Parry's narrative, and they wero not, and could not be, 

 of service in the perilous and harassing journey, over broken and detached sea ice, about to be described. 



