SIR EDWARD PARRY'S ATTEMPT. 181 



tering in other parts of the Arctic regions, and 

 plenty of hardy volunteers could be got in Trom- 

 soe and Hammerfest to act as hunters and harpoon- 

 ers to the expedition. The dogs would require to 

 be brought from Greenland or Siberia, with men 

 who understood the management of them. 



During the early spring the party would have to 

 exercise their teams, and to get them into as thor- 

 ough a state of condition and discipline as possible, 

 and, if practicable, they should lay out some depots 

 of provisions as far as they could on their intended 

 route to the north. If they then were to take ad- 

 vantage of the first available fine weather in March 

 or April to start to the north in well-appointed 

 dog-sledges, I entertain very little doubt they could 

 reach the pole and regain their ship within a month 

 or six weeks from the date of their departure, and 

 that without undergoing any hardships or priva- 

 tions exceeding those inevitable to Arctic explor- 

 ing expeditions. 



The fourth expedition of Sir Edward Parry, in 

 1827, was sent out with a view of trying to reach 

 the pole by sledge-traveling ; but^ as is well known, 

 it failed, because they did not winter in Spitzber- 

 gen, and they were consequently unable to take to 

 their sledge-boats until the 22d of June, a period at 

 least two months too late, and when the midsum- 

 mer's sun had loosened and softened the ice, and 

 rendered it utterly unfit for sledge-traveling. Par- 

 ry's sledges were, farther, drawn by seamen instead 



