

North Polar Exploration. 335 



tween Spitzbergen and Greenland, but was stopped, like 

 Hudson, and so many others before him, by the Polar pack. 

 He examined the pack edge very carefully, from longitude 2° 

 to 20° E., but never got beyond 80° 48' N. The expedition 

 of Captain Buchan, in 1818, made the attempt in the same 

 direction, but never got farther north than 80° 34' N. This 

 expedition, however, made a more extensive examination of 

 the pack edge than the preceding one, having traced it from 

 longitude 10° to 40°, both in the months of June and Septem- 

 ber, without finding a single lane or opening by which to 

 enter it. Then followed a Russian expedition in 1824, when 

 Admiral Luthe traced the edge of the ice, between Spitz- 

 bergen and Nova Zembla, from longitude 62° to 44° E., but 

 he never got further north than 77°.* 



These unsuccessful endeavours to find a passage for vessels 

 through the Polar pack between Greenland and Nova Zembla, 

 led Sir Edward Parry to conceive the bold idea of travelling 

 over the ice in sledges and boats during the summer, and thus 

 reaching the Pole.f His scheme was approved by the Ad- 

 miralty of that day. He sailed in April, 1827, and leaving his 

 vessel in Hecla Cove (lat. 79° 57' N.), in Spitzbergen, he set 

 off in two boats, with four sledges, and seventy-one days' pro- 

 visions, on June 21st, going due north. He was stopped by 

 the ice in latitude 81° 12' 51" N., and commenced the labori- 

 ous work of dragging the boats over it on the 23rd.J But he 

 had started too late in the season, the pack was much broken 

 up and intersected with lanes of water, and it was drifting 

 rapidly to the southward. After travelling over 192 miles 

 of ice, Parry had only reached a latitude of 82° 45' N. on 

 July 27th, when he determined to cease his fruitless labours 

 and return. From his extreme northern point a strong 

 ice blink always overspread the northern horizon. Parry 

 certainly met with an unusually open season, and the quan- 

 tity of rain which fell and rapidly rotted the ice, is proved 

 by the observations of Scoresby, during several years in the 

 same region, to be quite exceptional. He returned to the ship 

 after an absence of forty-eight days, having travelled over 

 569 miles. The failure of Parry was due to his having 



* To complete the atory of these vain attempts to penetrate through the Polar 

 pack between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, it must be mentioned that a Russian 

 expedition, commanded by Lieutenant Wrangel, started in 1863. That officer 

 lost both his vessels in the ice off Nova Zembla, and escaped in his boats. 



t Sir John Franklin had previously drawn up a plan for making this attempt, 

 and volunteered to conduct it. 



X Parry's weight per man was 260 lbs., a weight which subsequent experience 

 has proved to be too great. 220 lbs. per man is the greatest weight that a party 

 should start with in Arctic travelling. His allowance of food per man was not 

 sufficiently liberal (biscuit 10 oz., pemmican 9 oz., cocoa powder 1 oz., rum 1 gill, 

 tobacco 3 oz. per week). 



