THE POLAR SEAS. 45 



While these efforts were being made to penetrate the ice which 

 surrounds the Antarctic Pole, a region having little which could 

 attract human enterprise, the interests of commerce seemed to call for 

 obstinate and persevering attempts to penetrate to the Arctic Pole. 

 In spite of these numerous expeditions, however, which extend over 

 two centuries, the regions round the North Pole are far from being 

 known to geographers. The fogs and snows which almost always 

 cover them were the source of many errors made by the earlier navi- 

 gators. In his first voyage, made in 1818, Sir John Eoss was led to 

 think that Lancaster Sound was closed by a chain of mountains, which 

 he called the Croker Mountains ; but in the following year Captain 

 Parry, in command of two ships, the Heda and Griper, discovered 

 that this was an error. This celebrated navigator discovered Barrow's 

 Straits, Wellington Channel, and Prince Eegent Inlet; Cornwallis, 

 Sir Byam Martin, and Melville Islands, to which the name of Parry's 

 Archipelago has been given. In this short voyage he gathered more 

 new results than were obtained by his successors during the next forty 

 years. He was the first to traverse these seas. Upon Sir Byam 

 Martin Island he has described the ruins of some ancient habitations of 

 the Esquimaux. He passed the winter on Melville Island. In order 

 to attain his chosen anchorage in Winter's Bay, he was compelled to 

 saw a passage in the ice of a league in length, which involved the 

 labour of three days ; but scarcely were they moored in their chosen 

 harbour than the thermometer fell to eighteen degrees below zero. 

 They carried ashore the ship's boats, the cables, the sails, and log-books. 

 The masts were struck to the maintop ; the rest of the rigging served to 

 form a roof, sloping to the gunwale, with a thick covering of sail-cloth, 

 which formed an admirable shelter from the wind and snow. Number- 

 less precautions were taken against cold and wet under the decks. 

 Stoves and other contrivances maintained a supportable degree of 

 temperature. In each dormitory a false ceiling of impermeable 

 cloth interposed to prevent the collection of moisture on the wooden 

 walls of the ship. The crew were divided into companies, each com 

 pany being under the charge of an officer, charged with the daily 

 inspection of their clothes and cleanliness an essential protection 

 against scurvy. As a measure of precaution, Captain Parry reduced 

 by one-third the ordinary ration of bread; beer and wine. were substi- 

 tuted for spirits ; and citron and lemon drinks were served out daily 



