THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 43 



there. The Fury was dismantled, and, being found unfit for service, 

 Captain Parry was obHged to abandon her and return to England. 



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

 Hecia, in -April, 1826. On this, 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 the orders of Sir James Ross. Some- 

 times they sailed, sometimes they were hauled through the crust of 

 the ice ; sometimes the ice, which pierced their shoes, showed itself 

 bristling with points, and was split up 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 82° 45' 15", 

 however, and this was the extreme point which they attained. 



In the month of May, 1829, Sir John Ross, accompanied by his 

 nephew, James Clark Ross, again turned towards the Polar Seas. He 

 entered Prince Regent's Channel, and there he found the Fu?y, whicli 

 had been dismantled and abandoned by Parry in these regions eight 

 years before. The provisions which the old ship still contained 

 were quite a providential resource to Ross's crews. The distinguished 

 navigator explored the Boothian Peninsula, and passed four years 

 consecutively in Port Felix, without being able to disengage his 

 vessel, the Victory, from the ice. This gave him ample leisure to 

 become famihar with the Esquimaux. Sir John Ross, in his account 

 of this long sojourn in polar countries, has recorded many conversa- 

 tions with the natives, which our space does not permit us to quote. 

 From this terrible position, bound in by the ice, he was at last 

 extricated, and emerged with his crew from this icy prison, when all 

 hope of his return had been abandoned. After being exposed to a 

 thousand dangers, Ross and his crew were at last observed, after 

 many efforts on their parts to attract attention, by a whaling ship, 

 which received them on board. On learning that the ship which 

 had saved them was the Isabella, formerly commanded by Captain 

 Ross, he made himself known. " But Captain Ross has been dead 

 two years," was the reply. 



We need not repeat here the enthusiastic reception Sir John Ross 

 and his companions met with on their arrival in London. 



During an excursion made by the nephew of the Commander 

 (afterwards Sir James Clark Ross), he very closely approached the 

 North Magnetic Pole. This was at eight o'clock on the morning of 

 the ist of June, 1831, and on the west coast of Boothia. The dip of 



