Polar Explorations. 133 



ger of being crushed, being beset by immense fields of ice, 

 and once the Fury was near shipwreck. The expedition 

 persisted in ineffectual efforts, until again compelled to re- 

 tire to winter quarters in September, " satisfied that no navi- 

 gable passage existed for ships in that quarter." 



The whole progress made during the summer of 1822 was 

 only 3° north, and that had been accomplished principally by 

 mere drifting, while the ships were beset by the ice. An arti- 

 ficial harbor was made near the land by sawing the ice, and 

 the ships once more frozen up for the winter. At this date, 

 Capt. Parry remarks that, " flattering as were our prospects 

 at the commencement of the past summer, little satisfaction 

 remained at the close of the season, but the consciousness of 

 having left no means untried that could promote our object." 



The ships remained bound in fast ice until August, the 

 latter part of which month concludes the Polar summer. 

 They were so immovably fixed, that, had it not been for the 

 skill and industry exerted in sawing the ships out, their fate 

 must have been like that of Eric and his colony in lost Green- 

 land, and no one would have escaped to relate their story.* 



Although they had hitherto enjoyed almost uninterrupt- 

 ed health, scorbutic indications now began to appear, ow- 

 ing to the nature of the service, which exposed them to a 

 great deal of wading in water, at or near the freezing point, 

 and to sudden changes of temperature in passing to and 

 from the warmth of the interior of the ships, to the ex- 

 cessive cold without ; among the causes of disease, should 

 be mentioned also, the want of fresh vegetables, the gloom 

 and monotony of their daily prospect, and the absence 

 of those exciting causes, which exhilarate and cheer the 

 spirits. A little sorrel, and an occasional blade of meagre 

 cochlearia or scurvy grass, were almost the only vegeta- 

 bles yielded by the sterile soil. Of these, the little ob- 

 tained were of essential service to the indisposed. There 

 remained no further service to be performed in this season, 

 as it was now time to provide for the coming winter, and 

 upon weighing these considerations it was determined to re- 

 turn to England. Before coming to this conclusion, Capt. 

 Parry observes, that, " as the sun went down, we obtained 

 from the mast head a distinct view in that quarter, and it is 

 impossible to conceive a more hopeless prospect. One vast 



* Crantz, Greenland. 



