1 34 Polar Explorations. 



expanse of level solid ice occupied the whole extent of sea 

 to the westward, and the eye wearied itself in vain to dis- 

 cover a single break upon its surface." 



In 1 824 the Ilecla and Fury, were again ordered to sea, 

 under the command of Capt. Parry, to make fiirther exam- 

 inations respecting the northern boundary of the Ameri- 

 can continent, and a passage to the Pacific Ocean. They 

 left England in May, but were eight weeks in crossing the 

 icy barrier in the center of Baffin's Bay, by which delay the 

 most valuable part of the summer was lost, to the main pur- 

 pose of the expedition. It was not until the 8th of Oct. that 

 they cleared the ice, in 72° W. Ion. and 74° N. lat. This 

 extraordinary barrier was fifty leagues broader than when 

 they passed it in 1819, owing probably to the severe winter, 

 and the tardy summer of 1 823 and 1 824. They had to dread 

 even the possibiUty of being frozen up for the winter, in the 

 middle of Baffin's Bay. It startles one's imagination, to con- 

 template two ships in the midst of three hundred leagues of 

 ice, surrounded by mountains towering high above the masts; 

 huge floes of several miles in diameter, with smaller pieces of 

 all dimensions, driving into packs by currents, and dashing and 

 shoving by the roll of the sea. In this condition the skill of 

 the officers seemed unavailing, and the physical strength of 

 the men impotent, but by the aid of divine protection, they 

 were in this, as in many other instances, in this precarious and 

 perilous navigation, rendered effectual to their preservation. 



They had only reached the site proper for the commence- 

 ment of their operations when it was again time to secure 

 quarters for the winter. This was deferred to the last possi- 

 ble moment ; and every measure was adopted to effect their 

 purpose, such as " sallying,"* sawing, and rushing through 

 broken ice under a press of sail. After great fatigue and 

 difficulty they reached Port Bowen in Prince Regent's inlet, 

 on the western side of Baffin's Bay, on the 26th of Septem- 

 ber. The labor of sawing out a basin for the accommodation 

 of the ships, in ice of great depth, was again to be encounter- 

 ed, and on the 1st of October, they were happy to warp their 

 ships into their winter stations. Their arrangements were 

 even more complete than in preceding years; especially in an 

 improved method of warming and drying the ships. The 



* " Sallying" is the running of the men suddenly from one side of the ship 

 to the other to break the new ice by the rocking of the vessel. 



