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I 



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THE SIEGE AND CONQUEST 

 OF THE NORTH POLE 



CHAPTER I 



PARRY'S EXPEDITION OF 1827 



In April 1826, Captain William Edward Parry proposed 

 to Viscount Melville, First Lord Commissioner of the 

 Admiralty, " to attempt to reach the North Pole, by 

 means of travelling with sledge-boats over the ice, or 

 through any spaces of open water that might occur. " The 

 proposal was referred to the Royal Society, who strongly 

 recommended its adoption ; and an expedition having been 

 equipped, Parry was appointed to the command of it. 



Before making the proposal, Parry had given the 

 subject careful consideration. He mentions that Captain 

 Lutwidge, the associate of Captain Phipps in the expedi- 

 tion towards the North Pole in 1773, describes the ice 

 north of Spitzbergen to the distance of ten or twelve 

 leagues to have the appearance of " one continued plain 

 of smooth unbroken ice, bounded only by the horizon.'" 

 The testimony of Mr. Scoresby, Jun., "a close and 

 intelligent observer of Nature in these regions, 11 was also 

 found to agree with that given by Lutwidge. " I once 

 saw," says he, " a field that was so free from either fissure 

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