42 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



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 1 8° below zero. They earned 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. Numberless 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 company 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 substituted for spirits ; 

 and citron and lime-juice were served out daily to the sailors. Game 

 was sometimes substituted, to vary a repast worthy of Spartans. As 

 a remedy against enmd, a theatre was fitted up, and comedies acted, 

 for which occasions Parry himself composed a vaudeville, entitled 

 " The North-^^^est Passage ; or, the End of the Voyage." During 

 this long night of eighty-four days, the thermometer in the saloons 

 marked 28^, and outside 35*^, below zero, and for a few minutes 

 actually reached 47^. Some of the sailors had their noses, fingers, 

 and toes frozen, from the eftects of 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 oppor- 

 tunity 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, began to roam 

 around their haunts, disputing their booty with the crew. Captain 

 Parry could not risk a second winter in this terrible region, but 

 returned home as soon as the tjiaw left the passage open. 



In 182 1 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 Regent's Channel, and was constrained to pass the winter 



