46 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



to the sailors. Game was sometimes substituted to vary a repast 

 worthy of Spartans. As a remedy against ennui, a theatre was fitted 

 up and comedies acted, for which occasions Parry himself composed a 

 vaudeville, entitled "The North-west Passage; or, the End of the 

 Yoyage." During this long night of eighty-four days, the thermo- 

 meter in the saloons marked 28, and outside 35 below zero, and for 

 a few minutes actually reached 47. Some of the sailors had their 

 members frozen, from which they never quite recovered. One day the 

 hut which served as an observatory was discovered to be on fire. A 

 sailor who saved one of the precious instruments lost his hands in the 

 effort ; they were completely frost-bitten in the attempt. 



Nevertheless, the month of June arrived, and with it the opportu- 

 nity of making excursions in the neighbourhood. It was found that, 

 in Melville Island, the earth was carpeted with moss and herbage, 

 with saxifrages and poppies. Hares, reindeer, the musk-ox, northern 

 geese, plovers, white wolves and foxes, roamed around their haunts, 

 disputing their booty with the crew. Captain Parry could not risk 

 a second winter in this terrible region. He returned home as soon 

 as the thaw left the passage open. 



In 1821, Captain Parry undertook a second voyage with the Fury 

 and Heda. He visited Hudson's Bay and Fox's Channel. In his 

 third voyage, undertaken in 1824, he was surprised by the frost in 

 Prince Eegent's Channel, and was constrained to pass the winter there. 

 The Fury was dismantled, and, being found unfit for service, Captain 

 Parry was obliged to abandon her and return to England. 



Accompanied by Sir James Koss, Parry again put to sea in the 

 Hecla, in April, 1826. On his third voyage, on leaving Table Island 

 on the north of Spitzbergen, Parry placed his crew in the two training 

 ships, Enterprise and Endeavour ; the first under his own command, 

 the second under orders of Sir James Ross. Sometimes they sailed, 

 sometimes hauled through the crust of the ice; sometimes the ice, 

 which pierced their shoes, showed itself bristling with points, intersected 

 into valleys and little hills, which it was difficult to scale. In spite of 

 the courage and energy of their crews, the two ships scarcely advanced 

 four miles a day, while the drifting of the ice towards the south led 

 them imperceptibly towards their point of departure. They reached 

 latitude eighty-two degrees forty-five minutes fifteen seconds, however, 

 and this was the extreme point which they attained. 



