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 18° below zero. They carried 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 esseritial 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 exnuz, a theatre was fitted up, and comedies acted, 
for which occasions Parry himself composed a vaudeville, entitled 
“The North-West 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 effects 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 thaw left the passage open. 
In 182x Captain Parry undertook a second voyage with the 
Fury and Heda. We 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 
